ARION 600 CMATIC anti jack-knife system

Anti jack-knife braking for ARION CMATIC

ARION 600 and 500 CMATIC tractors are now available with a new ‘automatic trailer stretch brake’ option which helps stabilise the tractor-trailer combination on slopes and slippery surfaces preventing the risk of jack-knifing, and includes a range of additional convenient features.

The new automatic stretch brake function for ARION 600/500 tractors with CMATIC transmission and air brakes helps relieve the burden on the driver when driving heavy trailers downhill or when working with square balers, round balers, baler-wrapper combinations and trailed crop sprayers on slopes. Using sensors in the transmission to record engine torque and transmission loads going through the drive train, the system automatically activates the trailer’s air brakes as soon as critical thrust forces are exerted on the tractor that potentially could result in the trailer jack-knifing.

Brakes engaged automatically on decelerating

The driver can actively increase the braking action of the combination when driving downhill by pulling back the drive lever in auto mode or the DRIVESTICK in DRIVESTICK mode. This increases deceleration by reducing the transmission ratio and increasing the engine speed to match the forward speed. For maximum deceleration the air brake engages automatically to reduce the trailer’s ground speed and stretch the tractor-trailer combination. At low operating speeds the thrust when driving downhill is automatically detected and the combination is maintained at the speed predefined by the accelerator pedal. The automatic trailerstretch function can also be used with active cruise control speeds up to a maximum 20 km/h. On gentle slopes and with lights loads, the cruise control speed is automatically maintained by activating the pneumatic trailer brakes; on steep slopes and with heavy loads, exceeding of the set cruise control speed is reduced. This function can be used when working on slopes with square balers or trailed crop sprayers, providing an enormous safety boost in addition to significantly reducing the driver’s workload. For added convenience, automatic trailer stretch brakes also assist with reversing trailers, forage wagons and balers by triggering the braking action as soon as the driver initiates a change in direction using the reversing lever or the button on the CMOTION control lever. This feature also protects the grass sward, while the pulsing action of the brakes effectively prevents overheating with automatic braking assistance. The automatic trailer stretch brake is immediately available and can be retrofitted to ARION 600/500 models built from 2021 onwards.

A good all round tractor.

“From a power point of view, it has plenty of grunt for the majority of our tasks that we need it to do, and will tackle most of our implements with relative ease. As tractors evolve, you get to a point where you think there’s nothing that could be improved, then CLAAS will come out with something else that is designed to help even more.”

Anson MacAuslan, Estate Manager, Welbeck Estates, Caithness, ARION 420 Stage V, September 2021

Learn more about ARION 400 St V Call your CLAAS dealer today for a demonstration.