Comet launches compact tractor mount

Italy-bassed Comet has installed its Xiraffe platform on a small 4x4 11 HP articulated tractor, designed to “go where no other platform can”. The machine also has a special gearboxes reducer and various types of tyres.

Xiraffe offers a 12m working height with a lateral outreach of about 5m. It has a double pantograph boom with a telescopic arm and a basket capacity of 150kg. The manufacturer is also presenting a 14m version with around 7m outreach.

Comet said this new equipment brought the company exclusively into market niches. “The applications are varied,” said a company spokesperson, “From the maintenance of golf courses, maintenance of telephone and electrical lines and to what seems to be an interesting area for this machine, the harvesting of fruit.”

So far the company has delivered several units to Saudi Arabia and Jordan, where they are being used on date plantations, and allow farmers access to extreme off road areas. The small basket can also fit among the foliage of the trees to allow the collection of the fruit.

The special configuration of the spider stabilizers allows the platform to be used in any location, such as ditches and steep slopes.

The picture show the machine being used in the Amazon forest of Peru. Specifically in plantations to pick oil palm fruit. It follows the first tests of the product last year and replaces ladders and other equipment in the forest.