new holland 718 chopper

codyw

Member
I found a 718 nh chopper for sale. it has been kept undercover and taken care of. it seems to be in real good shape. it comes with the grass head on it and a corn head comes with it too. $700 for all. is this a fair price? what can you guys tell me about this machine? if we buy it, we are going to use it to chop green feed every couple of days to help supplement our lack of pasture. thanks for any info.
 
I saw a real nice one with both heads sell at auction this spring for 2100 dollars. If it is what you say it is then jump on it right away.
 
It should do alright for what you want to do. You should probably let the hay wilt for a few hours as it will discharge through the spout a little easier. I would have preferred a cut and blow machine for green hay but you can make the 718 work. It's pretty hard to find a usable never mind good machine with heads for 700 dollars. 700 dollars will not buy much in cut and blow machines unless you are at the right auction. I liked the 700 and 800 series IH forage harvesters but they have gotten extremely hard to find the last few years.
 
I have been looking for a cut and blow type but everything in my area was used pretty hard and not worth the time and effort. this is going to be a learning curve for me as I have never had a chopper. this seemed like a better than average deal so I figured I jump on it while I can. thanks for your help.
 
I wouldn't pay much more than that for a 718 no matter how good it is... I guess if it works for what you want and you can't find a better deal on a proper harvester, you take what you can get.
Around here we often see 3940/50/60/70 Deere's sell in the 500 to 1500 range in semi workable condition... which is about as much as you'll ever get from a 718..

Rod
 
Where are you at? Around here I know of a Gehl 7200 green chopper that's for sale for $700. It's in really good shape and if we needed one we'd probably buy it ourselves.

I don't think I'd spend that kind of cash on a cut & throw machine. We got a newer and bigger 892 2 years ago with pickup head for $700. It's a 12 knife unit with a cross auger that brings it over to the blower. I dropped 4 knives to get a shorter cut (shortest you can go with 12 knives was 3/8 ) and it's really an animal. If you could find a 770 or newer,I think you'd be happier with it.

Of course green chopper would be better for what you're looking to do and it'd be quicker than cutting and then hooking onto the chopper to pick it up.

Donovan from Wisconsin
 
Dad had an IH 350 with a five ft. direct cut head that he used for green chopping sudan grass every summer and never had any problems.The cut and throw might be more of a problem with wilted feed as that can be very gummy.Grandfather had an Allis Chalmers 780 he would gren chop with as well.
 
It may very well be a matter of taking what you can get as inexpensive pull-type forage harvesters have gotten very scarce in the last few years around these parts. The really poor ones went for scrap when prices went up a few years ago leaving later models such as NH 790 and JD 3950 that tend to sell in the 3,000 dollar range for the base. I saw a beat up 3940 that was missing expensive parts such as the front part of the PTO drive line sell for 1100 dollars this past winter. We do not see the prices Rod talks about here as a Mennonite will jump on a 39XX so the bidding will start higher. A neighbor ran a 718 chopping green hay and it did alright. A lot of the years dad dairy farmed he chopped green hay with a cut and throw. A cut and blow is nicer for sure but a cut and throw will be adequate in light of the money invested.
 
Now if you raise any corn you may just want to get it just for the corn head if it will match your rows, if a one roe no problem. In fall when pasture and hay is cetting real short then you could go to the corn field and fill those cows bellies. Andafter the first year untill you can find the direct cut for the grass just keep the corn head on as the direct cut will not harvest corn. That is the way we were set up back in the 70's to do it. Alsoif you loose a crop due to rain put the pickup head on and shread that lost crop so it does not dammage the next crop.
 
It is so easy for people to spend your money telling you that you need something you do not need. You have a small amount of cattle or you would not be saying about couting every couple of days to supplement pasture. So figure that if that chopper saves you from having to buy just one 120 small bale load of hay it has paid for itself. The machines they are telling you that you need if they could be found (perhaps in their area they can be but not in your area) will cost way more and you may or may not need it after a week if the rains start and pasture recovers where is the cost advantage of buying a high priced machine to have seeting around. Not faniluar with a 718 but the 717? believe it was that belonged to my uncle took all the power that his 3020 put out to run it, used it a couple of times while we were between choppers. We got a cheap flywheel type throw NH chopper and the JD B handled it as easy as the 3020 did the other model and those models they say you should be getting would possible require at least a 4020 to handle. From what you are saying you want to do I dought that you have that big a tractor. We orignally bought an old Cockshutt with pickup head and one row corn head, chopped on flat bed hay wagon for a week with hay head and put on the corn head for a wek and by that time rain had come and pasture was back to normal. Next year built a feeder wagon bed and picked up a first model JD flail chopper and went to chopping every day, That JD B handled it as well as a bigger tractor would have. That cut our need for pasture in half. When that old Cockshutt gave out got the Old New Holland.We never had a silo or fed silage. All the machines they are saying to get are bigg enough you would need to put up a lot of silage to make them pay and you are not doing silage or you wouls already have the forage harvestor. So if that $700 machine saves you from having to buy 3 ton of hay it has paid for itself and any future use is free Not those others if you could find them would coust you not $700 but $7,000 till you found it and got it shipped to you how many loads of hay would you have to buy to have paid the difference in cost, pluss possibly having to buy a different larger tractor just to run it. Adding everything together does ther reasinging make econicim sence to you? If it does then follow it but if you do math like I do then go with the machine you are looking at. And then next year consider getting a flail to suppliment it and use the time to find the correct machine. We only had a high of 23 cows and quit milking when the dairy closed.
 
I don't think anybody is saying he needs an expensive machine but my point is the good inexpensive 1000 dollar and under machines have all but disappeared where I am at. I scan area dealer lists frequently and I can only think of one flail chopper listed which is fairly new therefore much much higher than 1000 dollars. Other than that there is only one other which I suspect is a parts machine as it is sitting in this guy's parts machine part of the yard. If somebody said to me I need a flail chopper for 1500 dollars or less and preferably under 1000 dollars for this summer I would say be prepared to travel a few hours and be flexible on the brand. It might be different elsewhere in the US.
 
The ones that were saying that is the ones that were saying he needs the new Deeres. I was saying that any inexpincve machine in good condition should be good for him and also the way he was talking he did not need or want high capacity. That is why I said get what will work now when you need it and spend the next year looking for the ideal machine and that New Holland may not be the ideal but if it works and he doesn't have to buy a load of hay it has paid for itself if it is never used again.
 
A 718 will work good for what you want. That was the best chopper that we ever had on the farm because my dad felt the blower type used too much hp. He chopped a LOT of silage with his. If it won't blow to the rear of the wagon it's because the knives need to be set up, as they wear there get's to be too much space between them and the pan and they won't blow. Just adjust them up so they "pick a nickle and leave a dime".
 
I think I'd rather buy a load of hay than a 718 NH...
My point is that the smaller cut and blow choppers are just as inexpensive as the 718 most times... and they're better machines. Availability of each varies. You can seldom buy any of them when you need one.

Rod
 
My neighbour has at least 3 of the 3940/50 that he paid at most 750 each for. I've got a 3970 that I paid ~1500 for several years ago. Lot of guys got out around here in the last 10 years and there's a lot of that gear sitting around... and every so often some of it cycles through the auction.

Rod
 
I'm with rod. We paid 700 for our 892 with a hay head. We didn't know we needed a corn head until the one that came with it (fit a 770)didn't fit in when I tried putting it on when we needed it in peak season.

We had to give about $500 for a rusty but decent 880 corn head.

The next year I picked up another 892 for $200 as a parts machine. Came with another hay head that was in better shape than the other one. Only thing wrong with it is the electronics for the feed rolls.

Donovan from Wisconsin
 
what we want to do with that chopper is cut some extra green feed throughout the summer to help take the strain off out pastures. but the big reason we want a chopper is our work schedules dont always let us get our 2nd cut. we want to chop some of our second crop rather than leave it in the field so that we are not feeding our hay out so early. most the choppers in my area are big high production choppers. we have a john deere 5303 and a 1650 oliver. most of the chopping will be done with the oliver. so I am limited to the size chopper I can run. I would prefer the cut and throw chopper but they seem to be hard to come by here in maine. after looking at the 718 I don't think I will find another one for that price in that good condition. like someone mentioned this one will get us by until I can find a better suited one.
 
The way you talk a lot of machinery aviability up there where you are is good but down here in the states some of it never was heard of. Like all those newer ones you mention.
 
I've owned a S-717 and a 718. The 718 is a S-717 on steroids. The 718 will handle quite a bit more HP. and hold together compared to a S-717. As long as the knives are set up as mentioned below they will fill any wagon made. The one thing I would look at very closely before you buy it is the shear bar adjusting bolts. After a lot of hours the threads in the frame can strip out and then it takes some real imagination to figure out how to keep the adjuster bolts tight. The hay heads worked a lot better than the corn heads. Their corn heads were okay, but back in those days there were definately better working corn heads around. Another thing to watch. Every few weeks loosen all of the slip clutch bolts and run the pto and slip those clutch plates. If you don't the plates will sieze up and when you need it to slip it won't and you will destroy a lot of expensive parts unnecesiraly. Generally, they were a pretty decent unit for anything up a 110 hp tractor or so. Maybe a bit bigger if you don't try to crowd the chopper.
 
Newer? That stuff is all old washed up junk here now. There's lots of newer versions of those models still sold today... but cripes.. the 3940/60 are closing in on 40. Even the 50/70 series machines are 25 plus years old. It's not that I'm in the center of the universe for used farm gear either. We get two consignment sales a year with the odd dispersal here and there..

Rod
 
The most popular chopper ever around here was the orignal direct cut bar cut Allis Chalmers, Then Gehl became popular. Don't ever remember seeing a McCormick chopper at all and no Deere as new as any of those you think are old. This used to be dairy country but now only a handful left.
 
I am glad you spoke up on this. I know plenty of "New Holland" guys that owned nearly everything NH made but they were less than pleased with the S-717 and 770 models. Oh well, we all have our opinions and a reason to have them.
 

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