The four model Tucano line-up replaces Medion and Mega models that took over from the ubiquitous Dominator.

And, although sales of these smaller combines has only accounted for 10% of the UK market in recent years, Claas believes an injection of extra sophistication and automation will help to bolster demand with farmers looking to cover between 160ha (400acres) and 400ha (1100acres) a year. 

Aside from new panels and a new cab the most obvious change is a switch for grain tank and engine. 

Previous machines had the engine mounted directly behind the cab and the grain tank at the back. The Tucano swaps to a more conventional layout, reducing noise levels for the operator and improving overall weight distribution. 

The cabin itself is borrowed from Claas’ Xerion tractors – albeit heavily modified. The control layout is based on larger Lexion combines with a colour-screen ‘CEBIS’ computer monitoring a wide range of harvester functions from drum speed to header set-up. 

The threshing system remains much the same as before with five and six straw-walker offerings. All bar the smallest 320 model – which has a single drum and concave – have an APS crop accelerator that powers material into the main concave.  This is responsible for extracting a certain amount of grain and is said to even out the flow of crop from the header to the drum. 

Mechanical sieve controls are standard although optional electronic adjustment is available, as is Claas’ ‘3D’ hill-side levelling system. 

Grain tank capacities range from 6500-litres up to 9000-litres and all models can unload at a rate of 75-litres/second.
 

The Tucano can be fitted with any Claas cutterbar from 3.7m to 7.5m (12-25ft) including Vario versions and Conspeed maize headers.   

* Claas reports that the UK combine market is significantly stronger this year. With total sales for all makes of over 700, the figures are up by about 24% compared with average for the last six years. 2006 sales were particularly bad, totalling just 545.