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| Gibbsville seems like great people. I agree that it works best to keep the things you need most on hand. We haven't done any repairs yet to the FP240 besides that metal detector which was under warranty, so I don't know what a reasonable average cost per ton would be. We do try to be as proactive as possible. Of course that shouldn't be notable, but these folks who have major break downs multiple times a day usually aren't keeping things maintained...
If you're chopping 50-60k tons per year then you can justify a SPFH, no question. We're only doing about 2500 tons and wrapping some haylage as well, and chopping for 1-2 neighbors, who help us some in return.
I think the biggest functional advantage to SPFHs is just the fact that they're still being developed. Deere has abandoned the pull-type market. Gehl is out. New Holland hasn't made major changes to the FP series since they came out 20+ years ago. They all trace their design roots to pre-processing days and usually can't chop longer than 1/2" without removing knives, which is rather silly when we consider that the smaller SPFH cutterheads aren't much bigger than the larger pull-types. Direct cut heads were abandoned when I was small. The Dion Scorpions sure are expensive, but they at least represent significant development for folks who have the tractor to pull one and don't want a SPFH.
We have more capacity with the FP240 than we "need" outright, but there have been so many times over the years when corn has dried down prematurely due to weather, all at once, regardless of when it was planted, that I just got tired of chopping dry corn. The neighbors couldn't hardly ever chop theirs and ours on time when they still owned the FP230. Now, we at least have the capacity to roll when we need to, and don't have to worry much about being rained out. And it's also a huge improvement in haylage. We can easily put twice the acreage on the ground and realistically chop it in the same time. | |
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Pros and Cons of Dion rotary corn heads on pull-type choppers
