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Alton, Ia | We have a yellow one, 880CF. I really don't get the bashing of these heads on here. I know of a family that has a MacDon and a 3162, when you ask them, some days they like the MD, some days the 3162 is better. The 3162 is much easier to set they say.
We've put app 3600 acres on ours, bought used. Replaced one side of the main belt, and IIRC the breather on the hyd oil tank. Other than sickle knives and some fingers and knife parts I will come back to, pretty trouble free I think. The early ones had issues with the seals in the center knife gearbox, there were updates, I believe the last one was in 2107, which involved plastic plates that get bolted onto the knife drive shafts and move back and forth, pushing the dust and dirt buildup out. We clean ours out every morning, 4 bolts, 13mm wrench, then I have a thin metal strap (~1/16" thick) that I push between the plastic and the gearbox, shove anything out, then blow with leaf blower. Takes maybe 5 minutes, do it while pumping fuel. Maybe with the updates it's not necessary, I'll probably still do it. If you need to know more on updates, let me know.
On the reel ends, there are some spring fingers at each end of each reel bat. You want these. They will break off if you let a big buildup happen just inside the divider snout. For instance a weedy spot, or trash from a flood, green grass along the edge, or whatever. Without them, you will get stalk buildup and poor feeding near the ends. One or two breaking off is no big deal, the next bat will sweep the knife clear, but too many is a problem. A little tricky to replace, but once you get the hang of it, 2 minutes maybe. They are LH and RH, like $13-$15 each IIRC.
The earlier ones are a little difficult to clean out post harvest, the later ones they redid the frame and shielding some around the opening to get stuff out easier. I take the little angled shields off, where the side belts transfer to the main each fall to clean, that helps. There are 4 plates under the main belt you can remove with 2 bolts each, but it really isn't necessary.
If you have your head angle set too flat and you try to cut too low, the sensing mechanism goes "over center" and then you'll try to drive the feederhouse into the ground. Really not a problem, it only happened once to us first year, we actually had the head tipped back enough the sickle was pointing slightly up, not the correct way to run regardless, just be aware it is within the range of adjustments.
We have a SCH cutterbar on it, works great. Only issue is it's not a "supported setup" by SCH, but SI Distributing has the parts to make it work. The only real issue is the knife drive attachment to the sickle bar, I keep a left and right on hand. In case you haven't picked up, I don't like downtime. They are attached by a recessed socket head bolt, if it works loose your connecting bar is pretty well damaged, so replace it is.
People will say you can start an hour earlier and run later. I somewhat disagree. I think if you want to really beat up your combine, you can run around the clock. The draper will cut off anything you put in front of it, and shove it in. I have combined beans I should not have, and could not have, with an auger. So there are lessons to be learned.
Anyone who equates CNH discontinuing the head with it's quality has never been involved with corporate decision making. There are a plethora of reasons when CNH did what they did, only one of which is the product quality. They decided to dedicate their factory and engineering resources in other ways, who knows why. I do know of 2 people who ordered the CNH heads the last year available because they liked them well enough they wanted to keep running them.
For us anyway, the head cuts very low, flexes well in terraces, feeds smoothly, doesn't leave anything behind, and is low maintenance. I'm pretty sure those are the key criteria one should look for in platform header.
There you have it, good luck.
Edited by Oliver1 8/1/2024 16:22
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Whether to buy 2014 Case 3162 Draper
