green choppers

jim_uny

Member
i have jd 35 5 ft direct cut green chopper forage harvester. works ok when dry. when wetter has some problems with knives plugging. does green chopper style like jd 16a or gehl fc7200 with flail work better in wetter conditions ? what are pros and cons of this style machine.
 
I've seen IH and NH flail choppers at work in wet conditions and they both had plugging issues in the transition/ spout area and I would imagine that a Gehl or Deere flail chopper would have similar problems. Also, remember that a flail chopper will not leave close to the short cut that the 35 or comparable cutterhead type chopper will make.
 
I think we had a 16A back in the 60's or at least something similar. I used to have to do the chopping. I don't remember it plugging up in wet grass. I do remember more than once getting caught in the rain while chopping. No cab on any of our tractors - just got soaked.
 
We had the smaller JD 15 5foot flail chopper and never plugged it wet or dry. Back in late 60's and early 70's we chopped every day in summer for our milk cows.
 
Only problem with first model No. 10 Deere was if heavy wet would hardly clear front of wagon. Still have a new knife for it if anybody has use for it.
 
We bought a JD 15 in 1958. The later replacement was the 15A I think. We used it to cut crops of Rye grass white clover mix for silage, which is a rather fibrous material and plugging was a problem with the slightest shower. Occasionally we cut a crop of maize (corn) for green feed and it just breezed through the machine in almost any weather. We replaced the JD with a New Holland 33 and the difference was almost unbelievable. It just kept going with wet grass. The difference was all in the cutter head --curved paddles and properly adjusted knives, easily done. other improvements were all flails the same and stronger drawbar which improved PTO performance. It got replaced with a 36 for the Case 830 to get its teeth into
 
Explain what you mean by knives plugging up? Not feeding in or? Dad had a new Deere 38 with an 8ft direct cut head that he green chopped for several years with no problem also had an IH 350 with direct cut that worked good as well. Tom
 
We had an International #8 flail chopper that we used for year and it was a good machine and then upgraded to a John Deere 16A flail chopper. Both of them had a hard time throwing wet grasses (Alfalfa, Timothy, Orchard); when I say wet I mean it was wet from raining not the morning dew. If I was cutting Sorghum Sudan Grass there was not an issue as there was more volume going through the machine to push it up the snout.

When cutting wet grasses you would have to pick up ground speed to get it to throw it to the back of the wagon as you needed the volume to push it through. The John Deere had one clear advantage of the International as the snout was open on the under side which would allow the grass to drop out instead of plugging up. The International had an enclosed snout which would plug up.

On the John Deere you could add or remove the paddles in the blower depending on what type of crop you were working with. When cutting grasses Deere recommend that you only have three paddles installed as you would have more volume getting thrown per paddle. If you were cutting heavier crops like Sorghum Sudan grass you would want 6 paddles installed. Also, per the Deere manual, it makes a difference on how tight the paddle is to the blower housing as some crops Deere said to keep them tight to the housing and other crops they said have some space between the housing. The manual offered a lot of input on how to properly use the machine in different applications / crop conditions.
 
Took the auger and pan out of the back of a 16a. Left the lid open. Did a fair job of cutting rough coarse dense hay. Was a nasty machine to run due to vibration and jerkyness in drive line. Not fun, to run, hard on tractor.
 
If you had vibration and jerkyness than you had a mechanical problem that should have been found and repaired as they were a smooth running machine. If we would loose a knife you knew it imediatly and it ran like that.
 
(quoted from post at 14:46:33 10/26/16) Took the auger and pan out of the back of a 16a. Left the lid open. Did a fair job of cutting rough coarse dense hay. Was a nasty machine to run due to vibration and jerkyness in drive line. Not fun, to run, hard on tractor.


I agree, if it was viberating and jerky there was a major mechaincal problem. My machine ran nice and smooth. It took alot less power to run the Deere than the International. The Deere had 2 rows of flail knifes and the International had 4 rows of flail knifes.
 
I've had several 16As,a Gehl 72C and a 7200. Never had one that worked well when the dew was on. When it was raining,forget it. One thing the helps is to make sure the paddles in the fan are adjusted right. The Deere dealer told me one time that they should pick up a nickel and drop a dime. If the band on the blower is dinged up,it's hard to do.
 
Our JD No 10 chopper that blower when we got it was so dinged up from rocks it could not be adjusted.
 
(quoted from post at 07:00:24 10/26/16) If you had vibration and jerkyness than you had a mechanical problem that should have been found and repaired as they were a smooth running machine. If we would loose a knife you knew it imediatly and it ran like that.

Do you know where to get blades for a Deere 16A chopper? I can't seem to locate any....
 

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