Greetings from Colorado

Hi followers, 

how you probably know, I am on my way to Idaho. Tonight I am staying in Fort Morgan, where I want to visit our Krone Dealer to plan the tour stop of the BiG MAN-Tour here in Colorado in detail. But first something about my last days in Texas: The last week I ran some demonstrations in the Northern Panhandle of Texas around Cactus and Stratford. Like everywhere, the customers were really impressed about the performance of the BiG X compared to the competitive machines. Now you think that’s easy because of more horsepower!? That’s right! But thanks to our Power Management System on the BiG X 1100, I have the possibility to change between different power modes. In EcoPower I am running with 850 hp like all the first class models of the competitives. In the same power range, I was still going up to 3 miles an hour faster. That’s because of our VariStream. Thanks to the spring loaded crop flow, the crop feeds much better through the machine and allows higher speeds in uneven swaths. Here are some impressions about the demos of last week. 

Besides some dairies, I was mostly chopping for the famous texan feed lots. The biggest I have heard about has nearly 130.000 head of cattle. You have to imagine about an area of a full section full with beef cattle. The pictures give you a little impression about that.

Because of the drought during the season, irrigation is a must in this region. Most famous are the pivot irrigations, which have a diameter of half a mile or a full mile. Last week I have seen a water drill rig in action. In some places they are drilling up to 600 feet deep to reach the water. Big pumps, driven by diesel engines, can pump up to 1500 gallons per minute for those pivot irrigations. I think that’s very impressive. 

For the next two days I will be on the road though the Rocky Mountains up to Idaho. I will start my demonstrations in the area around Caldwell. If you want to know, where I will run, please contact our Krone Dealer in Idaho, Burks Tractor. 

I will give you some impressions about my road trip in a few days. 

All the best from The BiG MAN,

Benedikt

Moving on to the North...

Hi followers, 

like I promised, I don’t want to wait you too long for some news about the “Meet the BiG MAN-Tour”. First of all I want to show you our new tour truck, which arrived beginning of this week. It really looks nice. Beside the chopper, I can now show the MAN-engine and the heavy duty wear parts of Busatis, which we are using in our choppers. The customers really likes it and the interest is huge. Thanks very much to MAN and Busatis, who are partnering with us for this demonstration tour. 

The last ten days I have spend in the Southern Panhandle of Texas and across the border to New Mexiko and demoed the BiG X 1100 to several customers in this area. They all really liked the machine and were impressed about the performance of the chopper. In this area it is very dry for several month now and the crops are not very heavy this year. So you have to go very fast to fill up the machine. Problem at high speed is the feeding of the PickUp. But not for the BiG MAN. Thanks to our camless PickUp Easy Flow 3801 and the infinite header speed adjustment of the chopper, I was able to go up to 14 miles an hour on the field without plugging up the header. Here are some impressions about the demos of last week..

You are probably wondering where I left my flags on the chopper. Beside the drought and high temperatures of around 85 ° F, we have a lot of wind up to 70 miles an hour. That’s too much for my flags. Because of the wind we have a lot of sand blowing. Here you can see a sand storm driving on the highway. 

Today we hauled the chopper to the Northern Panhandle. The next days I will run demos in the area around Cactus and Stratford. Next week, I will move over to Idaho. More about that in a few days…

Greetings from Texas, 

The BiG MAN

Next chapter: Texas

Hi followers, 

I hope you are not mad at me not hearing anything about the tour and my experiences with the new Krone BiG X chopper for a long time. I apologize for the long wait. I was very busy the last weeks and didn’t get a chance to write anything in my blog. When you have finished reading my following report from the last weeks, you will understand why. 

Like you know, I have been in California for the whole month of April. I started chopping in the area around Merced and Hilmar. The first week of demonstrations started slow, because we got a few rain showers again, so nobody wanted to start lay something down. Then the weather forecast gave the signal to start cutting and everything got crazy. In the second week I made 13 demonstrations and had over 20 different “trainees” in the cab to show the chopper. I have demoed the BiG X 700 and the BiG X 1100 and the customers have been really impressed about our new chopper generation. They especially liked the camless PickUp, the new design of the feeder house and the wide cab with the new joystick. But maybe first some impressions about demoing the chopper…In California it is the law, that the truck boxes have to be closed. That’s why we are using the short spout to blow from the side into the trucks. 

Beside the “soft facts” about the machine, I should tell you the very impressive hard facts about the performance I did with those machines. I brought a fuel measurement device from Germany to put it in between the intake and return line of the engine. So I am able to read the exact amount of fuel I am burning. With that fuel device, a stopwatch and the trucks, which I had at every demonstration, I did some testing with the machines. Here are some of the most impressive results:

BiG X 700: Winterforage, Speed during chopping 11 Miles an hour, I chopped 280 Tons an hour and burned about 36 Gallons of fuel, I could chop 7,8 Tons per gallon

BiG X 1100: Heavy windrows, speed 5,5 Miles an hour (only), I chopped 390 Tons an hour and used only 46 Gallons of fuel, that’s about 8,5 Tons per gallon, I was filling a ten-wheeler in about one and a half minute, a semi truck was loaded in under three minutes. That was really fun!!

So the time was just flying by. A lot to do, long days and short nights. Everybody from California knows, what Winterforage season is. In total I made 24 demonstrations in California and showed nearly 40 people the new features about the chopper. On friday last week I started my road trip to Texas, 1300 Miles through 5 different states of the US. I made some stopps at Las Vegas, the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. It was really interesting! Everybody who hasn't seen it, really should go there sometime. Here are some impressions about the trip....

So the next three weeks, I will run demos in Texas. This week I am around Dimmitt in the Southern Panhandle, more stopps in New Mexico and the Northern Panhandle are planned for next week. I will keep you up to date as soon as possible. I promise don't let you wait to long. For the end some pictures of the first demos in Texas chopping with a long spout to the right side.

All the best from Texas

Benedikt