The view of the workplace is unbeatable

When JENZ presented the first mobile chipper with a rotating driver's cab on an HGV with a manual transmission at the Agritechnica in Hannover in November 2005, interest was considerable. 

In the case of the so-called Cobra chipper truck, the machine driver no longer needs to change places between the transport seat and the working seat. The driver's cab can be rotated by up to 160° into the right working position within a few seconds at the push of a button. The term "Cobra" is taken from this movement, which is similar to a snake's head. This machine type is available in the version as a chipper truck with a purely rotating cabin in addition to a "+" version on which the driver's cab is also adjustable for height. JENZ produces the Chippertruck Cobra in the versions HEM 583 R Cobra and HEM 593 R Cobra. The first progress reports are now available for both machine types.

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Sebastian Schmid (33) operates an agricultural private contracting company with eight employees with his father Armin Schmid in Oberriexingen. That's a small town with around 3000 residents near Stuttgart. Up to now, the company has been using two power takeoff shaft-driven JENZ mobile chippers, the HEM 581 Z and the HEM 820 Z among other machines. JENZ JENZ delivered the new HEM 583 R Cobra to Sebastian Schmid shortly before Christmas 2015. The minor starting problems with leakages due to hydraulic hoses not having been tightened enough were quickly solved. "Now its running well and I'm extremely happy with the machine as such" said Sebastian Schmid. "The workplace is very comfortable, especially if you've been dealing with a reverse drive all your life. This improved workplace was one of the reasons we purchased the machine. The view of the workplace is unbeatable. It only gets a bit tricky if you have to look up a slope." The new JENZ is almost permanently in use for woodchipping production in the area around Stuttgart and Heilbronn, 80% of this time being for in-house marketing to wood-fired power stations. However, Sebastian Schmid wouldn't want to let the HEM 583 R Cobra out of the showroom without a few suggestions. "It would be great if you could switch the rotor on again quicker." He's already had words with JENZ about this.

Hermann Scheper is a long-standing JENZ customer and has several JENZ machines in his fleet. The 50-year-old agricultural economist from Friesoythe (Cloppenburg rural district) previously used the power takeoff shaft-driven JENZ HEM 581 Z with a Claas Xerion for woodchipping. However, one of the 22 employees active in the works in the north of the country has been on the road with a HEM 593 R Cobra for the last few months in order to produce mainly woodchippings on a contract basis. "The distance we have to drive to our contracts has increased. Nowadays we sometimes have to drive up to 100 km.. A tractor-machine combination just doesn't make economic sense at this distance because we have to invoice our customers for the journey" is how Hermann Scheper justifies his additional investment in a HEM 593 R Cobra. Originally, this should have been a classic chipper truck, but customer adviser Bernd Ruhe was able to convince Hermann Scheper to wait for the "Cobra" version. This was obviously worthwhile. "Up to now it seems to have been the right decision. We have trained two employees to use the JENZ chipper, and both have had extremely positive experience up to now. The machine capacity is top, the chipping quality as well. On top of this, working in the rotating cabin is considerably more comfortable than on the tractor. As far as we can tell we have made the right decision" said Hermann Scheper. The experienced agricultural contractor also rates the new flexibility positively. "We have been awarded a few contracts on main roads and motorways now and we don't have too manoeuvre as much because we can blow out to the front, to the side and to the back." When we spoke to him about possible criticism about his new JENZ HEM 593 R Cobra, Hermann Scheper retained his typical Lower Saxon composure. "There's always something to criticise about this sort of machine. For example, the 10-meter crane is always 10 metres too short."