John Deere chopper heads

Sparktrician · Sep 16, 2018

I have a 3940 deere chopper. Had it three years now, decent older chopper. works good, does what we need (For now). Before this, we had a deere 35 chopper. Bought newer chopper (old 35 was about toast). Using the head off the 35 (2 row wide) on the 3940.

That old yellow head is about toast. I replaced gathering chains/belts and sprockets (still good condition) 4 years ago.

Looking to get a 'newer' head. I see the green ones have newer style corn head snoots. Do these feed better? Our yellow head will jam up if cutting to low.

I have to buy a $300 dollar shaft to finish this year for our old head, thought Id keep it around as a backup, but aim to have a better head for next year.

We chop (3) 7'x150' bags a year. Looking to start making earlage in a year or two, have my eye on a self propelled deere unit that is setup for that already.

This chopper will likely stay on the farm as a backup, for the money i have in it, itd be cheap insurance.

what is the model of those green heads & are they worth the money (how much?) We are on wide rows

Roger in Iowa · Sep 16, 2018

JD forage harvester heads do not have model numbers, only 2 row wide, 2 row narrow, etc.

JD Seller · Sep 17, 2018

You doing one thing I bet you did not think about.. On the 3900 series choppers the slip clutch is on the header not the chopper like your old JD 35 was. So your direct driving the chopper head. I would not spend $300 on that old header even for a backup. The market for wide row chopper heads has fell through the floor. You can buy yellow 2RW forage heads with the slip clutch for $300-400 all day long in eastern Iowa and WI. The green late model ones with the new style corn head tin work will rarely go over $1000 now. I screwed up two years ago and bought a like new 2RW late model green header. I had $1500 in it, lost money on it and took over a year to sell it.

tomstractorsandtoys · Sep 17, 2018

I have always had Deere choppers and heads. Right now I have a 2 row green head on my 3940. There is not a huge amount of difference between the green and the yellow heads. The green might be a little better in down corn but we never have much of that. Having good belts and the knives set up right is more important than which head you have. If I were buying another head today I would but a New Holland 824 head. There is a welding shop in WI called Farm Shop in Owen WI. They make an adapter to put it on with no changes to the head or the harvester. Neighbor did it three years ago and they would never think of changing back. With the 824 you can get a good bit of corn that a Deere head would miss. The only time it would not be a better head would be in extreme down corn as the head sets up more in the back when on a Deere harvester than a NH. Tom

John Deere chopper heads

Sparktrician

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Roger in Iowa

Well-known Member

JD Seller

Well-known Member

tomstractorsandtoys

Well-known Member

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