Combines 800 series flex head

I went from an 525 to an 830 two years ago I think the 830 is a smother feeding head. The first year I didn't know how to narrow the feeder opening on the header. Someone on this site told me how and this year only used the reverser a coupel of times. With an 72 you should realy be able to cut a lot of acres in a day. Tim

We have run a 500 series head on a R52, when we bought the machine in 1997 the first thing we did was to buy an air reel, now this helped greatly but still didn't feed as good as the Deere 922 head that we were running with an older model 9600. We traded last fall to a R62 with the same comments as you were told, greater feeding and the likes BUT it really isn't that much better, yes it is somewhat better but that is due to the larger feederhouse opening on the 62, anyway back to the air reel for the 820 head also. We also tried a new Deere rotary combine, i belive it was the smaller of the two 9650 and with the new full fingered 925 it fed perfectly WITHOUT an air reel. This has been our beef for years about the Gleaner 500 and now 800 series flex heads, i have said for years to our dealer that Agco should buy a Deere flex head and make one just like it. It may sound like i am picking the Agco heads apart but in order for these heads to feed half decently they have to have an air reel where as with the 900 series flex head an air reel isn't required as it feeds so much better. I have told our dealer to find out a price on an adaptor and putting a deere head on our 62, it may look kind of odd but then we would be completely happy with a great machine and a great head too.

Mike: The 800 head we have is a 830, On a R72 with lateral tilt. Due to the lenght of the table I would recommend a Keho or equivalent air reel, if you have any short crop to cut. I have had a structural problem ,this head has sagged to the point we were raising the auger everyday. It was a very early production one an Agco has replaced the main beam, this has corrected the problem. The auger still barks when the sun get at one side of it when I start.I would sugest reinforcing the woblebox skidplate as soon as you get it,it will save a lot of headache in the future. As far as mph Ist and 2nd gear are now redundant . In three years I have never slipped the cluch on the auger. (hmm maybe I should check that).This head is a great improvment and almost unchokeable .Good luck with whatever desicion you make.

We have used a 30' 800 flex for 2 years now on a R72 and you will be very impressed. We had a 530 and the 800 head feeds a lot better than that one did. We tried out a 9650 STS with their new 30 foot head and it couldn't keep up with the 72. It was a nice smooth running rig but if you started to push it the floor of the cab would start to vibrate quite a bit. As far as the feeding I felt the 800 series fed better because of that bigger flighting. I don't think all those fingers are a good idea anyway. Its just more things to break down. We had a rock go in this head when we were using it and the first thing that happened was the rock broke off the finger and then when I tried to reverse the rock out it peeled off the service cover that lets you get inside to replace the fingers, and this was a finger way out towards the end of the head. Then we couldn't get it to reverse out so we had to get a big pry bar and persuade it out that way. With the bigger flighting you don't have this problem. With the larger flighting you have more capacity than with the smaller flighting. You will also find that you will have a lot less trouble with the straw going over the top of the auger and causing problems.

Mike - We run an 800 flex head on our R52. This was our 2nd season with it after trading an older 300 Series flex head. We have never owned a 500 series nor have we any experience with the Deere finger head. The biggest gripe we had with the ol' 300 was short crop piling up right behind the cutterbar - it was too long of a distance between the cutterbar and auger. The 800 is a vast improvement over the older ones but still not perfect. We looked into the $air$ $reels$ and decided they were too costly for the number of acres we cut. But this year we fastened a 3" O.D. hose right behind the cutterbar and I will tell you that it made all the difference in the world. We cut about 500 acres of bean ranging from waist high down to only about 4" tall and only plugged the feederhouse twice - once was operator error due to not lowering the reel when he got to shorter beans. The short crop drops onto the hose allowing the reel to sweep it into the auger. As I mentioned, I've not seen the Deere head work, but no matter how good it is, I would not fear putting this 800 in the same field. We cut all fall as fast as the cutterbar could cut. Now, having said that, compare the cost difference between the 800 and Deere's head and keep in mind what a previous poster said about the increased probability of breaking those fingers off. The hose can be added to the head for next to nothing if you have a milk_cheese plant somewhere nearby - they always have old hose laying around and the only thing you'd have to buy then is some 3" conduit clamps to hold it on. Also, I don't believe the regular Deere heads are any better then anyone else's. A neighbor of ours who runs a 9500 has said they have troubles in short beans same as everyone around - except us now! I will garantee you will be able to push that 830 as fast as the sickle can cut those beanies with an R72 behind her and a hose on the head. If you have any questions, email me and I'll be glad to help you out any way I can. I should also mention that I must give tbran the credit for this mod - he was the one to try it out first and report the great results on this forum. Good luck! Tom langan

Mike, I have had some experience with the 800 series header, but more with the 900F. Only my opinion, but I found them to be evenly matched performance-wise. A question...have you considered converting your 920 to a 920FIJ Best of luck with your new GlEANER. Joe

I don't have experience with the 800 head but I would verify Toms comments on the hose behind the cutterbar. Comments from a reliable dealer from his customers has been to the effect of why isn't the hump kit standard equipmentIJ I'm installing the kit on mine this winter.

Our current Deere head is not a 900 series and I was told only 900 series can be converted, besides I can't see spending the cost to update an old head.

Tom- Help me with the benefits of a hose or this "hump" kit I have read about on this forum. Usually we have no problem with short beans. The problem we have is taller beans standing up in front of the augur and behind the real while the real beats the crap out of them. The benefits we saw of the Deere head was the ability to pull the crop under and behind the augur. We are hoping the deeper flighting on 800 will take the crop in instead of floating in front of the augur.

You will not see this problem with the 800 head because of the deeper flighting. The straw just just kind of disappears under that big flighting. We put the Johnson Bar on one of our heads and Gleaners version which is the raised feather sheets on the other one. From what I have seen the Johnson Bar is the better buy. I think this hose thing will do the same job for a lot less money. I haven't tried it so I can't say for sure though.