Combines Cutterbar repairs improvements

I have a Tiger Jaws cutter bar on a 15 ft. head.It has 4 prong hold downs covering one half of the guards.Has plenty of flex and cuts well with minimal wear.

Turning every other section upsidedown will really help if you have a wide cutterbar it evens out the forces. With the beveled teeth on a section it forces the bar down while cutting turning sections over makes sickle 'float' better between the guards.

The problem you describe has been a pet peeve of mine since I bought my first combine. A new sickle will always cut well but after a few acres much of the cutting is done by the hold-downs instead of the guards. I have long believed new sickles are bent from the beginning. Either they are bent before installation at the factory or some clod picks up the head with a forklift and bends sickle and skid plates. Cutting problems dont show up until the sickle wears in a little. I have thought of buying a replacement sickle that comes in sections that you bolt together. At the very least, you can throw away any sections that are bent before going through the time and effort of installing them on a head. Every other section upside down sounds promising but I am plain running out of patience trying to re-engineer the sickle industrys problems. Tom in MN

I just got done replacing my 2 point sickle with a whole new standard cutterbar. I just got fed up with that other setup that had to be adjusted every day and still didn't cut good. Everyone around here has gone back to the old style cutter bars on all makes of combines, guess I held out longer than most.

the best thing you can do is put on a new easy cut system. Its just like the new heads have.Iput one on 3 years ago its the best thing Iever tried. I had Crary before.