Combines 9000 series Agco bean platform

Do you have AGCO's raised feather sheets on this headerIJ Also try changing the pitch of your reel tines back so they will tend to carry the beans closer to the auger. Run reel back closer. Do these in that order and it should feed well. No need to switch brands. The AGCO flex head has some very good points to it.

What are the good points from your point of viewIJ Just curious what u think.

The big auger for one. large, steel retractable fingers in auger. Cutterbar suspension and flotation via adjustable coil springs on parallel linkage arms is another. The head can be adjusted to float very lightly in sticky mud or with high levels of surface residue. Header is pretty sturdily built as well. Choice of 3 good cutterbars, including the SCH. Stainless steel feather sheets.

I have had a 9850 since 2000 and I hate that SOB. The large auger is the biggest problem with that head because it leads to so many other problems like yours....feeding. The big auger was put in to quote "handle high yielding crops better" Bull n$%@. I had an old piece of junk 1859 before the 9850 in 60bu beans in 1999 and it "handled" the crop just fine. The large auger has increased the size of that dead spot just over the cutterbar, leading to the bunching problem. So what does Agco do, gives you the useless feathering sheets to put on. What a disaster those are. If you plug the head or feederhouse with one of those bunches, (yes it will still bunch under certain circumstances even with the sheets)and you reverse the feederhouse, the clump of crop catches the feather sheet and flips that up in the air allowing trash_crop to get under the sheet, not allowing it to go back down all the way, and you feeder fingers start playing it like a tin drum set. Now your out cleaning_sorting out that mess. I combine in north central WI where our beans don't get really tall on average like many places. When I asked for the reason for the big auger and they told me why, I asked "So you built a head that only feeds the perfect cropIJ" I got no reply. So, what to do nowIJ Well, "just put on an air reel" they tell me. GREAT, I'll just go and spend another $7000 to make your brand new head feed the "poor quality crop" that I have to combine. Well, I was young and dumb, and I did put on the air reel. What a gift from heaven that is. It feeds the crop in evenly and I took off the feather sheets to get that extra crap off the platform. My neighbor got a brand new 900 series deere head without air reel when I got my 9850, and I help him take his beans off so we ran side by side. That head fed three times as good as mine.(before air reel) This year they traded their 900 for the 600 hydraflex and that one feeds good too without air reel. Also, other neighbor has 1020 IH head without air and it feeds three times as good as mine did. Wow, that felt good. Everyone should vent once in a while. Good for the heart. Anyway, I will be reasonable and say that there are redeeming qualities to the head as stated earlier. The flex action is great and the large feeder fingers are nice. Add the air reel(which I would do to any flex head as it does reduce header loss) and its not bad. I think I would rather have a Young's modified 1020 w_air reel on my XP in a perfect world. Good luck, Jesse

Set the head and they feed fine.Reel and cutter bar setting make the head work.Cutting 12-18" beans,very green stemmed too with an Agco head and not having feeding problems,and it doesn't have an air reel either.Make sure the auger is set back and to the floor.

Have the same problem when I cut WITH the rows. No problem when I cut at an angle, all makes seem to cut beans at an angle in this part of the world, (central MN).

Agreed. Don't be afraid of making fine reel position adjustments several times in a round. Combining is not a spectator sport; you should be constantly observing feeding characteristics and adapting to them. JD and CaseIH heads are no different. Without a properly set reel to guide the crop in, they are all useless.

I have put a 800c flex head onto 8780xp and it seems to work okay-- i was told that feather sheets were mostly to keep smaller sized rocks from going into machine as easy. 800c and 9850 heads are basically same head i believe.

So, for a bunch less than the cost of the air reel itself, you could have parked the agco platform and bought a decent 900 series jd and an adapter plate and had the same result with no fan to drive and maintainIJ My neighbor has a new 620F deere and it does not cut one bit closer nor feed any better than my ten year old 920 non full finger. My buddy with an MF 9115 also cuts just as close as anything else, too. Just my observations.. maybe I am missing something. Remember, safety first at all times. GS

I didn't buy an air reel. After talking to guys here and on other discussion boards I have made adjustments to my agco and today it was like running a different head. Guess I don't have to spend any more money at all.