Some of us have rocks to contend with and no matter how many you pick up and how careful and observant you are there is always the rogue one waiting to do damage. Without a stone dam they can often bounce off a guard and slide right into the head. Breaking auger fingers, denting the auger, etc. Hopefully the rock trap will catch them before they enter the cylinder and cause major machine damage.

I consider myself a very competent and careful operator and spend most of bean harvest carefully watching and anticipating seeing stones. However on some occasions where a rock would get flipped up on the cutter bar it would seem like an eternity until you see the rock, react, hit the header electric clutch button and wait while the head coasts to a stop all in the hopes the rock does not slide down the slippery sheets into the auger. Or you are harvesting thick drilled beans and pull out at the end of a pass and there sits a rock on the cutter bar that you never even saw bounce up.

This hose acts like the more expensive stone dams on newer heads and helps to catch or slow down a rock from getting into the head.

Yes it may impede crop flow slightly but in thick beans and dusty conditions many times you are almost blind seeing the ground in front of you. You may often see a clump or something pushing in a pile because the hose has caught a rock and is blocking the sickle from cutting.

It's one of those million dollar ideas that was shared freely on Ag Talk that is low cost and can be adapted to any brand and any age machine for little cost and effort.

Here is an unstaged picture that happened shortly after installing the modification on my head. Pulled up at the end of a pass and this was being held back by the rubber hose dam. Paid for itself in very short order.