ENGLISH tractor manufacturer JCB still maintains its mantle as world market leader in telehandler sales.
Australian product manager Greg Sealey expects that position to improve with the release of the new JCB AGRI Pro.
Speaking at last week's Dowerin GWN7 Machinery Field Days, Mr Sealey said there were still a lot of first-time users of telehandlers in Australia.
"Australia remains a growing market for JCB and the company has a range of telehandlers to suit most farm tasks," he said.
"But our more mature owners now want more cost efficiencies and we believe the AGRI Pro satisfies a lot of those criteria."
The model is tagged as a "revolution in productivity", providing DualTechVT hydrostatic and powershift gearboxes to improve cycle times by up to 25 per cent when handling, and 16pc when towing, compared to competitor models.
JCB claims the powershift transmission provides high road speed (40 kilometre per hour) and greater acceleration on steep inclines, while AUTO 2/4WD, switches the JCB AGRI Pro from 4WD to 2WD at speeds above 19km/h and vice versa when moving down to lower speeds - 2WD is driven to the rear axles for better traction when towing.
The hydrostatic transmission offers fine control and inching capabilities for fast precision placement.
According to Mr Sealey, DualTechVT reduces the need to use the brakes when re-handling.
The foot brake also features an inching feature which variably cuts off drive for intuitive multi-functioning during loading and rehandling.
DualTechVT also provides automatic gear changes from 0 to 40km/h.
The reason for the DualTechVT transmission concept is simple, says JCB.
On average, it says, telehandlers are used 60pc of the time for handling work, 35pc for towing and road work and idle for the remaining 5pc.
The first two scenarios provide the biggest conundrum for telehandler buyers - do you go for a torque convertor/powershift machine which provides good speed and towing capacity?
Or do you go for a hydrostatic machine which gives good pushing ability at slow speeds and precise speed control?
What JCB has done is provide two transmissions in one - a hydrostatic module, which offers infinitely variable speed selection from 0-19km/h and takes care of low speed handling work.
Then a three-speed powershift module takes over for speeds up to 40km/h.
Everything is done automatically, from the transition between hydro and powershift modules to the powershift changes.
No torque convertor is used in the powershift portion of the transmission, using clutch packs to change gears and provide direct drive to the wheels.
Further transmission tailoring can be achieved using a system called Fleximode, which allows independent control of ground speed and engine rpm.
Once Fleximode is selected, operators can manually set the engine revs with a hand throttle and set the maximum ground speed via a dial.
The latter is shown as a percentage on the dash, which represents a percentage of the speed between 0-19km/h, as Fleximode only works with the hydrostatic module.
When Fleximode is reactivated it will remember previous settings used.
Mr Sealey said a forward order program for the AGRI Pro would be announced soon for early 2017 deliveries.
Australian product manager Greg Sealey expects that position to improve with the release of the new JCB AGRI Pro.
Speaking at last week's Dowerin GWN7 Machinery Field Days, Mr Sealey said there were still a lot of first-time users of telehandlers in Australia.
"Australia remains a growing market for JCB and the company has a range of telehandlers to suit most farm tasks," he said.
"But our more mature owners now want more cost efficiencies and we believe the AGRI Pro satisfies a lot of those criteria."
The model is tagged as a "revolution in productivity", providing DualTechVT hydrostatic and powershift gearboxes to improve cycle times by up to 25 per cent when handling, and 16pc when towing, compared to competitor models.
JCB claims the powershift transmission provides high road speed (40 kilometre per hour) and greater acceleration on steep inclines, while AUTO 2/4WD, switches the JCB AGRI Pro from 4WD to 2WD at speeds above 19km/h and vice versa when moving down to lower speeds 2WD is driven to the rear axles for better traction when towing.
The hydrostatic transmission offers fine control and inching capabilities for fast precision placement.
According to Mr Sealey, DualTechVT reduces the need to use the brakes when re-handling.
The foot brake also features an inching feature which variably cuts off drive for intuitive multi-functioning during loading and rehandling.
DualTechVT also provides automatic gear changes from 0 to 40km/h.
The reason for the DualTechVT transmission concept is simple, says JCB.
On average, it says, telehandlers are used 60pc of the time for handling work, 35pc for towing and road work and idle for the remaining 5pc.
The first two scenarios provide the biggest conundrum for telehandler buyers do you go for a torque convertor/powershift machine which provides good speed and towing capacity?
Or do you go for a hydrostatic machine which gives good pushing ability at slow speeds and precise speed control?
What JCB has done is provide two transmissions in one a hydrostatic module, which offers infinitely variable speed selection from 0-19km/h and takes care of low speed handling work.
Then a three-speed powershift module takes over for speeds up to 40km/h.
Everything is done automatically, from the transition between hydro and powershift modules to the powershift changes.
No torque convertor is used in the powershift portion of the transmission, using clutch packs to change gears and provide direct drive to the wheels.
Further transmission tailoring can be achieved using a system called Fleximode, which allows independent control of ground speed and engine rpm.
Once Fleximode is selected, operators can manually set the engine revs with a hand throttle and set the maximum ground speed via a dial.
The latter is shown as a percentage on the dash, which represents a percentage of the speed between 0-19km/h, as Fleximode only works with the hydrostatic module.
When Fleximode is reactivated it will remember previous settings used.
Mr Sealey said a forward order program for the AGRI Pro would be announced soon for early 2017 deliveries.
Ken Wilson
Farm Weekly's machinery writer.
Farm Weekly's machinery writer.
