The TurboTopper slasher helps turn stubble into a fine mulch with its innovative and sturdy design
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The TurboTopper slasher
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Offering a new forward-folding design, the TurboTopper slasher produced by AusCut Global in Australia brings new options for broadacre residue management.
Four models are available with cutting widths of 3, 3.6, 9, and 12.2 metres, with the two smaller models able to be towed by a 150hp tractor.
The slasher was developed by Cowra-based Roly and Kurtis Larsen, with Roly saying the first unit was designed in October last year, with a concept vehicle produced by late February.
The units run eight cutter discs as standard on the machines, rather than a blade bar, with Roly saying the discs reduce pressure on the gearboxes and drivelines as well as provide “less unnecessary wind”.
“With a bar, you can create a wind against the residue you’re trying to pick up,” he says, “whereas, with a 6mm disc with uplift blades on it, the only breeze you’re creating is an uplift effect for uplifting the residue.” Two extra blades are now standard on every disc and there are two extra rigid blades mounted to the machine, Roly adds.
“So instead of having the one blade cutting it, it’s the two blades and the rigid blade sizing it again, so it is providing a finer mulch.
“The other benefit of it is that when you come up against a stump or a rock or similar, instead of a bar hitting it, it’s a disc so it is not going to damage your gearbox or your driveline,” he adds.
The TurboToppers are fully welded and powder-coated for heavy-duty construction, while wheels on the front make for easy depth control and Gardini Technik gearboxes help to keep noise and temperatures down.
Another innovative feature of the TurboTopper design is its forward folding system, meaning that the weight of the unit remains over the drawbar when it’s being transported while keeping even the 12.2-metre unit at a transport width of 3.5 metres.
“At the back, we have nothing but adjustable rear flaps, and there’s no obstruction of material as it flies out the back – it can go where it needs to and you’re not left with windrows or any of that residue build-up,” Roly says.
That said, Roly says the company is working on a fan kit option for some time in the future.
A series of new stock machines are expected by late August ahead of the harvest season, but demonstration models are currently being exhibited at Field Days around Australia.
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