Combines SCH ON THE UNDERSIDE

Hopefully today will be the day of judgement . The beans were ready yesterday but the neighbour had hay to do and that took precedence. As you saw my knives are tipped all the way up and we will see if I have to tip them down some for clipping closer. later, Dave

We pull a DMI 45'Crumbler behind a 43.5' DMI field cult. and it makes a smooth planting bed. Baseball sized rock get pushed down flush with the ground. I also built a rock guard at works with the air reel. It is made of 2 peices of round tubing. One is a larger dia.(1-1_4" x 8" I think) and it slides over the smaller(1" I think). They overlap about 3". This allows the head to flex anyway it needs to. Flaten out 1 end of each pipe and drill a 3_8"s hole off center in it. If you want the guard to be raised, turn the pipes over. I made l brackets the hold the pipes up around 3". The l brackets are held to the back of the cutter bar with the bolts that hold the skid plates(Replace factory with longer bolts). This allows air to pass over and under the guard to blow in loose beans. lastly, paint all rock guard parts Allis-Chalmers Orange and go to the field. These 2 thinks should allow us to run with the SCH up side down and still leave it tipped down. Hopefully we can get by with this as it sure is doing a great job.

Combined about 15 acres today and never have cut as close with any head I've ever owned_used. Some of our ground is not packed so there we may have to tip them up some and run the head lighter to allow the head to move over stones. later Dave

I also pull a packer behind the drill for all of my conventional beans..but I also do about 800 acres of beans as custom work...so I do run into quite a few unpacked fields with rocks...I may have to tilt the tips up even more... one thing I have noticed so far is that the SCH guards (and sections) seem to be able to handle rocks better that the standard Agco guards.

OK boy's you got my interest up now!! We harvest lentils over here and we have 1500 acre's of the little suckers to get this year and after reading all you post's on the topic of putting the cutter sickle upside down Im still trying to picture what you guy's have done! Are you putting the sickle on the bottom side of the cutter barIJ or are you just tuning the sickle section's overIJ or are you putting the knife guards upside down and then putting the sickle in the on the bottom side of the cutter barIJ A few picture would answer a thousand questions please!!! any chance of getting someone with a digital camera to get some shot's pleaseIJ then post them on the hyper mods web page. Please, pretty please!!!! Rolf

Rolf, here is a link to a company that sells the SCH cutter bar_sickle and drive units here in the US. Think SCH is made in Germany. The sickle sections have the cutting edge the top and bottom alternatively. Scrapeing up lentils can be a real drag. I know folks that just refuse to grow them because they are so had to cut. One guy was planning on using a 22 foot swather that dumped the swath on the end and them he puts two windrows together. A swather cuts them real well, but it also shatters a lot of them which end up on the ground. This fellow then uses a pickup header on the combine to pickup the two windrows so he can cruise while harvesting a 44 feet of lentils with his big green machine. He just has to hope that the wind does not blow after the lentils are in the windrow or he will have his lentils in the nearest ditch or obstruction.

Rolf, I did this to a 8025 head . I used my existing knife and pulled it out and put the sections on the bottom of the bar (they are on the top now). I reversed all of the guards,(turned upside Down) and on the drive end used 2 of the open top instead of 1. The last guard at each end has to have the tip filed back considerably and may need some weld if you file to much off. The right end you will have to remove the small skid and rebend to fit the upside down guard. The third guard from the drive end may need a small amount off of the bottom (side) if the drive runs to close. The knife wear pads will now be on the bottom insted of top. I used a heavy three point hitch bushing to take up the space where the drive fits on the drive head. Mine was slightly less then .75" to make the two pieces level and the knife ran free as before. Doing this allows you to leave the lock nut on top as before. I ran it for five minutes and it ran as new. Doing this allows you to cut closer without tipping your knives. I feel when you tip your knives you can cut closer but it limits your speed as a flat knife seems to cut better. I hope I did not leave out anything. As I said different heads may needs less or more modifications. This head now will literally shave the ground. lOl Dave

G'Day John Yep same sort of thing over here! lot's of guy's refuse to grow them because of their height!! or they get the contractors in to do it for them!!! plus the fact that we are growing them on only 9 to 10 inch's rain over the last few years they don't grow real high!! and there would be no way I would windrow any of our lentil crops here because of that and wind. It's bad enough with canola and as soon as they get varieties that don't shatter as bad as the current ones I will look in to them again as I would like to direct head all our crop's. As to out lentil's the last couple of years we have had some good success with cutting them nice and low, (this site has been a g0d send for getting our machine working really good in thing's like lentils!) about third to half the height of a (international scale measurement system called the COKE CAN!!!) but if we can do better I'm all ears to any suggestions Rolf

Any chance of some pictures pleaseIJ Do you have the four fingered guard'sIJ or AGCO's two fingered guardIJ We are using the Crary four fingered guard with every second finger cut shorter and it seem to run fine the right way up, don't know how it would go up side down!! also what sort of hold down's are you using as we have the spring loaded ones at the moment!!! I would suppose that you must have the flat type!IJ Thanks for your info and thanks for sharing you idea. Rolf PS: heres a web sit for a web shot page that might help you to post some pictures!!!!

Rolf, These are the SCH knives which cut on the top and bttom of the guards. These knives work well right side up but give you the ability to cut flat and closer upside down. I don't know if this move will affect their service life or not! The dealer where I bought the combine says most new headers go out with the SCH knives. They are two fingered . As well because every other section is upside down this gives them the ability to run without hold downs. I have never used Crary knives but I have used most other makes and these are my preference by a long shot. Any other knife I have used would not have worked upside down (even Kwik Kut). I have a digital and will see if I can get something but I have never posted on a web site with it. later Dave