300 chopper

Talked to a feller today bout a case 300 copper. Supposed to be in pretty good shape, the problem is it has 1000 rpm pto. What would it take to change it to 540 or can my 400 be changed to 1000? I'll be going to look at it soon and would like to know what I'm in for.

jon, I have a 300 ops and parts books I will look and see if they give any insight to that, I just assumed they were all 540 but know I had better look at mine and see, as to the 400 pto I am not sure but I have the gears and shaft to convert a 730/830/930CK's or 1030 to 1000

How much work is it to change? Is that something that you could do yearly? Not sure I would want to do that, but maybe.

Jon,
That chopper was built by IH. Their model was a 350?
Before Case started marketing it, we got an experimental unit. After it arrived we assembled it, and once we were ready to try it, Two engineers showed up, plus our territory service rep and the branch service manager. The engineers stayed in the" Case Suit" in dad's house, and the local Case people commuted.
The first day we hooked it to the 932 up on the farm, and chopped corn most of the day with a 2 row head.
The second day we took it to another uncles farm. He had a 830EH with com. Back then we didn't have forage wagons with high sides and roofs.
We were on a pretty good hill and the 830 had all it wanted powering the chopper and pulling the wagon. The engineers were impressed how the 830 was able to maintain PTO speed and adjust to the crop and rolling slopes. Dad, I, our teritory rep, and one of the engineers were walking behind the wagon on one of the steeper slopes, and the engineer was telling us how the cutterhead design could produce a consistant cut length, in all conditions.
He no more than got those words out of his mouth and a peice of cob about tennis ball size came out of the spout totally cleared the back of the forage wagon, and hit him square in his forehead. I will never forget that moment, and get a laugh every time I think if it..
Jon, as far as your question about PTO speed, the right angle gear box may be reversable as to input and output, but I am not sure. That was a long time ago.
Loren

Very interesting story. My dad pulled one behind his 830 eh and did a lot of local custom work. Probly did 15 or 20 silos a year. I can just remember the case, then he changed to NH and had them til he quit farming. It was quite a sight to see him leave the house to do a job, he had the 830, chopper, 3 dakon boxes and a hopper blower all hooked together. The pipes were in the front wagon. Was quite a train heading down the road.

Jon, I'm thinking even if you could change your pto, the 400 would have its work cut out for what the cutter could handle.a 90 to 100hp tractor would hook up nice.just my experience with my 300 chopper.mine is 540rpm.

We ran our 300 with a 730CK Gasser on flat ground. Worked OK on corn. Marginal on haylage. I believe the gearbox is reversable but don't recall what the ratio was.

I should have said the 400/700/800 EH 730/830 may have had the option of being changed from 540 to 1000 also my parts are from the "CK" maodels and to do them you have to pull the PTO unit to swap out the two gears and shaft not all that bad a job to do once on a tractor but I would not want to continue doing it,,,,,maybe it's time to find a 970/1070/1170/1175??? LOL just thinking cnt

Yes Jon, I still remember you dad filling our silo. You are right... that was quite the train! I remember admiring the 830 when he left that whole rig parked at our place one night. Single row chopper if I remember right.

I chopped a lot of years with a 300 Case and 1030. Same as a 55 IH chopper. Should be able to find a 55 or 550 to rob the gear box. I have one from a 550 if you need it. 550 IH is the newer version of the 55.

jon, my ops book say's they were available with 540 or 1000 but does not say anything about beinga able to switch them

Thanks, guess I'll just have to look at it and see.

Jon, For what its worth I look to my parts book and the gear boxes have different tooth counts on the gears. Maybe you could try searching and see if you could find the 2 gears inside and then you can switch it. Also, the big 400 any other Eagle Hitch tractors were not common with 1000 rpm PTO unless you can find a high tin 30 series EH tractor with it. The C/K tractors had a totally different design back there.

Not sure what I was thinking. I believe cutter head turns at 1000 RPM. Gearbox is 1:1 for 1000 PTO and 1:2 for 540 RPM. Ours had 2 cutter head / shear bar failures. Good idea to check bolts etc.