I agree with tbran - length doesn't matter, girth does! Even up here in WI! We tried a smaller 2 1_4" OD and it helped some, but still had a few problems. 3" is perfect - we also cut a few acres of really short beans like you described - no problems with beans falling back off the front. I thing the problem with a smaller hose (and I'm talking about an 800 flex - others may have different diameter auger) is we could only bring our reel back to the point where it would hit the auger. The geometry just wasn't there to get those reel fingers close enough to that smaller hose like with the 3". We can lower reel to where the sickle would clip teeth, but because of the arc of the reel, it wasn't close enough to the hose just behind the cutterbar. Maybe a smaller hose would work on a 300 or 500, I don't know. Good luck!