I have harvested corn planted in 12s with an 8 row many times. It works well, when the planter is operated accurate enough. If you can see your guess rows in the middle of the field, it will not work well. If you only see guess rows at the end, where you turned the planter around, you will be ok. You will get a lot more corn picked in a day, if you have a bigger cornhead and keep the corn away from the combine. The 9600 will even handle a twelve row, but the clean grain elevator is the limit. I've never bee around a cornhead without oilbath. The covers are quite a pain when they have to be removed for repairs. Check the bearings in the oilbath. If they go out, the drive shaft will break and they are not cheap. The row units have been mentioned already. The play in the gearbox may tell you about their condition. Try to move the stalk rolls against each other and compare the play to the other gearboxes. The highest wear points are the stalk rolls and the deck plates. On an older heads the floor in the middle under the auger might be worn through. The gathering chains are often worn out, too. There are different sprocket combinations for the row unit chain and the auger chain. I prefer the auger to run slow, so it doesn't pitch the ears out of the middle. The row unit drive I prefer to run one to one or slower. Hydraulic deck plates are nice, but I never thought they were essentialy neccessary. Helpfull is a wedge kit, if you are fighting briddle dry plants, what I would expect in your area. If you get an eight row, keep a close eye on your reverser gear box. They have a tendency to burn up. Check your oil daily. When it starts getting black and smells burned, change it right away and put synthetic oil in it. Grease the zerks daily possibly with synthetic grease. Adjust your variable speed belt so it runs straight with the idler pulley hardly doing anything. That keeps the belt slipage to a minimum and the gear box running cooler. Anymore questions, just drop me a line: ralfnew@yahoo.com I will surely try to help you.