Combines converting sts to IH head IJ

Call Clark Machine in Howard S.D. they will make you a green head with C.I.H. row units of what ever size you want there heads look and work better than factory heads.

This outfit makes Bish adapters to put just about any header on any combine.

You could also put on Pixall or loewen rollers that will do a better job of cutting. With no-till I prefer my stalks standing as residue piles tend to lead to uneven depth control while planting.

You will never achieve a quality row-unit stalk chop with a knife roller system that has interlocking or overlapping knife rolls (i.e. Deere, New Holland, Gleaner, Massey, Challenger and now CaseIH). Unfortunately, CaseIH had to adopt the New Holland head when the two companies joined. So, CaseIH no longer has the advantage of its traditional 10 series knife roll corn head, that did have "knife-to-knife" chopping action for quality chopping performance. Interlocking _ overlapping knives have limited chopping ability due to their overlapping rotation. Overlapping knives result in excessive crimping in dry stalk conditions and very poor chopping in high moisture conditions, and require more power to operate _ pull, causing an excessive use of fuel, no matter the conditions. One thing to note also, with the light weight design of the STS's feederhouse drive gearbox, operating at top end system speeds will only result in premature gearbox failure (((I do not understand why Deere has not changed to some sort of inline belt or direct drive type feederhouse _ header drive system. How long as this gear box system been causing problemsIJ Possibly since the 66, 77, 8820 daysIJ))). The only factory offered and supported knife-to-knife configured cornhead is the lexion corn head, and they can be fitted to a Deere using an adapter. The lexion head is very well built, capable of withstanding the majority of ground conditions due to its heavy-duty frame and row unit deaign, flexing row unit drive lines via dual chain couplers, suspended table auger via center carrier bracket _ bearing and auto-contour system. The only other reliable head on the market to offer similar performance is a non-chopping Geringhoff corn head, but they are expensive.

Speaking of the Geringoff, you could also go with a corn head called the Drago. They offer both chopping and non chopping versions that are very similar in price to Deere heads unlike the Geringhoff.

I believe Deere is now offering a fixed single-speed direct drive setup for the 9660, 9760 and 9860. It still uses the same reverser gear box, but does away with the variable speed sheaves. I'm not a combine tech, so I'm not sure what backshaft speed you end up with, but if you want maximum head speed, you overdrive your corn head in the chain boxes when using it. I think the speed is probably similar to what you get when you have the variable-speed set-up adjusted as slow as it will go, in order to keep platforms and flex-heads in one piece, as we've found that the knife drives simply don't like backshaft speeds above 500 rpm. As far as reverser life goes, it can be dramatically increased by using a good synthetic lube and by installing at least one oil cooler to the system, which increases lube capacity by about a quart. Some of our bigger combines around here even have two coolers on them. Most of our problems come when pushing a 12-row head hard in high-yielding corn (220+ bushel). I'd agree that they need to come up with a better reverser system, as there is no way that even the heavy-duty boxes are going to stand up to 16-row Deere heads if and when they show up on the scene. As far as the knife rolls go, a lot of guys in this area install the Pixall rolls for better stalk cutting. It's not too much of an issue though, as there's a lot of ridge-till here and most of the guys go back and chop_shred stalks after harvest.