Review: Nevada MB200 Tridem tanker

By: Mark Fouhy

Date: 10.03.2023

With fertiliser costs rising dramatically, there has never been a more important time for effectively and efficiently managing effluent on farm. With this in mind, it seemed like an opportune time to take a closer look at the Nevada MB200 Tridem tanker

To see the Tridem working, we headed to Ross and Blake Clark's dairy farm in Taranaki, New Zealand, where the new Nevada MB200 Tridem is currently operating.

Until purchasing the new Nevada tanker Ross had just relied on travelling irrigators to manage effluent.

Having installed a new lined pond on one property with a Nevada electric stirrer, the pond is down to the bottom third and starting to get a bit thick for the travelling irrigators to handle.

So, the addition of the Nevada Tridem made a lot of sense, particularly with two properties to service. The thicker effluent has proved no problem for the Nevada tanker at filling time, particularly with the turbo-fill arm in action.

Although it seemed to take a little while to get going initially, I was impressed with a fill time of under four minutes to fill the 20,000-litre tank. Time-filling, I think will be similar to spreading time.

Operation is straightforward, thanks to the easy-to-use electronic remote. The arm valve for spreading and steering axle lock are all controlled by the remote.

Ross and Blake have found spreading at four to six kilometres per hour achieves the desired application volume per hectare.

The Rainwave spreader is designed to apply between one and 10mm at less than seven kilometres per hour, easy on the tractor, driver, and tanker in rough paddocks.

The dual Rainwave applicator is standard equipment on the Nevada Tridem tankers (single Rainwave on single and tandem axle models).

I would estimate spread width between 10 and 12 metres with the dual version. The growing cost of fertiliser makes it more important than ever to get the best out of nutrients.

Due to the cost of hydrant systems, traditionally, a lot of these nutrients have been used over a portion of the farm. The efficiency offered by the Nevada MB200 allows for spreading over the whole farm, wherever the nutrients are needed most.

Along with the farm we were on for test day, Ross has another property up near the mountain with 600 cows. Consistent rainfall here is guaranteed – and a lot of it – to manage this, they have herd homes to save damaging pasture and wasting feed.

Feeding maize and silage at the herd home, cow waste is collected in the bunkers beneath. Until purchasing the new Nevada tanker, cleaning out the bunker involved lifting out all the concrete slats to get a machine in to clean out and spread as a semi-solid.

Once the job at the first farm is done, the tanker will be heading to the other farm to start on the herd homes. Adding water and stirring should give a spreadable slurry consistency.

Also, for farm management, they won't lose the use of the herd home for a week while the clean-out is taking place.

Spreading

Nevada continually keeps up with spreading technology and offers a number of different spreader attachments for its slurry tankers. If you want dribble bars, trailing shoe, or injector systems, these can be ordered.

However, all Nevada tankers are now fitted with the Rainwave applicator system. This offers most of the benefits of these other applicator systems, with minimal moving parts, so hopefully, less maintenance and repair.

Operating at low pressure, the Rainwave system produces large droplets spread through an oscillating fan pattern to achieve an even spread with minimal drift.

This also takes care of some of the issues associated the older splash plate system, which generally involves more smell and less accuracy with application.

Build quality

Using a full-frame chassis design, load stresses and weight are minimised to save wear on the tanker and tractor combination. A double dip galvanising process is used to keep the tank from rusting, inside and out.

A clear coat is applied to give a finish that is going to keep it looking good for years – good advertising for contractors.

The tank is made with implosion rings on the joins, along with baffles for additional safety, to help prevent surging and keep the fully loaded tanker safer while towing.

The large rear hatch opens to allow you to hose out the inside if you do get any build-up in the bottom. Six large 550/60R-22.5 tyres carry the weight of a full load with no problem.

Sinking into soft paddocks is not an issue, and these tyres also help make the tanker easier to tow. Sitting on heavy-duty leaf springs and with drawbar suspension, it handles the load with ease and is easier on the tractor.

Front and rear steering axles make the eight-metre tanker manoeuvrable and prevent damaging pasture scuffing tyres when turning. Also, since it's a large tanker, you’re doing fewer loads up and down races wearing them out.

Pump

Quality Italian pumps are used on all Nevada machinery. An oil-cooled pump on the test machine has been chosen to handle pumping and sucking the thick slurry expected of it, without overheating, along with the turbo fill to make the job a little easier.

The central auto-fill arm should push any solids towards the rear when filling, as opposed to silting up over time.

As I mentioned earlier, fill time is a mere four minutes or less. The one little bugbear I had with filling was the length of the hose for the filling pod, which is not a major and may be down to just changing set-up to make it work better.

Summary

Nevada is the not-so-secret weapon that guys in the know have for slurry handling in New Zealand and beyond. Whatever you need in the line of slurry management, Nevada has it covered.

The range of tankers delivers from a single axle 6000-litre machine to the largest Tridem triple axle unit of 37,000 litres, providing options for smaller farms through to the largest, along with contractor spec machines.

The Tridem test machine proves its worth as a valuable all-round machine with good capacity, but not so large as to be problematic to manage. Electronic remote along with auto-fill arm with turbo filler make it an efficient option to shift a lot of loads in quick order.

About Nevada

Beginning life as Midwest Machinery back in 1988, with a focus on supplying sales and service of general farm machinery, the business began specialising more in dairy effluent machinery with increased demand in this area.

Since rebranding as Nevada the business has grown to be one of New Zealand's leading effluent management specialists.

Nevada originally imported equipment for New Zealand farmers and now also manufactures components in Taranaki and has been exporting to Australia since 2015.

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