The heavy-duty Tramspread slurry system has been designed and built for contractors by contractors, making it an impressive piece of kit with some little features making a big difference.
Tramspread Machinery was founded 30 years ago in Stowmarket, Suffolk, in the South East of England by Terry Baker. Baker has had extensive experience with slurry equipment and his team runs five full-time contracting machines (when the five-month slurry ban allows) pumping over 600,000m³ each year ranging from cow and pig manure, to industrial waste, and everything in between.
Toplink Machinery is the New Zealand importer and distributor of the Tramspread machines, with David Williams as the principal. To see this impressive machine in action I headed to South Canterbury where a large contractor unit complete with a 15-metre Vogalsang dribble bar awaited.
Contractor pump and trailer unit
The 8.6-metre-long trailer is a serious bit of kit, equipped with 100km/hr rated (braked axles). It is mounted low for smooth travel and easy attachment of pumping hoses and the 2000 metres of drag hose which can be carried on the detachable spools located at the front of the trailer.
Around the business end of the trailer is a 150hp John Deere 6068 reconditioned second hand ex-combine harvester engine which is fitted with a Murphy engine control panel equipped with a rev counter, hour meter, low oil pressure and high water temperature protection. A 1000-litre diesel tank is nestled underneath.
The main pumping unit, a Bauer SX2000, has a 150mm inlet and two 125mm delivery outlets (one left and one right) and offers a typical output of 120-180m3/hour depending on slurry consistency, terrain and distance.
Once the pumping is completed, a 170m3 compressor system is in charge of blowing out the lines with up to 150psi of pressure. Other features include two large tool boxes allowing plenty of equipment to be carried safely, an easily accessible hand brake keeps the trailer from moving, and a jack at the rear allows you to keep the trailer level, no matter the pond set-up.
Reelers and hosing
All Tramspread hose reelers are fitted with a heavy-duty A-frame which is much more heavy-duty than the ones found on mowers; but offer the same user-friendliness.
The 1000m detachable spools on the test machine are quickly removed from the heavy-duty double drive carry frame by removing two securing pins, lowering the spool to the ground and backing away.
The 1000m spools can comfortably hold 1000m of a four-inch hose, 800m of a five-inch hose, 600m of a six-inch hose – or a mixture of when using partitions.
In the paddock, the pipe is run out diagonally with the reelers dropped off on the headlands making rewinding easier.
Dribble bar
At the business end of the system on our test machines is the Vogalsang BackPac 15-metre dribble bar, which has a list of options and working widths ranging from nine to 28 metres.
The slurry is pumped up from the hose though a swivel coupling to make headland turns easier on both the tractor and hose. It then moves up to the macerator and is evenly chopped and distributed to the 48 outlets complete with stone trap. It is driven by a single hydraulic motor which you can run clockwise one day and anticlockwise the next, to keep the blades sharp.
The only gripe I have with the dribble bar is the main wings are folded out hydraulically although the two outer sections on each side are done manually having to line up pin holes. It’s not the manual labour that’s the issue but the pins are very high, something the more vertically challenged operator may notice.
The verdict
This unit has the flexibility of being a one-man band and there are plenty of extras such as remote pump control, flow metres and section control – to name a few. The consistency of the slurry and distance are the two limiting factors of this set-up but once you are pumping, it really is money for jam with near constant output, without track and compaction damage to contend with.