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cbfarmsks |
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South Central Kansas | We are looking at a 10r30 Drago corn head. We do not need a chopping head. It will be going on a S670. Looking at the previous posts .it seems that Dragos have a few major drawbacks. 1. More Maintenance. What is this more maintenance? 2. Sticky deck plates 3. Specialized lubricant. Has this been an issue? 4. Part availablilty. How often do these heads need parts? Are there more drawbacks? We cut 25-32% HM corn to start harvest. Can a Drago handle this? Any other things we should consider while looking at Dragos? Thanks | ||
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| JRthefarmer |
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SESD | Dragos are great heads. We've had one for 8yrs now. My opinion is they will put the most grain in the tank, all other things being equal. Honestly, I don't know what the more maintenance is about. Daily-grease rolls, grease drive shafts, grease top sprockets. Weekly-check drive chain tensions. Pretty simple. Seasonally, grease pistons for deck plates and other fittings as well as gathering chains. I check gear box before season, and I feel that's enough. Also, there are poly guides for the gathering chains that should be checked each season. I use the special lube in the gear boxes and use JD poly for the daily. Parts are no problem for me either. Very rarely need something in season. In 8 years, I've never had trouble with the sticky deck plates. I know some on here have and say they do everything to keep them clean. I blow the head off occasionally with leave blower and blow it out good at end of season. If need be, a little lube on the pivots and work them with a vise grip on the pivot tube. I like the tension on the plates high, that way ears aren't getting stripped through. All in all, I would say they are at the top tier of heads. If you want grain in the tank, Drago is the head you want. Edited by JRthefarmer 3/1/2015 22:40 | ||
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| Jd7730 |
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SE MN | One by one according to your numbers: 1) Yes, more maintenance, but mostly in season type of stuff with regular greasing of the rollers and checking the grease in the gearboxes every so often. This grease in the unit gearboxes is the one that I don't care for very much because it is difficult to know if there is enough in them with the dipstick...but I've never lost one yet though. The rest of it you'll get used to after a year or two. The maintenance is not a deal breaker to me. 2) You hear complaining about sticky deck plates, but I guess I've been lucky in that regard. I do check them every so often and they are easy to move in and out with a prybar. It is very easy to see in an instant if they are moving by looking at the piston underneath. I also try very hard to keep it inside at night when rain is in the forecast. The dirt build-up combined with rain is apparently what makes them stick. These deck plates are one of the things that makes this such a good head. I also take time mid-harvest to blow things out pretty good and look it over. 3) There are two lubricants: gear oil and grease. You can get the specialized lubricant at any Drago dealer or Mobile oil dealer, they recommend Mobile brand. I have interchanged the JD combine reverser oil with the Drago gear oil and do not think there is much difference between the two. Maybe someone who knows oils better could clarify this...they're both synthetic gear oil. They recommend the Mobile grease in everything and it is best to do that, you would just dedicate a grease gun to that grease and it's easy. That grease is a lot like JD corn head grease, but I don't know if they are interchangeable. 4) Parts being unavailable is pure myth in my experience, unless you don't have a Drago dealer you can reasonably get to by driving. I am not for sure on this, but I would bet Drago has some kind of requirement for Drago dealers to stock a certain amount of parts because I have never had the dealer not have a part...even a chopper gearbox housing that I broke from my own error...could've gotten a whole new gearbox or just the housing. They also had all the internal parts and seals as well for that gearbox. I've bought other parts and they always have had them. The primary complaint I have is that the auger is too small. It should be much larger. This one is a bit of a head scratcher, but it does work and it is not a deal breaker. I think you will like how it works in the conditions you mentioned. Just follow the book on the maintenance. They do tend to leak some oil out of the transfer gearboxes after several years of use, it would be best to remove them all in the off-season and reseal them, otherwise you would want to check the oil in them every so often as well during harvest. There is more to do on this head than say a JD 90 series, but I really think that a good share of the complaining about the maintenance is from the learning curve to understand the differences and by people who do not think they are saving more corn with the Drago head. The corn savings is the selling point made by Drago...if you do not believe that then you will think the maintenance is too much. Maybe they're not for everybody, but I think they would be very hard to beat as far as picking corn, especially if you're not chopping the stalks. | ||
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| cainfarmer |
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SE Nebraska | They are not really no more maintenance than other heads are I have run a Drago five years now and have never had an issue with sticky deck plates. But it is always stored inside when not in use and never gets rusty. Dealers are required to stock the parts and lubricants needed. The only thing I have ever needed was lubricants. Never have had a breakdown yet. The only issue I have had with mine is that it shells corn where it goes into the feeder house. The corn is usually below 17% when it does this When done for the year there are quite a few little places that need cleaned out before storage. More than other heads | ||
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| Barker |
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WC Indiana | I guess my answer would be to look at the positives also. You don't need to worry if your deck plates are correct, just drive. I've been through 2 seasons with my used 2010 Drago and have never had downtime. I could never say that with my Case head. It's also very good early morning or "light rain" cornhead. We ran 3 days last fall when nobody else was running. No elevator lines on those days! As far as maintenance I would say there is more preventative maintenance ( Not much more in season) . At the end of the year you have clean the head thoroughly and pump grease into the deck plate piston. It takes a couple days with our 12 row. I would say any head needs cleaned but the Drago takes any extra day to clean it good. In regards to deck plate sticking I haven't had that. Not sure why some do. As some have mentioned we have a separate greasegun for the mobil grease. | ||
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| dmax08 |
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| I would disagree that the Drago is more maintenance. We did a lot less to ours in 5 years than we did to our Deere. The only thing we did was grease it. It was ran thru some pretty harsh conditions and never had an issue with the deck plates, even in sticky green corn. We used to cut quite a bit at 35-40% and never had a problem. Parts were never an issue even tho the closest dealer at the time was 8 hours away. The only thing we ever needed was a snout or two and they were next day aired. Nothing on the market as of yet comes compares. Edited by dmax08 3/2/2015 09:04 | |||
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| Sherwood farmer |
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NW Ohio | Do they pick clean or take in a lot of trash compared to others | ||
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| dmax08 |
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| With the deck plates always adjusting to the stalk, they take in virtually no trash. We always had to run a reel on our Deere heads in dry fluffy conditions and even then in the afternoon in real dry corn it would pile up. Never ran a reel on the Drago and never had a problem. | |||
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| milkman1 |
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Central Illinois | We ran one this year for the first time. When looking in the head while running the crop looks yellow because there is so little trash coming in. When we looked on the ground behind the head there was almost no grain on the ground. Our AGCO dealer started selling them this year so there were none in our neighbor hood to observe so we bought because of their ads. Very satisfied. . . . when we saw the ads, videos on the head we wondered if that was an exaggeration but it is not. We also have a grease gun with the mobile grease in it for the head. | ||
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