The onething no one here has mentioned is how much reel shatter cost??

Now Plowboy has ridden with me, and I know he uses air reels, so we both know were each other stands on this, there is a problem with a traditional reel and augers. There is no way to get short beens into the auger without one of 2 ways either let them pile up til the reel swipes them in or beat them in with a reel going way to fast to not thresh them into the air. My fix draper, Plowboys is air reel.

I can agree to one of "Guests" points is that drapers will pick up rocks, but not anything that will cause damage. I hear that hydroflex drapers work good but what about them in 5-10 yrs when the electrical and hydraulic problems apear. Our 9600's are becaming electrical nightmers, several options have quit working and we are leaving them that way. They have over 6000 hrs on them 99% of those hrs are in beans and corn. So my question is what happens to a header designed to run on the ground after 5000 hrs? I would rather stick to a mechanical head.

I would have to disagree with the statment "drapers heads were NEVER designed to harvest on the ground......." Why would MacDons engineers change the cutting angle on there bar to float along the ground. Model 962 is a ceral head does not have the correct angle to spend its life on the ground like a 972 or 974. Why make skid plates longer when everything that touches the ground has already passed, what are you protecting the dirt that collect on them?

I am hooked on drapers, dreed the day I have to run auger head, and we still have 2 of them so I do still run them on ocassion. I am glad "guest" likes his auger, gives deere some business.

Anytime anyone wants to see a draper in action let me know if your in my area I will gladly so off my "baby's" ;)