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EC North Dakota | I agree with all the above posts. I am on my third header with the air reel system from Crary. Won't even consider buying a header without one after having the first one.
They are heavier than other reels so you do have to be a little careful working on them.
Pluses are the savings in beans at the cutter bar, the air drives the cut soybean into the header, if the wind is adjusted properly, so the shatter loss from sitting on the cutter bar until the reel sweeps them in is almost zero. The air makes your header auger feed more evenly as the beans are pushed all the way to the auger for a better and more even feed into the thrashing components.
Minuses are that the bearing caps at the end of the spiders take watching and an occasional change (not a hard job). Biggest wear item on the Crary system is the plastic idlers on the spiders and possibly the gears that the spiders ride on. These must be kept to specs for them to last and for the reel to operate properly (check them daily and don't be afraid to adjust to specs).
The fan has been beefed up in the later years. Only service required is to change gear case oil every year, use synthetic oil and only the amount specified in the owners manual.
I feel once you have one you will wonder how you got along without one.
You don't specify if you are adding the air system or going with a complete system. If just adding the AWS system is an option, if complete system and a new header order the header without the factory reel and add the Crary complete system. The only draw back I see to the AWS is that the tubes for the air outlet are in front of the reel so that the tubes are hitting the soys before they get close to the cutter bar and may??? result in some shatter loss that is eliminated by having the tubes just ahead of the cutter bar.
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Good and Bad of a Cary Air Reels
