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MN | Shopping for a new to me,used, self propelled forage harvester. Looking at both Class and New Holland. I'm not much of a Deere man. I'm looking for a smaller one that would handle a 4-6 row head. I don't know much about either one of them. Looking for one in the mid 1990's range. I think the NH FX series started in 95. They look nice, heard they have Fiat engines, this scares me. Also heard they have bad electrical problems. Any truth to this?
Class is all new to me. I'm thinking something like and 820? Only thing I know about these is they are foreign and run a mercedes diesel.
Just looking for some advice and some history on both of these companies machines from in the 90's. Any help would be much appreciated. |
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Somewhereville, Earth | which fiat motor, seen a lot of fiat tractors run over 10000hours with no dramas, .........if they anything like the ones in the tractors, i would be more scared of a deere motor |
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northeastern Ohio | I have been running a 1996 NH FX25 for the past 8 years with a 4 row corn head and 10 foot hay head. It has the Iveco 300 hp engine. I really like this machine and have not had any major problems with it.
I put a new set of knives and shearbar in it when I bought it. I replaced a cracked fuel return line and the fuel shutoff solenoid. I put a new set of blades on the corn head. One new grinding stone on the sharpener. That is pretty much it for repairs in 8 years. No electrical problems. No engine problems. |
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| Been running an FX45 for 9 years averaging 65,000 tons every year in alfalfa,wheat and corn silage. Engine is impressive to say the least. We will have 9000 hours on this machine before we finish this year,and we have no plans of trading this machine. Electrical problems are few and far between. I always looked at Claas harvesters as the Walmart harvester, cheap and throw awayable. If you go NH get an FX of a higher serial number, they will have some of the improvements built in. My .02 |
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NW VA | A former custom operator around here ran 2 FX New Hollands, it seemed like he was always having issues, even had a hydrostat go out on a new FX60. Another local NH guy has an FX35 with a 6 row chain head, and at around 7-800 cutterhead hrs., the trough under the auger has already worn through and doesn't feed right.
I personally like the Deere machines we've had, no personal experience with Claas but I'd lean that way over NH. JMHO |
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MN | On the NH side, what was made in the 90's???? I have seen 1915's, 2115's, and the FX's. What is the difference in say an FX 25 and an FX 40. What is the difference in a FX with a 5 in the number and one with an even #? (FX 25/FX30) How big of machines were made. Looking for one in the small to mid range, what models should I be looking for to handle a 4 or 6 row head? Thanks for all the advice it all sounds great so far. |
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Embarrass WI | We got our first Claas in 98. That was an 840, It had a Mercedes V-8. The 820 had a V-6, i knew a guy who had 2 of them and said he sure fixed a lot of shhet metal, cracked from vibration. This guy fixed a lot of other stuff, too, so his experience might not apply. I think the Claas is a good unit, I don't know a lot about the NH's. Go with whichever you find in the best condition and have good dealer support for. |
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Chilliwack BC | Around here there seem to be more 491's (Claas even series) than FX's. We were thinking the same thing as you a few years ago and ended up with an 860. I have never heard of them as being the wal-mart of chopper. The people who have FX's like them though and trade in for the same thing so I guess for you its a wash, choose for dealer.
The Claas and Deere were made in Germany. New Hollands I believe were from Belgium. They'll all be foreign. |
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| I would stay away fro the 19 and 2100/15 series to hard to service. the 5 series FXs were built before the 0 series. If I remember right, the biggest of each series have a Cat engine the others have Iveco. The 0 series have a hydraulic drive for the feedrolls and a hydraulic control for the speed on the processor. The hydraulic stuff did away with the reversing gearbox for the feedrolls and the gearbox that controlled the "LOC" length of cut. Always thought the processors on the FXs were a pain in the arse to fool with. We replaced our processor with a diameter kit and shredbar to crack the kernals. I would think that any size of any of the series would handle a six row except for the smallest of each series. The smallest of each series would handle a four row very well. If you cut a lot of haylage, the FX will still be moving when the others get gummed up. |
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northeastern Ohio | As Rick said, stay away from the older models like the 1915 and 2115.
In 1995 NH came out with the FX25 and FX45. Then in 1999 they went to the FX28, FX48, and FX58. Then in 2003 they went to the FX40, FX50 and FX60. Now they have the FR series which is completely new.
For a 4 row head, I would look at the FX25 and FX28. For a six row head I would go with the FX45, FX48 or the FX40.
My FX25 has the kernel processor. I take it out for haylage and put it back in for corn silage. It takes about 2 hours to do the switch. Some guys leave the processor in for haylage, but rocks can cause a lot of wear on the rolls (if you have rocks).
Here is a link to tractorhouse that has all the models of NH choppers:
http://www.tractorhouse.com/listings/models.aspx?ETID=1&catid=1114&...
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| I don't know a thing about self propelled choppers. Never even looked at one... but if you think that the Claas is the 'Walmart chopper', I don't think you looked to close at it either.
Nothing that company builds is cheap. Most, if not all of their products are market leaders in inovation, and leaders by many years ahead of their competition. Cadilac would be a more apt description of the Claas equipment that I've seen and the baler I run with some of the highest quality in the industry with some of the highest performance in the industry. That's not to suggest that they haven't had a booboo here or there the same as the rest, but there's nothing cheap about them and nothing throw away.
I'm not knocking the NH chopper either.
Rod |
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| Ditto. |
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| Show me a Claas harvester with 9000 hrs. on its meter, the New Holland is by far a more durable machine. |
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| Like I said, I don't work around self propelled harvesters... but I don't doubt that there's as many high houred Jag's out there as there are high houred FX's.
You can keep anything running if you keep throwing parts in it.
Rod |
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Shopping for a new Self Propelled Forage Harvester
