Rethinking combines

After studying all current combine harvester designs, Georg Bauer put his thinking cap on to come up with the Maximus, a future combine concept that uses off-the-shelf components (except for the 18m header). It's just waiting for a manufacturer brave enough to take it from the drawing board to the field.

Georg is unable to embark on a project of this scale, one reason being his age — he was 91 in June. However, by designing this new model, he wants to give manufacturers a nudge and show that it is indeed possible to generate maximum output performance, remain within transport width limitations and have a good weight distribution.

Here are the stand-out details of the Maximus combine:

• The crop flow is split into two lengthways systems. This means the two threshing drums and the walkers (that can be sourced from existing combine designs) are arranged side by side.• The straw and chaff are swathed into two rows — one on either side. The material is collected by a baler or harvester and used for• Instead of a traditional grain tank, a cart runs behind the machine — either hitched or integrated by an articulated pivot.• The header runs on its own gauge wheels.• All drives are electric.• Unusually for a top-end machine it doesn’t ride on tracks. Instead, Georg has opted for a tandem-axle arrangement.