Combines Diggin the Dirt

I have had the complete opposite experience that you just described with our header. I went from a 930 rigid to the 936D. About 1_3 of our land is palouse type hills and I have washouts, ditches, banks, uneven ground, another words, anything but flat ground. In fact, we don't have any ground that is table top flat like the Red River Valley. With our 930R, one end would being digging in the dirt while the other end would be 1-2 ft in the air. The 936D has guage wheels with air bags on the each side of the header that reduced plowing the dirt. Did the cutters have the air bags aired up and if they are does each bag have the same psi. If they aren't then its you might as well not have guage wheels on the header at all. The ability of our header to follow the ground is one of the main reasons why I like it.

Who was cutting for you BundyIJ I love the 936 myself, and rockpicker makes a good point about the gauge wheel airbags. they are useless if you dont keep them adjusted for the terrain .

I always use to think that the draper front was the way to go for those exact reasons. Now weather they were set up properly and the same pressure in the air bags I couldn't tell you. I was more concerned with doing a good job with my machine. I just got really annoyed at the fact that I had to clean up all the contour banks and gullies as the contractors were adement that they could not clean up banks. Even though the fronts are offset and not much wider on the left hand side as the 930. I think it was also a case of working in the same field with a much smaller machine.. ie a class 7 and class 6 machine working with a 9500 and they thought that they should be going faster then I was, despite what the lay of the land_conditions were. So there definatlley was some "cowboy" factor to it. One thing I did notice sitting in their machines, the visability was not as good with the draper fronts. And perhaps there is some slower response with the extra weight of the 936D front. Was that just my opionion or have other people found thatIJIJ

Sound like operator error to me or they didn't have them set up right because our header follows the ground better than the old 930 even with 6 more feet. I have our 936D mounted our CTS II which is basically a 9500 with no walkers and it is a class 6 combine. The draper headers are a hang forward more than the rigids but its not a huge difference and I didn't noticed it after running it for awhile. The gain in efficiency with the draper hugely out weighed whatever reduced visibilty there was.

I agree. Never had a Deere before but I love the draper, and its certainly not flat here in the SA Mallee. I also think its important to keep lots of pressure in the air bags.. 80-100 PSI

MacDon's 963 is great now with the new adapter. I've heard from many guys that not only do they float well laterally but also they rarely replace guards because the float allows the header go over stones without cutterbar damage. You should see it. The 973 is even better. Up to 39 feet and they go through all kinds of terrain really well.

Hmmm, Very interesting, what everybody has written about 936D fronts, as my boss has one of these, and we are going to try harvesting our "new block" (11,500 ac) in the S.A. mallee, and almost all the land there is sand hills and bumps. will have to see how we go, in regards to flexing, digging dirt and airbag pressure in the guage wheels. P.S. is the harvest in the states still goingIJ