All I have ran is MacDon but after looking at the JD draper I would not even want to try one. Just don't like the looks of it. That and you can cut beans with a MacDon and Deeres won't go low enough. my .02
No adapter needed for the JD. But Macdons and Honey Bees are proven. I think all of the drapers on the market today work pretty well. Try asking your dealer to bring one out for a demo. If he really wants to make a sale he'll agree to it.
I do not understand the concern about adapters. Our Honey Bee has a Cat adapter on it. We never take it off, it is part of the header as far as we are concerned. That is unless the sum of the two parts are worth more than them together when it comes time to trade. JD must have some device to attach their draper to their combine, what is that part calledIJ Is the JD draper also used on their windrowers, if so they must use an adapter to attach to their combines.
I like deere, when they first came out they had some problems, but I have run them sense 01, the 04 and newer have a lower skids under cutter bar for cutting on the ground better with full plastic skid plates. Run it on 9860 and the head is not the limiting factor for speed. Just setting the head is the most important for feeding. I like that you don't need another hydraulic resevor, and no adapter plates for different combines.
The adapter is a seperate component. Macdon and Honey Bee make adapters for all makes of combines. The JD 900D drapers fit on JD combines with no adapter. They are exclusively made for JD combines. Currently Honey Bee is the only one that makes an adapter and a kit to fit their platform on the JD windrowers. But I think that might change, as the 4890_95 and the 4990_95 windrowers are becoming more popular for swathing crops such as canola. And I can't see JD standing back letting Honey Bee make all the platforms for them, when all they need is an adapter for their 900Ds. We have a 30' Honey Bee on a 4890 and so far so good. But personally, if I were in the market for a draper head for a JD combine, I'd go with the Deere. But that's me.
JD Drapers do not need to cut soybeans JD makes a head called a flex head for that purpose and it does a better job cutting beans that any kinda a draper header no matter what color you run. There are guys around here that are trying to figure out how to run a JD 635 Hydraflex on an 8010 just so they can have a decent head for cutting beans unlike the piece of crap macdon draper CaseIH is painting red and selling 8010 owner to cut beans with.
watch out for the deere heads-- looked at four heads this year didn't know the year of the heads but 3 out of 4 ofthe heads had bent frames heard they had little problem. also thier transport isn't as nice. running macs now and will stay that way.
I didn't say there was anything wrong with a macdon draper I just said they are not designed to cut beans I don't care if they flex in the middle or not they still do not "hug" the ground like a flex head now if you are talking about harvesting wheat that is a whole new ball game there you cannot beat a draper header as a flex head will work but when harvesting lots of straw those big auger header just don't feed the crop in even.