Combines Autoguide strip till 12 plant 16 spray 36 combine 12

As stated earlier propulsion of big heavy equipment consumes way more fuel and therefore becomes less efficient. With fuel prices going the way they are it will become obvious that staying small is better....just as a small car is more efficient than an SUV. Predictions are that the cost of drying alone will become more than the crop(corn) is worth. Back to the 1 row cornpicker and corncribsIJ

Forever-Red, I agree completely. I also believe that ground-speed causes a lot more "stress wear" on both the operator and the machine. Ruts, bumps, wash-outs, etc. etc. are all magnified by ground-speed. When we bought our 1660 we debated between a 17.5', 20' and 25' header. Dad wanted to the smaller header so we could move without taking it off, I argued for the 25' because you would be going 6+ mph in thin wheat to try and keep the machine full. We went with the 25 and we can keep the machine plenty full at around 4 mph. Much more pleasant to cut that way I think. Chuck

I'm not going to dispute going slower saves horsepower for other things. But it seems to me there is always a ratio of hp per gallon of fuel used to how much work is actually done. Its always how much horsepower do you get out of that single gallon of diesel. It takes a certain amount of hp to run the combine, run the header, remove the grain from the tank, run the rotor, etc. The logic is all there, but I haven't even seen a 16 row corn head for an 8010. We ran a 14 row corn head on 26 inch spacing for several years on a 2388. I understand the logic of going slower, but putting that into a measurable savings of hp because of speed savingsIJ Add in the 16 row head is going to take more hp to turn over. I'm just not sure its that much. In the end, whether its an SUV or an econo wagon pulling a 12,000 lb boat up over a mountain pass. . .they are probably going to use more or less the same amount of gas.

Yeah but timeing is everything If you can get your crops out quicker you will save more. Kinda like Planting..The Faster you can get it in the better you usually are. I know some years all of our corn would have been awesome if you could plant it in a week. Would you agree a faster harvest would be betterIJ

"Better" is a relative term. What is better for one usually is worse for another.The use of too much fertilizer,chemicals and artificial drying is good for farming temporarily but generations to come will have to pay for the enviromental cleanup in years to come. The Concorde jet got the job done faster too...it is no longer!