284 International
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2010
- Messages
- 1,466
- Tractor
- International Harvester 284
I went to buy a tree auger to plant some fruit trees, and ended up coming home with more than I originally intended. I've never seen one of these before, and don't know anything about vineyard work. It's by a French company Humus, about which I can find nothing online. I thought it was kind of interesting, and have only been able to discover a couple similar implements. I haven't seen anything like this on here, and thought some people might want to see one.
Basically it has two 12" or so rotating plates with three cultivating teeth pointing down.
It is PTO driven, and has a "whisker" out front of the rotating plates, visible above. The plates are offset to the side of the tractor, and when the whisker touches a trunk (or really anything remotely substantial) the whisker pulls a cable, which engages a clutch, and drives a sprocket on a linear chain. The clutch is circled in green, and you can see the chain going through the drive mechanism.
When the sprocket drives, it pulls the cutter heads back toward the centerline of the tractor, and out of the way of the trunk . Once contact with the whisker has ceased, the whisker pops back out, disengages the clutch, and a set of three garage door type springs sling the heads back out to cultivate the row.
It rolls on a set of torus shaped metal wheels up front, and a set of thin, sharp coulters at the rear. They do a good job of keeping the implement straight behind the tractor, but seem somewhat spindly. Anything other than very minor course adjustments will bend or break the coulter wheels or their shafts.
So, my questions: Are these things still in use or have they have been replaced with something better? Is the Humus company still in business? What are the tricks, if any, to operating it correctly and safely? Any tips on making it useful?
Right now, I don't have any use for it, really. I though it might work for me, but I don't see it doing what I need or want. It doesn't extend laterally enough to allow the tractor to clear my bigger orchard trees, though with one of my smaller machines it might.
The previous owner said he bought it to use to cultivate an orchard. I tested it out briefly along a row of mulberry trees. The problem is the cutting plates only move about 12 inches, so if one has substantial trees, the head may not be able to withdraw enough to clear it. Driving it is fairly difficult: It is tough to gauge whether the heads will be too close to a tree trunk or not. I suspect in a vineyard it would work much better.
Basically it has two 12" or so rotating plates with three cultivating teeth pointing down.
It is PTO driven, and has a "whisker" out front of the rotating plates, visible above. The plates are offset to the side of the tractor, and when the whisker touches a trunk (or really anything remotely substantial) the whisker pulls a cable, which engages a clutch, and drives a sprocket on a linear chain. The clutch is circled in green, and you can see the chain going through the drive mechanism.
When the sprocket drives, it pulls the cutter heads back toward the centerline of the tractor, and out of the way of the trunk . Once contact with the whisker has ceased, the whisker pops back out, disengages the clutch, and a set of three garage door type springs sling the heads back out to cultivate the row.
It rolls on a set of torus shaped metal wheels up front, and a set of thin, sharp coulters at the rear. They do a good job of keeping the implement straight behind the tractor, but seem somewhat spindly. Anything other than very minor course adjustments will bend or break the coulter wheels or their shafts.
So, my questions: Are these things still in use or have they have been replaced with something better? Is the Humus company still in business? What are the tricks, if any, to operating it correctly and safely? Any tips on making it useful?
Right now, I don't have any use for it, really. I though it might work for me, but I don't see it doing what I need or want. It doesn't extend laterally enough to allow the tractor to clear my bigger orchard trees, though with one of my smaller machines it might.
The previous owner said he bought it to use to cultivate an orchard. I tested it out briefly along a row of mulberry trees. The problem is the cutting plates only move about 12 inches, so if one has substantial trees, the head may not be able to withdraw enough to clear it. Driving it is fairly difficult: It is tough to gauge whether the heads will be too close to a tree trunk or not. I suspect in a vineyard it would work much better.
...the wrong guy ended up apologizing in that thread