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rankrank1 01-20-2013 19:44:41 198.228.228.146 Report to Moderator

Well I have a mixture of 3 types of guards on my Hesston 1120 mower conditioner (aka Haybine equivalent). The outer 40% are the expensive Hesston stub guards with set screw adjustments (about $27 a piece), the middle 5% are the conventional ones that are more blunt tipped $12 (more like a combine guard), and the other 55% is the conventional guards that really extend out to a longer point $14 (common NH type haybine guard). Really I can not tell any difference in the crops that I cut. Supposedly the stub guards work much better in tangled and down crops. Luckily, I have only had to deal with one crop that was a down and tangled mess (massive hail damage on that crop). I had some problems everywhere but my sickle sections were worn badly too. Regardless I got through it even with crap sickle sections. What I have noticed is that I always cut with an ole antique tractor so I do not have a hydraulic cylinder on moco. I only lower the header with a manual ratchet once when I enter the field and raise it once when I exit the field and simply mow roundy round towards center. If I am cutting an odd shaped field and have to cross and already been mowed area for some reason (yeah bad news with a sickle) then the conventional guards will plug where the stub guards are much less likely to clog (still not foolproof though). I try to never do this of course but...odd shaped fields can be problem without a cylinder Anyway, while I like the stub guards at over 2.5 to 3 times the cost of a conventional guard (for the ones like on my Hesston) then I highly doubt I opt to buy any of those when I need them. Of course I am just a small time operator on a shoe string budget too. Lastly those expensive Hesston stub guards also serve as the sickle hold clips too so you do not use traditional hold downs with them. Adjusting them requires dinking with shims then loosening the guard and adjusting allen head set screws and then retightening the guard (kinda a pain). The conventional guards use traditional hold down clips so a Big hammer applied on hold downs and a cheater pipe applied on guards allows much quicker and easier adjustment of them. This post was edited by rankrank1 at 20:04:52 01/20/13 4 times. [Reply]   [No Email]