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SE Minnesota | Anyone who used the Calmer BT chopper kit this year have an update on how it worked?
Thinking about rebuilding my JD 643 this winter and would like to hear some real world experiences
Thanks
John |
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Pasco WA. | The neighbor that cuts my corn put a set on his backup combine with an 893. I have several places where they were ran side by side with a 608c Stalkmaster. The chopping head chops finer. Leaves and husks are not choped by the Calmers. The residue is spread more by the chopping head, but it also windrows when a land is finished. When I disk the first pass I couldn't really tell any difference between the two. Will be interesting to see how they compare next spring. I have left several pivots to be strip tilled next spring so will have a better idea of how they compare. The chopping head leaves a more uniform mat of residue that holds soil moisture better. All in all I was really impressed with them. No idea how long they will last though. My gut feeling is that they are going to wear a lot faster. They are a huge improvement over factory knife rolls. |
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Extreme SW Minnesota Iowa border | 1100 acres on an 893 and so far so good. The dryer the stalks the less chopping action you seem to get. Otherwise, it pretty much obliterates the stalks. As far as wear on the knives, It really wasn't noticable. I forsee Deere not being able to give their knife rolls away pretty soon. |
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| Sledge - 11/13/2011 12:06 I forsee Deere not being able to give their knife rolls away pretty soon. I can't believe they were ever able to sell that junk. |
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SE Minnesota | Do the Calmer rolls take any more HP than JD knife rolls? Does combine speed affect their chopping ability much?
Thanks for the input |
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Dallas Center IA 515-720-2463 | At the Calmer Clinic we were told the new Chopper row takes LESS power than the Calmer BT Crusher row.
But how they compare to regular Deere's I have no Idea.
Seems to me a whole lot better deal than any lawn mower blade chopping head. Or the 3 roll ones.
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N W Tennessee | Ran a set on a 893 this year. Done much better than Deere knives. Speed didn't effect job much. I ran 5.0 - 5.5 mph most of the time and they still chopped stalks well. Neighbors noticed my fields vs. theirs(some made positive comments). Have noticed more shucks blowing around. I guess they were separated from stalks more? As for wear , haven't noticed any excessive wear after a 1000 acres. Did have some minor quality issues , blades welded on wrong direction, and some not exactly straight, also twisted off bolts during installation. But Calmer did replace bad parts at no charge. Maybe they have addressed quality control. Overall I'm satisfied. |
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N W Tennessee | Noticed no power demand at all. |
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SE IA | Calmer's website says $9500 for rolls, stripper plates, chains and sprockets for an 893. Are the chopper rolls the same price as the crushers? Has anyone compared the price to JD parts.? I know it isn't apples to apples I was just curious about how the prices compare. |
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SW MN | I installed the complete BT chopper/ trash reduction kit on JD 893. I put this head on Lexion 580r After talking with company, he said to run head wide open, on a lexion that's 420 rpm. that did a better job. and yes I have 30/25 sprockets. But after I got my soybeans out and the corn was 14% or less I had to slow the head down or have a ton of header loss. So I ended up with no chopping at all.
Alot of $ for nothing! |
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Dallas Center IA 515-720-2463 | Are the chopper rolls the same price as the crushers?
I have been told by Calmer people that the Calmer BT Crusher rolls and the new Calmer Chopper rows are the same price.
On wear. The Calmer people have told me 8000 acres. Don't know if that is 8000 per row or for the entire head. Assume the entire head.
As 8 row running 8000 acres, not 8 X 8000 for 64,000 acres.
Picture at bottom is the BT Crusher row.
The picture in my post above is the Chopper row.
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| You say you had to slow the head way down to avoid lots of header loss. Does any brand of chopping head do a good job of chopping if you run it slow? I know that a pull behind stalk chopper doesn't do a very good job if the tractor is idling so I kinda doubt that a chopping head run slow would work well either.
Edited by Kooiker 11/14/2011 07:57
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Calmer BT chopper updates?
