TORION 1410 – Bunting & Sons, Norfolk

First impressions count

For 6 months of the year, Bunting and Sons’ TORION 1410 has an easy life mainly handling grain and muck. But this ends abruptly in September when through to March it will clock up about 1,000 hours loading around 100,000 tonnes of sugar beet.

The TORION 1410 was bought three years ago to give Philip and Stephen Bunting extra handling capacity. Winning a large new contract brought their total tonnage to load and haul around to over 100,000 tonnes, spread over 15 farms. At the same time, they also bought a higher capacity CTM 9040 cleaner and they can have up to 8 lorries hauling to the factory. “We had always run another make of wheel loader and the TORION only really came to my attention when Simon Bloomfield (their Field Sales Manager at MANNS Norfolk) took me to Saxham to look at a sprayer, and there was one on display there. I sat in it and was very impressed with what I saw,” says Philip Bunting. “We don’t need anything fancy for loading beet and the TORION is very straightforward. The cab is comfortable, visibility good and being built by Leibherr it has a good heritage. As soon as I saw it, I knew that it would be ideal for our needs. So when it came to buying a new wheel loader, I had already set my mind that the TORION was what we needed and, having discussed it with my brother, he agreed and we didn’t price anything else up.

BUILT FOR STRENGTH

“The TORION is definitely built for strength and when it is loading it’s worked hard. The build quality and reliability has been excellent. After three years there are no weak areas, no signs of wear and apart from one solenoid early on, it has been faultless. “The TORION has shown that it is ideal for the beet job. Reliability is a must. Out of season the TORION and the cleaner are given a thorough check over, because once we start loading beet we are running six days a week, or as the factory dictates. We can’t afford to have the loader break down, because apart from upsetting the farmer, we speak to the factory every day to let them know what we plan to deliver, so any breakdown will affect their processing schedule.”

Powered by a 155hp DPS engine which drives through a VARIPOWER transmission, the TORION 1410 weighs 13.9 tonnes and has a tipping load capacity of 9.1 tonnes, giving it more than enough capacity for the 2.0 tonne root bucket the Buntings had made for the TORION, which can hold 3.0 tonnes. This season has seen Stephen’s son James at the controls. “I love it,” he says. “There is no shortage of pushing power. It just doesn’t give up; it would push a house down! The visibility from the cab is excellent and its very smooth and easy to operate. Having the Smart Loading pre-set height function is useful when you are tired, but most of the time I do prefer to just ‘drive’ it myself.” “Having the new MANNS branch just up the road at Fransham is great,” says Philip. “They have always looked after us very well and that’s why in addition to the TORION, a lot of our other machinery is CLAAS, including a combine and two SCORPIONs.” The only thing missing is a tractor, but not if Philip has his way. “I really think the AXION TT looks excellent. That’s definitely on my wish list. One day…..”

“There is no shortage of pushing power. It just doesn’t give up; it would push a house down! “Reliability is a must and The TORION has shown that it is ideal for the job.”

Philip Bunting