A comprehensive potato store intake and cleaning setup from Grimme brings together the manufacturer’s RH 24 receiving hopper and MultiSep roller cleaning unit, the latter previously available on trailed and self-propelled harvesters.

The RH 24 MSF comes in variants with a 2.4m wide hopper floor and volume capacities of 15-23cu m, which together with throughputs of 100-140t in favourable conditions should provide quick trailer turnarounds.

See also: Advice on effective late blight control in potatoes

Infinitely variable drive up to 5m/min and soft pockets forming the floor are both features of the receiving end of the combination, while the MultiSep unit deploys four pairs of rollers, each pair consisting of a segment of rubber-covered spiral roller and a slightly smaller diameter plain clod roller made of steel.

Performance tweaks

Used mainly in heavy and wet soil conditions to clean up spuds by removing as much unwanted material as possible, the MultiSep is adjustable in various ways using a new Isobus control unit, including roller speed and direction.

For active cleaning in difficult conditions, the segment rollers and clod rollers can be set to run in opposite directions for maximum “grip” on sticky soils, errant clods and crop haulm.

With lighter conditions, the roller pairs can rotate in the direction of the crop stream so the potatoes are cleaned gently.

Between these extremes, the rollers can be adjusted in terms of spacing and height relative to one another to suit prevailing conditions while minimising any risk of damaging the tubers in any way.

An RH 42 series hopper and MultiSep unit form a single outfit on a common chassis, with the cleaning system located between the presentation belt and pre-grading rollers.