The LT3604 is the first articulated tractor from Chinese construction machinery manufacturer LiuGong.
LiuGong is well known for its construction machinery. It is less well known that it is fast developing a range of agricultural machines that already includes wheel loaders, and since last year a couple of self-propelled sugar cane harvesters.
LiuGong’s entry into the tractor business is only a few years old: in 2020, to be exact, the Chinese manufacturer embarked on a strategy aimed at producing mid- and high-end machines characterised by the full integration of mature engineering technologies with fully independent intellectual property rights and particularly suitable for heavy-duty applications, being able to operate in even extreme working conditions.
The details are limited but the articulated LT3604 is believed to share many of its components with the firm’s heavy-duty wheel loaders, including the redesigned cab.
LiuGong Agricultural Machinery Co and Cummins have a long history of cooperation through its joint engine business. Called Guangxi Cummins, its blocks power a wide range of LiuGong wheel loaders, excavators, forklifts and mining trucks.
The company also has plenty of experience with the 360hp (265kW) Stage IV L9 engine in its wheel loaders, but this is the first time that it has been planted in a LiuGong tractor. Power from the block is transmitted to the wheels via a hydrostatic transmission. The tyres are all of the size 710/70R 38.
LiuGong also showed the hybrid LT3504 (350hp) at the Chinese show, plus, the 820TE electric wheel loader.
