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