|
Galahad, Alberta | Macdon first started with the "Harvest Header", made from the mid 80's up till 1991. I used to run a 25' one of these on a 8820 and then a 9500. It worked fine on either machine with no change-over issues. It used the old style JD wobble box and had a pump for running the canvases that used the combine's hyd oil. Not a great system, orbit motors were an issue. The 960 header is from about 1992 up to 1998. The adapter, called a 960A, was from the same period. The headers were fairly bullet proof and you could get them with lots of options, although if all you are doing is straight cutting, shifting decks is kind of pointless. The adapter now had it's own hyd. oil reservoir for turning the drapers and pea auger. Big improvement. The reel is still run from the combine hyd. system. Macdon then went to the 962/972 headers for a few years, then the 963, 973 and 974. I traded my old Macdon off on a 2002 36' 962 with a 1998 960A adapter under it for use on a 9610. Again, no problems hooking up to the combine, but I had to do some piecing together of drive line stuff to fit the older adapter adapter to the newer header. You will notice in adds that they will list adapter model numbers 871, 872, or 873. These were vast improvements over the 960A design. I am currently running a 873 adapter converted to single point hook up for my STS 9760 with the good old 962 header on it. The 962 is a basic draper header best suited to standing grain. I do cut field peas with mine, but you have to be careful. The 972/973 is a better built machine that can really cut low, and has some bells and whistles that the 962 doesn't have. Watch for the design of the pick-up reel(6 bats vs, 5), gauge wheels, transport kits(small wheels vs. big wheels), pea augers, fore-/aft on the reel, hydraulic tilt on the header. I have the 960A adapter for sale, if you want to go on a road trip this summer!
Rosco | |
|
Mac Don Headers (educate me)
