Forage harvester suggestions

dairyman

Member
I'm looking for some suggestions on what brand/model corn chopper to replace my Fox with. The Fox is a model F546 and is starting to wear through several of the sheetmetal components to the point that they either need to be replaced or the whole chopper replaced with a more modern machine, since I can no longer find parts in salvage yards within 100 miles of me I'm leaning towards replacing it but am unsure what to look for as a replacement. The only other brand chopper I have been around was an international over 20 years ago so do not remember much about it. I'm open to most brands but do not really want a Deere as the local dealer is not very good with parts support. If you have a suggestion on what to look for or stay away from and why I'd appreciate it. Also do the other brands have a way of reversing the feed rolls to unplug things? was thinking along the lines of Gehl, New Idea, New Holland, or IH. thanks for your suggestions
 
If you do not want JD then go with NH. They are about the only two with parts support. Gehl is getting terrible on the non skid steer Ag stuff. So steer away from them.

Look on TractorHouse:
NH 281 units for sale
JD 149
Gehl 92
IH 14
Fox 1


That should tell you something.

Try to go with a NH newer than the old 717. The 782 and 790 are good choppers that parts are readily available for and the value is not sky high.

Keep in mind the days of pull type choppers are numbered. The farms are bigger or the smaller guys using a custom harvester. So the pull type machines are a SMALL part of the market. I am afraid that when this Ag economy tanks and the Equipment Companies get hurting, the low production stuff is going to get cut.
 
Find another Deere dealer or learn to look up your own parts...
I agree with JDSeller. NH and Deere are about the only viable game in town anymore if you want parts support in a P/T forage harvester. Gehl made a good machine but good luck finding anything unless you want to drag every damn one of them home from all the local consignment auctions.
A Deere 3950 or 3970 would probably fit the bill depending on what kind of power you have to stick in front of it. Likewise a 790 or 900 NH would be the comparable models in their line. Even at that those are getting to be old machines today... I wouldn't go any older in either line personally.

Rod
 
If you chop corn at all, spring for something with a kernel processor. It will make a big difference in what your livestock get out of the corn. No cob sorting, no whole kernels in the manure.

We went from Fox (some 3000s and a Max II self propelled) to Gehl 1285. Contrary to what others have said, at least on the newer choppers, EVERYTHING has been available, and my local dealer has nearly everything in stock. If not, they UPS it to me, and I have it next day- niether Deere nor NH will do that for me. Next day service on non-stock items from them is VERY expensive.

Good luck.
 
I didn't care too much for the CaseIH 781 that I had,not enough capacity,but the 881 I have now is a good machine,runs easy at a decent ground speed. What was the next step up on those,8750 or something like that?
 
coonie minnie: YOU are lucky. I know guys that have Gehl choppers that are not ten years old and are having to have the machine shop make parts that are no longer available.

We have a dealer close by that sold a lot of Gehl choppers and other stuff. His parts guys really tries hard but many things Gehl just does not have.

They have also announced a drop dead date on their Ag parts. So even if you can get it now soon you will not be able to.
 
I've always had to wonder if those kernel processors were just hype. I know a guy who used to feed out steers. He filled an upright silo with whole kernel high moisture corn. He mixed it with corn silage and fed it whole. There was a LOT of corn in the manure so he was going to put some hogs in there with the cattle to let them eat the corn out of the manure. He sent a sample of the corn to Michigan State University for analysis to see how many hogs he could run in there. They tested it and told him that if he put any hogs in there at all they would starve to death. Said there was no feed value left in that corn what so ever.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. Should of said in my first post that the tractors that run the chopper are between 70 - 100 Hp. depending on if I need the duals on to get through the mud. are there any particular problems I would need to watch for with the New Holland or Deere choppers?
 
I think you're lucky on the Gehl parts... As was said below... there's a drop dead date on it and even if what you need is available today, in the future, the intent is that it will not be.... I think it's a fools errand to go buying smoething like that because in a few years he'll be in the same position he's in now with the Fox.
Agree with you on the kernel processor tho...

Rod
 
You already hit on the big things that's wrong with the Deere,parts. Unless Deere-Mart is a whole lot different over there than it is here in Michigan.

I don't know what model you could run with a 2 row head and 70 horse. I had a 3800 and ran it with a 90 horse 4040. I was always in low gear with my foot on the clutch. The Deere heads are a pain in the backside. They had those hex shafts and bearings so no lock collars. Unless you were darned careful to keep the right spacers in them they tore up the bevel gears that ran the gathering chains. Then there were the actual gathering chains. Nothing but 60 roller chain with belts bolted to them. If they got the least little bit loose and got any trash under them,they ran off at the top.
The reverser on that one I had ran with an electric motor,so there was a two or three second delay while you waited for enough travel to stop it. Same thing while you waited for it to go in to reverse and back out of reverse.
The auger has a carrier on the end that sticks straight out. It didn't bother in corn,but in hay mine would wrap and then punch the bearing right out of the flange on the drive end.
I don't know if the newer ones were any improvement,but I wouldn't even look at another Deere chopper.
 
We actually just scrapped out a 546 about a month ago. We replaced that with a fox 3000 10+ years ago. We replaced that last year with a nh 892.

If you have 1000 rpm pto capabilities, go with that as 540 machines are limited. I'd also just plan to run the 100 hp tractor on it and be done.

Donovan from Wisconsin
 
The Deere row crop head is not the greatest thing in the world... that much I give you... but it's not too bad either provided you observe a couple of things. Number one, first and foremost... you do not attempt to chop in wet conditions. By that, I mean if it's rained... go home. Stalks and undergrowth need to be dry to touch. If it's wet the crap will build up under the belts and throw the chains. Beyond that... keep the bevel gear shafts well greased, knives somewhat close, etc and they work well enough.

As far as the newer choppers go... they're a good machine. Some were prone to eating feedroll bearings or so it seemed. The smooth feedroll will eventually rot away after it's worn thin... most of them tear the tapered splines off the blower drive shaft and a lot of them got a repair kit installed. The rest of the got welded... so be careful about that. It's fine until you need to replace the bearings on the blower shaft, then you replace the shaft. Lower blower bands and eventually side sheets would wear out... and shearbar adjusters need periodic adjustment when the cut starts getting ragged.
I've never had any problem with the electric/hydraulic controls on mine and I don't know anyone else who has either. Sometimes the harness plugs need replacement but that's pretty minor. Do keep in mind that the hydraulics ~are~ closed center. If you have an open center tractor you need to buy a conversion spool and solenoid. It takes about 10 min to install and probably a couple hundred bucks to buy today if you get it new...
Personally I don't think Deere builds the best harvester, but it's a pretty good harvester. Where I find they make up the difference is in parts. The parts for those things, for the most are fairly cheap and readily available... at least most of the stuff I've needed over the years.
Also consider that the row crop heads are quite readily available used... so when one of them is ready to go to corn head heaven, you buy two more and keep the old one for parts.

Rod
 
I'd heard they were still available. That kind of surprises me actually... I don't know how someone pencils that today when you look at the cash likely to be available to the average person who would want that size machine...

Rod
 
on those damp days when the jd guys were sitting in the house drumming their nuts because the gathering chains wouldn't stay on us and the rest of the NH owners were cutting silage, you can't go wrong with a New Holland cutter
 
(quoted from post at 19:13:36 10/08/13) on those damp days when the jd guys were sitting in the house drumming their nuts because the gathering chains wouldn't stay on us and the rest of the NH owners were cutting silage, you can't go wrong with a New Holland cutter

I agree. If I had to wait for things to be dry, there's lots of days I would've been either waiting, or quitting much earlier than I would otherwise. We only have an 880 head on our 892 right now, but even that was worth what we spent on it in last years corn. Picked up much more than the Fox 3000's head ever did in downed corn, and we had a lot of that last year...

We're planning to start chopping on Friday, hope to have the bag full by Sunday. If all goes well, that should be no problem. If it doesn't, well.......

Last year the head broke a gethering chain and we were able to have one shipped to us in a day which isn't bad for a head that hasn't been made in over 30 years.

Donovan from Wisconsin
 
I was thinking something pretty close to that. Had a real heavy dew this morning,didn't dry off til noon. I started right in chopping with my CaseIH as soon as I got chores done. The rotary knives and all rubber gathering belts didn't give me any trouble. I wouldn't get much done in a day if I had to wait til noon every day to start.

Voice of several years experience,those Deere heads are junk.
 
I am late to the discussion but looking around where I am at I would say most of the pull harvesters are JD. I used to think NH if I ever thought I would need a factory new machine but now I think it would be a JD. I still have a lot of trust in the 7XX and 8XX IH choppers but they are getting harder to find. I think JD has the edge for parts and service where I am at.
 
What parts did they have made???? I have 2 1285s and have been able to get everything.

I've run into the same problem with NH- on parts for a forage blower, a number 40. Machine was made in 2002. The part was back ordered for 3 months. I ended up getting one -in 3 days- from Lacaster silo, who now makes the parts for NH. Apparently, NH was waiting to get a big enough order to get a deal. I'm not sure why, as NH wanted 2.5x the price I paid lancaster for the same part.
 
So many dairies getting out of it nowadays Kijiji/Craigslist is flooded with good used forage harvesters. You can get good newish units with both heads and spares for under 5000$. Sometimes less than 3000$. The latest gear is still bringing big dollars but you won't run it on 100 hp.
 
Who said anything about damp? I said you can't cut when it's wet... as in raining... as some of are granted the option of doing some years. Aside from that I don't find it too desperate bad.
The main reason to run a Deere chopper around here is that they're more available used, considerably cheaper and parts are more readily available.

Rod
 
Here's a quote from the original post."but do not really want a Deere as the local dealer is not very good with parts support".

That's the boat that a lot of us are in. Sounds like you don't have that problem. You don't know how lucky you are. You're getting to be in a very small minority.
 
And again I say... find another dealer. I guess I find myself in the fortunate situation that I don't have a dealer of any kind within 200 miles. When I do it's now one of the super dealers with 7-8 locations. To date they've been pretty good... but if they weren't... I think I'm at the point that I'd just start searching a wider area. Everything I get comes by courior anyway so it doesn't much matter if it comes from 200 miles or 2000 miles. I've never found one yet that doesn't take a card.

Rod
 
He didn't say that he doesn't have a New Holland or CaseIH dealer close by either. Only that he has a Deere dealer that's no help. Why send off for Deere parts if you can drive down the road and pick them up for the other two brands and get right back to work? Some people aren't that religiously devoted to green paint.
 
I'm less devoted to green paint that just about anyone. I run a certain amount of Deere stuff simply because it was cheap and available. On balance I see a lot more PT Deere harvester than I've ever seen of NH pull types unless you take the 717/718 into account... and in that case you deserve what you get if you buy one.
IH was a complete non-entity around here in terms of harvesters. Pretty much a non-entity in every other department as well.
My personal view is that you go with the one that's most economical to purchase/maintain. You'll learn early on with a Deere that you keep a bunch of spare knives on hand. You make a point of doing careful inspections of feedroll bearings annually and keeping a set of them on hand after 3-4 years of use and when they whoof their cookies you change them. You keep a spare row crop head around or at least a spare chain or two. Outside of that you're not apt to need much in an emergency situation and if you do the dealer won't have it anyway... so then you get it drop shipped from the depot anyway. I really don't see what the big deal is about the dealer. The way most of you go on, you'd be out of business tomorrow if you had to deal with the support we have around here.


Rod
 
KM's remark about not being able to run the newer choppers with 100 hp and some of the other remarks makes me smile at how things have changed in the last 50 years. My father ran a NH 800 forage harvester with a 2 row head with an Oliver 88 for several years before going to a Super 88. And back then NH made the crappiest corn head of any brand. Nearly everything availible at the time (and for several models after the 800) had corn heads that worked better than NH.
 
I have never had a problem chopping in the rain with my Deere 35 or 3940.More than once we chopped in the rain because the corn was to dry without any problems.The knives need to be sharp and adjusted tight and the belts good and timed up properly.In my 20 years of experience with Deere machines we have never had problems with the bevel gears on the head either.The only thing that I do not like about the Deere head is that if you get off the row you knock over corn.The best harvester in my opinion is the Deere 3950-3970 with a new Holland 824 corn head.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top