martin, we may be interested in this header, we tryed mowing and foraging wholecrop, but the losses just arent worth it. Will the unit fit both 900 and 1050's? We have a 900 at present and will upgrade at some point to a 1050. What sort of price are we looking at- how wide is it?

2.40m or 7'10" in old money! Will fit both 900 and 1050. I'll get a price for you.

 

Martin Holden

Martin, any chance of you attatching a picture of the machine before i comment on whether i'm interested in it or not? saves wasting too much time, because i'm 85% going to sign up for a pottinger/reco-mengele.

 

Hi there Liam, just out of interest- what did you do about foragers in the end?

Biggin,

I conceded defeat for now, Martin mentioned all of the forthcoming developments for 2008 machines so i have decided to wait on those and duly took to the the welder, plated all the bottom of the spout - where it had wore thin like paper, futher up the spout at the bend and the spout cap, gave it a good winter service - replaced all the bearings in pick up cam track and the reel drive slip clutches have been replaced, a new shearbar full set of brand new blades and wound the cylinder out to its original setting and its ready to roll. - i hope!

Have made plans for a pair of demo's for Pottinger/Mengele and when i pass one working at the side of the road, i'll be looking closely!

Did you go for a 1050 in the end?

We have done much the same as you- going to keep the old 900 going for another year or two. Spent the pennies on silage clamp development and cubicle housing etc this time round!

Got the old girl prepped up today- just about ready to go. We have replaced the chute turning electric ram with a small hydraulic one- the best thing we have done to the machine in a long time- thoroughly recommend it! A bit of a pain having to reach for the spool, but its not a huge issue. Nice fast responces and it doesnt take forever to turn it from one 'lock' to the other. Where do you source youre sprockets from out of interest?  We were quoted around £170 for a 25 tooth with a 540rpm 6 spline boss in the centre of it! The plan now is to source a standard plate sprocket with a 50 ml hole in, grind the old boss out, and weld her back into the new sprocket! A bit stingy i know- but i refuse to pay that much for some sprockets- especially when we need 4! Also measured it up against the silage trailer to check it will be Ok to side load- it will be fine with about 2 ft to spare, the only thing is that it would be better is the chute end could turn downward at a slightly steeper angle. I think the answer will be to just drill another hole further down the bracket. Have you had to do any such modifications? Which side to you load off as well? Im assuming from the right? (looking from the back of the machine)

We spent our money elsewhere too. a nice new trailer.

I did the mod for the rams too, i replaced both spout slew and spout cap, using the electric spools on the TS-A, i have set up the HMS to make the spout auto reset at the flick of a switch which looks impressive but has no real importance (plus i don't use the HMS for anything else!) in doing this i have now got a longer stoke on the spout cap which results in a better downward angle.

We sidefill to the left (as you sit in the tractor cab looking forward)

On the sprocket issue, i use JF spares, but place my order in late september, the dealer puts them on a stock order and he gets better terms on them, thus gives me more discount, we tried spurious parts, the tines were ok,but non jf blades create more problems than anything

Couldn't agree with you more regarding JF blades- we also use JF tines as well. By any chance are you 'Mc-Mac' on BFF?

I tried spurious ones and they didn't shatter when hit a foreign object just bent, doing damage to the shearbar!

Do you use the standard 900 blades or the HD ones as per 1050? i'm trying them this year, just had a thought, i might weigh one to see if they are any heavier physically - maybe improve the flywheel effect - inertia and all. - i obviously paid attention in physics eh?

Sorry. i'm not mc-mac. i'll read the threads - maybe he's a clone!!

We use standard 900 blades usually- wasnt aware that there was HD versions available for the 900 to be honest! The current blades are up for change after 1st cut, so will have to look into it then. I can see youre point regarding the weight of the blades- have you got round to putting them on the scales yet? Incidently we are starting 1st cut tomorow, we tried one load this afternoon just to make sure everything was running O.K with the forager- she ran like a dream, so much easier with that bit more power on the front. (6920S 160hp) The throttle doesnt need to be welded to the floor to get any decent output anymore! What sort of output can you get with youre setup- i beleive the TSA can put 160hp down the shaft when she needs it?

Also turned the spout round to see what she will be like side loading- it seems that to load to the left ( looking from the back of the machine forward), the tractor with the trailer will need to be very close to the foraging tractor? I think we will load to the right, will be 3 into 1 so should be space for the trailer without having to run over the swaths.

The HD Blades are those as fitted in the 1050 - they are marginally heavier - no suprise that they are more expensive though.

The TS-A puts about 150hp down the shaft - and when you hit a lump it can need it all! - the powerpoost light goes on and off like a disco ball - but never loaded it enough for the revs to drop - thats the beauty of powerboost!

I think we'd be capable of clearing 40acres a day - in the right sized field and enough trailers, but the average field size we go into is 5acres, once picked 9 acres in 2 1/4 hours - in ideal conditions.

We have no problems loading to the left - we do have a big spout extension, but we do have very tall sides on the trailers, as long as the blades are in good nick it is fine but when the blow recedes on a windy day its interesting - hence my interest in flywheel machines that kicked this thread off. . . . . which now seems to have gone full cycle!

We run a 1050 with metal detecor resonable machine on the back of a 150hp vario lot better output than the old 850 we used to run (same as 900) we use non genuine baldes as genuine ones used to shatter did think about using genuine HD ones this year are they much dearer? only problem we get with th machine is when picking up short grass it balls up between the augar and the plastic feed rollers (due to metal detector) stuffing more grass just makes the ball bigger until it goes back over the top of the feed rollers or goes in and jams the machine interesed to know if anyone else has had this problem the feed rollers are alittle worn the edges are slightly rounded but £1900 for a new one has put that out of the question have thought about welding bits to the augar claas self propeleds style. if only jf would use thicker metal and bigger bearings for the same money   

Can anyone please inform me of where I could pick up a good clean JF 900? I have been looking everywhere for one but itsa impossible to find a good clean one that is worth the money. Some dealers are lookin the price of a new one for a 2005 harvester! If anyone can help me out please do so!

Is there anyone with experiance of using a trailed harvester (JF or otherwise) fitted with a direct cut header for cutting whole crop?  What is the power consumption like and are there many grain losses etc? 

We have used different contractors in the past but the headers they use are all 18' - 20' wide and don't clean the field properly.  (We actually had to take the topper into one field before ploughing it was that bad!)  I bought an old double chop a few years ago and it does a brilliant job as long as the field is properly rolled after sowing (albeit slowly at 10 - 12 acres a day) spares are also getting to be a problem to source so i was looking to up-grade to perhaps a JF 900 with a direct cut unit which i could also use to lift the grass silage with the pick-up reel attached. 

Any advice?