Combines HB 42 footer

[Cornchopper]

I'm not trying to bash the Macdon but there are several parts that were built too light. One of my biggest frustrations was the way the hydraulic lines were routed to the feeder auger. After blowing them twice I replaced them with longer hoses and wrapped them in rubber which has solved the problem. I replaced all of the bearings in the rollers with what I believe are better bearings. I had to loctite all of the screws that hold the hydraulic orbit motors in place because the kept falling out. I had to put new seals in the hydraulic cylinders because they kept leaking down. I've had to weld up the frame work inside of the canvases because they cracked. I also designed heavier reel arms to hold the bats out of 12 gauge steel. My problems haven't been major, but the first two seasons with it just drove me nuts with nickle and dime stuff. The past two years I've put about 12,000 acres through it including using it to swath dryland corn and CRP and it has been pretty dependable. The sickle drive box is one of the best I have ever seen, mine has well over 20,000 acres with out failure. MacDon just needs to put a little more steel in their product and they would have an excellent header. It's just that for the price of this stuff I shouldn't have to farmerize it to make it dependable. I would be interested to see how well the Agco draper head works. I'm the last person to say anything good about John Deere, but I think their new draper looks well built. Anyway thats my two cents.

 

[Cornchopper]

I'm not trying to bash the Macdon but there are several parts that were built too light. One of my biggest frustrations was the way the hydraulic lines were routed to the feeder auger. After blowing them twice I replaced them with longer hoses and wrapped them in rubber which has solved the problem. I replaced all of the bearings in the rollers with what I believe are better bearings. I had to loctite all of the screws that hold the hydraulic orbit motors in place because the kept falling out. I had to put new seals in the hydraulic cylinders because they kept leaking down. I've had to weld up the frame work inside of the canvases because they cracked. I also designed heavier reel arms to hold the bats out of 12 gauge steel. My problems haven't been major, but the first two seasons with it just drove me nuts with nickle and dime stuff. The past two years I've put about 12,000 acres through it including using it to swath dryland corn and CRP and it has been pretty dependable. The sickle drive box is one of the best I have ever seen, mine has well over 20,000 acres with out failure. MacDon just needs to put a little more steel in their product and they would have an excellent header. It's just that for the price of this stuff I shouldn't have to farmerize it to make it dependable. I would be interested to see how well the Agco draper head works. I'm the last person to say anything good about John Deere, but I think their new draper looks well built. Anyway thats my two cents.

 

[dakota]

It doesn't really sound to bad, what you had. We had a few things, too. Our first two sets of MacDon's were used. On our first set (we run four) we had to replace some roller bearings. The second set we didn't have any bearings go out but the oil filters rubbed through by a rubber flap. last summer we had brand new headers and some bad hydraulic couplers. But all other things are mostly operator induced, like holes in the drapers or busted splice bars and bent reel structures. The reel structure only gets bend when our operators hit something. We have layed conduit pipe in each reel bat for reinforcement. That way they don't bend that easy if we hit somethinng. The frame I think is extremly tough. One of our guys hit a foundation once going 5mph. The cutter bar was bent up. We hooked it in between the pickup and the grain cart, straightened it and were able to finish the season with no problem. MacDon's field service during wheat harvest is second to none. I don't know of any other header that has a selfcontained transport system like MacDon. With a Honeybee you have to leave pieces behind when you are cutting and a JD requires a one ton pickup to pull it down the road while we hook our MacDon's behind the combine. We also cut soybeans doing just fine.

 

[johnboy]

Dakota it's service that is half the battle and if you get good service like you said you are getting with Mac Don people will tend to stay with that brand.One thing I have noticed when working beside the Case Mac Dons is that our HoneyBee with it's wider center draper and auger feed a little better in heavy crops where the Mac Dons have just chocked up with the narrower belt.john

 

[Ilnewholland]

Dakota, how good of a job can you do in soybeansIJ If your ground is rolling would it work at allIJ Can the terrain tracer work with it alsoIJ I grow a lot more beans than wheat so maybe a flex head is best for me. I would sure like to see a draper work someday. I don't think we have any here in Il. IlNH

 

[dakota]

Of course the draper heads are still rigid for now. So you lay a 36' piece of flat across your ground and you'll know what that header can cut. MacDon is working on some sort of flex head that splits the 36'in three independent pieces. I've seen an experimental out last summer. Works great but is heavier, too.

 

[dakota]

The width of the center belt totally depends on the feeder house what is behind. MacDon builts it for that certain combine. Therefor a draper head for a 9600 JD will have the widest center belt. The next size smaller is for CNH and STS and the smallest one for the Gleaner rotors. You get what you order.

 

[johnboy]

HoneyBee use a auger behind the center draper belt to narrow slightly the feed intake to suit different combine widths.john