Case IH Magnum 400 AFS Connect: Powershift power
Scan the Magnum line-up, and you will notice that the 310 and 340 are both available with the stepless ‘CVXDrive’ or featured powershift ‘PowerDrive’ transmission. But with the fresh-faced models launched two years ago, the 380 is the largest of the Magnum CVTs, with a rated power of 283kW/380hp before climbing to a maximum boosted output of 324kW/435hp. Look across to the mechanical transmission tractor, and there is no 380 — only a Magnum 400.
The reason for the difference in model name, is the PowerDrive version has more power (295kW/396hp) on tap at its rated speed for heavy draft jobs like cultivating and other tug work, so someone in the Case IH marketing department clearly thought it deserved a bit more of a mention.
Having tested the previous generation 380 CVX back in the 12/2016 issue, we decided to give the powershift 400 AFS a shot.
Economical FPT motor
Before heading out to the field, we swung by the DLG test centre with our Magnum 400.
Hooked up to the dyno, the tractor produced 260.8kW/349.7hp at its rated speed and a maximum of 291.7kW/391.2hp at 1,800rpm. Both are very acceptable output results and correspond to the boosted rates of our 2016 Magnum 380 CVX test.
The same applies to the low fuel consumption: 229g/kWh at rated speed and only 222g/kWh at maximum output are really good, especially for a Stage V compliant engine. The quiet-running FPT Cursor 9 purrs rather than barks with very good performance characteristics, something that’s much more apparent on a powershift tractor than one with
