Maintaining and driving the Krone Big X

The Krone Big X range has cut out a fair slice of the Irish self-propelled forage harvester market in recent years. While the importers and main dealers should be applauded for their marketing and sales strategies, the reality is that it’s often a man in a van who is most needed to keep any of these machines rolling.

Ciaran Roche is one of those unsung heroes who works behind the scenes and around the clock to keep Irish contractors’ machines going during the silage season – he has become known far and wide as somewhat of a guru on the Big X range of machines.

How did it all start Ciaran?

“I guess from a young age my interest was always in agricultural machinery, and I wanted to work with my hands, so this trade suited me,” he says.

When he initially started his apprenticeship, he was involved in a road traffic accident and badly hurt his leg. Afterwards, he was physically unable to carry on his craft for a few years as he had to rebuild the strength and mobility of his leg again.

He left the trade to drive excavators for a few years and when the Celtic Tiger building boom burst, he returned to finish his apprenticeship.

“I worked for Farm Power in Cork on John Deeres and returned to college as a mature student, I was also a married man at this stage with young kids at home, so it certainly wasn’t easy,” explains Ciaran.

Despite his past difficulties, he retains a joyful presence, but he also has a steely determination to get on.

In 2014, he not only qualified as an agricultural mechanic but also won the FTMTA Student of the Year award, an honour for the best overall apprentice.

“I certainly like a challenge; it’s a great experience to work on various types of machines which is the best way to learn.

“I wasn’t long qualified when I got a call from Jim Power to see if I would be interested in working on the Krone range of equipment. We talked over T&Cs, this kind of test interested me, it was nearer home too so I joined his firm.”

Ciaran insists that he must give credit to Jim Power’s vision: “When he looked at taking on the Krone Big X range for the south of Ireland, I had pointed out to him at that time I’d need product specific training.

“Jim said to me ‘to do whatever you have to in order to get these machines up and going’.

“I probably went to the Krone factory in Germany five times altogether and got great training over there, it really was invaluable to be honest, just to be confident and comfortable with all the various aspects and features specific to these machines. When customers ring, they want very specific information or test procedures and not be bluffed.

“Ciaran works today for Cavanaghs of Fermoy on New Holland equipment and in the evenings and weekends works from home, mainly on his own customers’ Big X foragers.

Proper servicing

“Some of the machines that I originally worked on are now seven to ten years old and they also need to be set up and serviced properly or else they are worthless because they won’t run properly,” he explains.

The main dealers simply can’t cope because they don’t have the staff to begin with and these machines have completely different specs to tractors or loaders.

“Contractors aren’t going to buy a second-hand machine if there is nobody there to fix it: they want the machine to be set up correctly and running at its optimum at the start of the silage season or else the season could get very long and difficult for them.

“When a customer rings me to service their machine, I firstly do a full examination from the pickup, through the feed rollers, the chopper unit, blower and out the chute.

“Obviously, an engine service kit, transmission oils, full examination of belts, all wear parts etc and I just make out a full list for them what’s needed. I don’t care where they get the parts either – Jim Power, JMC, Tom Shaw or Farmhand – once they are genuine, it’s fine,” says Ciaran.

When questioned on prices he laughs and says:

Costs

“I don’t pay for them but thousands of euros for sure. These machines swallow money as well as grass – I have enough to do in stripping down the machine and rebuilding it, the customer can price away once I give them the parts list.”

Ciaran also feels that farmers don’t value the contractors who provide such a vital service or the mechanics who fix the machines.

“Unfortunately, most farmers don’t understand the costs involved in owning and operating this machinery or the technology under the hood today and that’s becoming a major problem in Ireland as the farmer is the paymaster and cash flow in the sector is a real issue, it will have to change soon or there won’t be a later I feel.”

How does Ciaran rate the Krone machine against the more established brands?

“I can honestly say it’s as good as any of them and perhaps better – and that’s from my experience operating and working on all types of silage harvesters,” he says.

“They run MTU/Mercedes and Liebherr engines across the range, which are both good units. All machines regardless of brand need the basics like oil, grease, correct set up, good filters to operate but overall, they are a very well-made machine with quality components and the two stand-out features on the Krone Big X are the ‘VariStream’ and ‘StreamControl’.

“Basically, VariStream is a crop flow system that helps with lumps in the swaths of grass as there is 10mm of play/flex in the drum base and the back of the blower which means it’s not a fixed size, but it can flex and expand if needs which helps greatly to prevent the machine blocking.

“The StreamControl feature then controls the rate of crop discharge out the harvester chute independently of engine speed.

"So when trying to send crop a long distance – like over a tractor and into a trailer when opening a field of maize for example – it would be set high and when trying to properly fill a trailer and reduce the aggressiveness of the blow and the crop being blown out over the trailer, it is set to low so the crop looks like its falling from the harvester chute.

“It gives flexibility to the crop discharge velocity and minimises losses in the field.”

What are the critical checks specific to these machines?

Ciaran says once the machine has about 700 drum hours the hydrostatic main drive belt most likely needs replacing.

“I know by looking down the belt and if it’s not flat on top but little bumps coming through, I replace it regardless,” he says.

With bearings he acknowledges he was taught a great old-school trick by Basil Stevenson a contractor based in Co Wicklow.

“I know about thermal imaging cameras and all that but who can realistically afford it? Basically, Basil showed me the old screwdriver technique with your ear, and I can guarantee it works.

“You basically get the proper old type heavy screwdriver, it must be the one you can hit with a hammer and place it up against the bearing housing and then put your ear up close to the other end and listen carefully, you will hear it clearly over the engine noise if the bearing is starting to grumble, the first sign of failure.

“Knives, shear bar and blower paddles are definite checks in any silage harvester particularly behind the blower, under the cutting drum and at the drum base. There are auto greasers on these machines, but there still is a few grease points that need to be manually greased in the pickup, feed rollers, around the axles and the turning tower.

“For crop protection there are the two friction clutches, one for the camless pickup and other on the intake auger on the header itself. They are simple two-disc style dry friction plates that need to be torqued up correctly.

“If I had to weld on the machine, I always disconnect the engine ECU regardless and keep the earth as close as possible to where I’m welding as this stops arcing across bearings etc, I have never had a problem yet anyway.

“The Hardox liners just don’t get the recognition they deserve on any make of silage harvester in this country I feel, they are just brilliant and worth every cent,” says Ciaran, adding that he sees customers of his getting well over 10,000 acres on a set of these liners.

In 2020, Dennehy Harvesting, based in Ballyhooly, Co Cork, took on the unique challenge of packing up their forager and silage machinery for the first time and heading over to Netzen, a small region outside Brandenburg, Germany to cut 1,700 hectares of maize for Grasmilch which is owned and run by Irish men Paul and Stephen Costello.

As nobody on the crew had great German and Ciaran had helped out Dennehy’s at silage over the years, they felt they might need someone with Big X experience on board if their machine wasn’t running smoothly.

“They rang me up one day and asked would I go to Germany and be the mechanic/driver for the forager as well as the rest of the gear for six weeks,” recalls Ciaran.

“I never got to experience Australia or New Zealand as a young fella so I knew it would be a unique life experience; I just had to try and convince my wife then. Once she agreed I left Jim Power to go to Dennehy’s for a while and gave six weeks initially in Germany operating and maintaining their Krone machine.”

When asked how that experience was compared to Ireland, Ciaran’s response was one word: sand!

“It’s different weather and fantastic ground conditions, but the sand and grit at the bottom of the stalks would be hard on any machine. It’s vital that the machine set up is right for those conditions – once you do that it’s brilliant.

“There were days we would cut 150 acres of maize, no problem, at home it could be 25 or 50 acres due to rain, the size of the fields we are in here, moving from farm to farm, opening fields, getting stuck and so on. Once you open the field up over there, cut a run through the middle and you’re away then.”

And how did the machine perform out there?

“A set of knives and two fuel filters, that was honestly it.”

Daily checks

Ciaran explains how it’s so vital to maintain the machine properly too and do your daily checks.

“I used to leave the accommodation half an hour before the other lads and check over the harvester, belts, oil levels, diesel up, do the grease points in the header, the feed rollers, the cracker, clean the slides and guides on the maize header, then sharpen the knives, etc, and blow down the machine. By the time I was done the lads would be on and we would start cutting for the day.

“The crop varied greatly on different parts of the farm from about 5ft to about 11ft in height and I don’t know why – it could be the variety, soil type, fertiliser, time of sowing etc or a combination of all but overall, most crops were good. It was a brilliant experience, and I really enjoyed it.”