In a previous thread this year I asked what the best corn head was for down corn. I asked if I needed a corn reel, if I needed rollacones, etc. Now I guess I have a bit more experience and I figured I would share what I learned.

Conditions

First of all, a description of the conditions. The corn blew down about as it was starting to fill. On the headlands where we have more compaction, it blew pretty flat and probably 60% to 80% of it never even tried to stand back up. From what I hear from you guys in higher yielding areas, the headland passes are often some of the better corn but I have never experienced that to be the case here.

Out in the fields away from the headland passes it really varied. Some of the fields that I thought would be terrible turned out to be pretty decent once we got the end rows picked off and some of the worse areas maybe within 300' of roads picked off. So there were some areas where it never blew down for the most part and we have been able to pick them two directions.

Some of the other fields got pushed over quite a bit even out in there and it tried to stand back up but instead just ended up goosenecking back up about 2/3 of the way between the roots and the ear so the hear was up a bit but the tip of the ear was basically touching the ground.

None of it seemed to rot off at the ground.

Challenger 12R30" (Gleaner 3000 Hugger)

This head is the head I have the most experience with by far because it's the one I own and the one I run on my S67 Gleaner. It has an AGCO wedge kit installed on it to make it run flatter and it has Calmer deck plates and it has the stalk roll modification where you cut some of the stalk roll back. It also has Headsight Horizon with 5 sensors and Headsight Truesight. It's basically a Gleaner 3000 Hugger that was painted yellow and was supposed to be run on a Challenger combine. The previous owner did kind of a shoddy job of converting it to run on a Gleaner. We did a fairly professional job of getting the augers set up to work better with a Gleaner and did some other modifications to make it feed better. We installed a Crop Sweeper from Patriot Equipment and I bought Snout Cones from Patriot equipment for it but never ended up installing them.

My opinion of the Hugger 3000 head is better than my opinion of the S67. I don't think it's a perfect head by any means but for when it was introduced, it had to have been a pretty good and when you add Calmer deck plates it makes it do a pretty good job for head shelling even on very dry corn.

As far as how it compares to other heads in down corn, I would say it's not bad. It is more of a one direction head than the Capello and it does not feed perfectly (even with the mods we have done) when you have to take a lot of material in but it doesn't feed terribly after those mods. It does seem like when the corn is leaning away from you it's almost like the snouts push the corn away from you even further and makes it so you lose quite a few years and it really does force you to go in one direction. But several other heads seem to do that as well so that's not a huge strike against it.

Since the corn did not rot off, the Crop Sweeper (corn reel) was not needed a lot but we have used it occasionally to help get rid of the pile of fluff in the front of the feederhouse. In a few fields they would have been pretty challenging to harvest without it even though we have maybe put only a few hours of actual use on the Crop Sweeper this whole season. A few minutes of use here and there while on the go equates to avoiding getting out and shoveling stuff around with a pitchfork so I think it was probably worthwhile despite the low use.

Overall I would say the Challenger head is good enough for the money after adding Calmer deck plates and doing a few other things that I am considering converting it over to run on a Case combine if I trade the Gleaner off and I'm considering buying another Challenger or Massey head and running it on the Case if I keep the Gleaner and buy a Case as an additional combine. I do wish they ran heavier chain on the drives on the ends of the head though.

Gerringhoff Northstar XL 12R30

The Gerringhoff Northstar XL is the cornhead I have used the most other than the Challenger head. I rented a Case 7230 with the Gerringhoff this year and last year. Although I have not rented it nearly as much this year, it has behaved exactly the same as it did last year.

I really love how it feeds. It has NEVER piled up in front of the feederhouse on me. But there may be some reasons for that. The people I rent it from have the deck plates set up so that you cannot get the deck plates as narrow as I usually run on other heads. I believe there is a bit more butt shelling on this head for that reason. If I owned it I would spend a fair amount of time adjusting the deck plates so I can run 1/8" wider than the smallest corn stalks I am likely to harvest at the narrowest position of the hydraulic adjustment range. Right now the narrowest setting is considerably wider than that.

Anyway, if I were running the deck plates as narrow as I do on other heads maybe it would bring in more residue and maybe it would develop a pile in front of the feederhouse like many of the other heads.

The only thing I just really can't stand about the Gerringhoff is how it throws gathering chains. It is EXTREMELY sensitive to ever getting anywhere close to the ground. The idler sprockets are easily pushed back by the ground and that loosens the chain enough that it throws the chain off. This happens over and over and over. The owner I rent it from has spoken with regional reps and done everything they have asked and they have also done several of their own ideas and it just throws chains like crazy when you have to run close to the ground.

The only thing that can keep it from throwing chains in my mind is if you NEVER scrape any part of the frame of the row unit on the ground. In down corn this must mean aiming the snouts down a LOT. I set the lowest point of the row unit about 3 to 4" off the ground and then adjusted all of the snouts so they are touching the ground and I still throw chains even on flat ground when I'm being as careful as I can be to not do anymore than barely touch the tips on the ground. With a 12R head there are just flat out variations in terrain and you will end up with with a row unit scraping here an there even if most of the head is 3 to 4" off the ground.

I will say that I have not personally verified how the owner has pursued all of the things recommended by dealers and Gerringhoff reps. To me the chains do not seem as tight as I imagine they should be so I wonder if the tensioners are worn out. I really don't know anything else I could do to prevent it from throwing chains other than potentially replace chains, sprockets and tensioners but since it's not my head I probably will not do those things

If anyone knows the key to keeping the Gerringhoff from throwing chains I would love to hear it because it's a head I really want to love.

One other thing I'm not a fan of on the Gerringhoff is the ear savers. I think they're fine if you're in tall corn but you're harvesting pretty low but I always harvest as high as I can without losing ears. The ear savers on this head are pretty substantial and I think they knock as many ears off before they get pas the ear savers as they save once the ears get past the ear savers. They're just really substantial and it's not a sure thing that the ears can withstand being hit by them. I really need to take the time to remove them sometime and see how things look when they are removed.

If I could get this thing to quit throwing chains, this would be the head I would put on a Case combine next year. Just not sure how to do that though.

Drago GT

Today the local Case dealer brought a demo Case 7250 with a 12R30" Drago GT. It's likely that I'll either trade the Gleaner off for a red one next year or I'll just buy a red one and run it with my Gleaner next year. For me the demo was more about the head than it was the combine (and the dealer knew that) because it's unlikely I'll buy a combine newer than a 30 series but if a head was amazing, it's not out of the real of possibility that I would buy a new one.

I wanted the Drago to be amazing and in some ways it was but in other ways it was disappointing. First of all, it generated a large pile of fluff in front of the feederhouse. Eventually the pile would get large enough that it would start losing ears. The dealer made some mods that seemed to improve performance but it did not totally eleminate the issue and I didn't feel we were running in the worst conditions so I wonder if in poorer conditions if it would feed even worse.

I think some of the reason for that issue the automatically adjusting deck plates. With hydraulically or electrically adjustable deck plates a guy can say, "yes, I'm going to butt shell more if I open the plates but at least I'll take enough less residue in that I won't be piling it in front of my feederhouse and losing ears off the front". But with the Drago, you can't do that. It's always going to be as closed as it can be for the conditions. I also have concerns about how much maintenance is required to keep the deck plates moving like they should.

Other than those two issues, I really liked the Drago head but those two issues are likely enough for me to shy away from it.

Capello

Now we're getting into heads that I have not personally run or have run very little. The Capello is intriguing to me. I know of quite a few of them running in this area. They have all said that in some conditions it leaves a pile in front of the feederhouse but it hasn't been a big enough deal for anyone that they are really upset about it.

It seems to pick up down corn really well. For whatever reason it does not seem to push the corn even further away from you like so many other heads do so it's more likely that you can pick two directions than some other heads but it's certainly not a sure thing. Since I haven't run this head I'm just going off of what others have said but I've heard enough good things locally that since I can't get the Gerringhoff to stop throwing chains, I think the Capello is a very likely course for me going forward. Probably more likely that converting the Challenger to run on a Case.

Deere 612C

This is the only head that I have heard from multiple owners that it's not leaving a pile of fluff in front of the feederhouse. Maybe the Gerringhoff would be in that category too but since it's not adjusted in a way that I would consider to be proper I hate to make claims that may not be realistic. Anyway not sure why it doesn't pile as easily but that's a pretty appealing characteristic from my perspective. It does seem to push corn down more than it already was when it's leaning away from you simliar to the Challenger/Hugger 3000 head.

That's about all I can remember right off the top of my head. Really they all have pros and cons. A guy just has to figure out what's important to him.