Swedish brand Quicke has been the market leader in front-end loaders in Ireland for the past 60 odd years. Currently more than half of all loaders sold in Ireland on an annual basis are Quicke-made.
Work on its latest range of loaders, the Q Series, began in early 2012 and five years were spent getting it right.
The loader has some nice new features, including the very strong beam which according the Quicke’s in-house testing is more than 50% stronger than their previous loader and all their main competitors.
Strong design
The loader seems to be very strong and the design of the beams, with their indents and sweeping bends, will give far greater rigidity and strength.
Quicke says the indent in the arms makes the loader more aesthetically pleasing and ensures the loader looks good on today’s tractor designs. The new loader also includes a much lower crossbeam.
This increases visibility when using the loader and gives the added bonus of allowing the tractor to have a set of bulky front weights attached when the loader is being used.
Visibility at night has also been improved by the addition of underbeam lighting as an option.
Quicke claims this is the first smart loader on the market.
It comes with the ability to weigh the load and inform the operator of the position of the load at all times. This is achieved through an add-on called the Q Companion, which is a separate unit that connects to any of the three possible control units. These are a manual cable control and two electronic versions.
Angle sensors
The Q Companion uses two angle sensors to assess the position of the load.
One sensor is on the main joint with the tractor and the other is on the head of the loader to read the crowd angle.
This is very useful when scraping the floor or if your vision is somehow impaired when the implement needs to be at a certain angle such as when using a pallet fork.
Weighing of loads is done using a pressure sensor on the hydraulic system.
T0 get the reading the load must travel through a pre-set range of heights. This is marked on the screen in the cab and will tell you that weighing has been successful.
Another use
Another useful piece of technology on the Q Companion is that you can set a total weight on the system and it will inform you when you have moved that amount of material.
That would be very useful when either loading grain or for getting the mix just right into a diet feeder. There is a 10t limit on this system but that is not an issue as it can be reset again if the total load is higher than that.
All of the data from the loader, including the working hours and total weight carried, can be downloaded from the system. Currently this can be done on to a USB stick.
It is believed that there will be an app released at this year’s Agritechnica that will wirelessly attach to the Q Companion.
This loader seems to be very well built with some really nice technology. This has only been seen in the wheeled loader market and it is nice to see in the tractor mounted loader market.
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