Rare Claas Jaguar 40 star of classics day
This year we visited the silage event where a fleet of Fords of a certain age were busying themselves bringing in the second cut on an overcast, but otherwise drying day.
New kids on the block
As fascinating as the tractors are, the real stars of the show this year were two trailed harvesters, one of which is rare in Ireland, the other is probably unique.
The latter is a Claas 40 forage harvester dating from around 1980. It is not known whether any were brought into Ireland at the time, this example being purchased by Declan Carey from the UK for his own private collection some time ago.
What marks this machine out from the crowd is its layout which is at 90° to that of most other harvesters of the time.
The rapidly evolving harvester
The evolution of trailed harvesters is usually recognised as falling into three stages. The first is the flail harvester, which cuts the crop and blows it into a trailer in one action.
The second is the double chop, where a flailed harvester feeds the crop into a flywheel upon which knives are mounted. It is this which further cuts the grass and is responsible for blowing it up the delivery spout.
Stage three came with the metered or precision chop. Here the grass is picked up by reel and fed, via compression rollers, into the chopping mechanism which is usually mounted in line with the swath.
Claas Jaguar 40
There were five trailed harvesters on the day and four of them used this classic layout, however the Claas Jaguar 40 is somewhat different in that the chopping mechanism lies at 90° to the swath and is fed by a single auger collecting the crop from the top of the reel.
Once chopped, the crop passes up the discharge spout which is relatively short in length. In fact, the whole machine is 3.1m high and it could not discharge into the larger trailers at all.
A clue as to why this is so comes from the original brochure which shows the Jaguar 40 being used with a self-discharge forage wagon.
Versatile machine
The wagon is linked to the rear of the harvester and is powered by a belt-driven power take-off (PTO) output positioned beneath the feed mechanism. It is obviously intended that both the wagon and the Jaguar 40 should work as one.
It is in effect the front section of a self-loading forage wagon that can be separated and used as a conventional trailed harvester. The advantage over conventional zero grazers, or forage wagons is that it has a finer chop length. Claas was, perhaps, too far ahead of the game 40 years ago.
One of the interesting consequences of having the feed mechanism arranged this way was that the pick-up reel could be folded vertically from the cab for transport, presenting an overall width of just 2.2m on the road.
Jaguar 40 – ahead of its time
Overall, it is a well-thought-out piece of equipment which contains many ideas that we now take for granted. Their inclusion shows considerable foresight at the time, which even extends to the remote grease points for ease of maintenance.
The second trailed harvester of note was a New Holland 719 fitted with a six-cylinder Ford industrial engine which could provided up to 128hp, depending on the specific application.
The conversion was undertaken by Gardiner of Buckinghamshire, which mounted it high above the gearbox on the left-hand side, the only concession to bracing the whole outfit appearing to be an oversized wheel directly underneath it.
Manual engagement
The engine could be started and stopped from a control box in the cab, and two levers mounted on top controlled the spout. Engaging the drive however, is a case of manhandling a lever attached to the clutch and then jumping back on board the tractor.
Pulling the unit on the day was a 69hp Ford 5000 which turned the whole unit into a near 200hp forage harvester. Furthermore, a trailer could be attached to the rear bringing the weight to something in excess of 10t when loaded, and all relying upon one set of brakes on the rear of the tractor.
Accidents were not uncommon in the day, but thankfully Austin was loading into a side trailer rather than risking an adrenalin pumping ride sideways down a long slope.
The harvester had only arrived into Austin’s collection the evening before and there was some uncertainty as to whether it would run, yet it had started up without a fuss and carried on throwing the silage out with that beautiful six-cylinder roar that the Ford industrial engines were famed for.
Self propelled
Another machine of note was a New Holland self-propelled unit from around the seventies. Driven by a 203hp V8 Caterpillar, it was not long in getting up and down the rows. We hope to be taking a closer look at this and talking to its owner, Michael Butler of Co. Tipperary, in the near future.
Also on the field were a number of other Fords, one being an 8830 with a JF harvester which was clearing the field quicker than anything else at the time. It’s interesting to note that the trailed harvester climaxed at around the 200hp mark, and from there on up it was to be self-propelled machines that ruled the roost.
Overall it was, as always, a good day out and Austin, as always, was a generous host to his fellow enthusiasts from all over Ireland.
