Combines Anyone have any more information on new flexheads

I fuss about the skid shoes at every farm show I attend, including St louis. The new head looks like an 8000 head with full length fingers and a SCH driver on the bigger heads. Sorry, no changes to the skid plates. I told the rep that we need to cut closer to the ground and got the standard answer, it cuts low enough. BS. I measured the new head and it was 2 inches from the floor to the sections. I told the rep that lots of farmers were complaining on this site and we should have the option of cutting 1 inch if needed, and he walked away. I'm sure he was in sales, but how do we get the engineers to change thisIJ

I agree with you 100%, i have complained to Agco also, from the dealer on up and with the exception of the dealer also agreeing that Agco has the poorest flexhead on the market the brains at the top at Agco don't listen to us, they should by now know that there flexheads are the poorest as far as feeding and cutting short beans goes but again nothing has been done, very sad. I only wish i could mount a new John Deere flexhead on our new R65, now that would be a cutting machine and we would seldom need an air reel either, it seems Agco is pushing us to look elsewhere next time around when its time to buy another new machine.

I believe the Agco head would satisfy me if it could cut closer without having to tilt the cutterbar forward, as when I try this, all the weight is on the front of the skidplates and it starts pushing at sundown. Also , when you tilt the cutterbar, the guard points are pointing downward and spear cornstalks or cobs causing even more pushing. The skids need to be changed to cut closer with the weight on the rear of the skids. Someone posted before how they modified the skids and could shave the ground, I think a dealer. I would like to see how he does this. Also, how are the upside down SCH systems workingIJ Are they causing any problemsIJ How much closer can they cutIJ

Thats the problem we have had also, we have had our skid shoes modified to cut lower, basically what is done is at the front of the skid shoe where the curving lip is we cut off about 1_2" and then the mounts for the arms moved back some, not sure how much though, the skid shoes are then running completely flat on the ground instead of on the front as you say, it works well and Agco was out to our farm taking pictures and they were impressed but its very frustrating that Agco has done nothing when they made this new head, i was really hoping Agco would smarten up and do this change, they know it works and very well. we also run the SCH knife with the new roller guides, i would highly recommend the roller guides, makes the knife work so much smoother and one person can slide out a 25' knife with ease and there is no wear on the back of the knife bar either, nothing shows any wear after 2500 acres except normal knife sections. If you want more information let me know and i can put you in touch with the fellow that does this modification, he now does it in a kit form, it works well. The main reason we went with this modification is to cut lower and shave the ground and also our last three machines don't have the ability to tilt the feeder house or the knife, it won't completely stop the pushing but 95% better in our opinion.

Got a 25'8000 series on a 62,has SCH bar,can't see where it cuts or feeds worse than a Deere. Cut beans that were 18" tall and it fed and cut well.