Were in the same boat as you, trying to find a better way to chop stalks.   After demoing a new Lexion head, which has the same technology as drago, harvesttec, cressoni, and K&M Roto choppers (17 years ago), Im not a big fan.

Our class 7 lexion with a 12-30 head does just fine, throw the chopper underneath it, the first thing that took place was to tighten the drive belt on the feeder.   We burn 1 gallon of deisel/acre without chopping and drive a comfortable 4.5 mph.   With the chopper we were burning over 2 gallons/acre and slowing down to unload on the go.  The C-9 Cat engine was maxed.  This was in 16.5% moisture corn.

Road in neighbors 9860 with a 16-22 gerringhoff.    He could go 4.5mph in same yeilding corn (stalks could have been different?) unload on the go was no problem for power wise for him.......I guess 60 more horses will get you there.  I do beleive the Gerringhoff chopped better.   This season they replaced 4 belts and 2 electric clutches.

With absolutly no experience, I beleive the 8010's header drive is best suted for chopping heads.  JD's reverser's after 17 years of basically the same design, is still a problem area for these heads.   We blew 2 reverser shafts when we ran 9600's back in the early 90's with chopping heads.

All in all, there is no free ride, no magic silver bullet.  Here is a pic of the job the lex head did.   Not bad, not quite as good as neighbors gerringhoff but if ya want the best chopping job, I think a shredder still is the best.  That being said, after 10 years of not chopping stalks, we found out what a pita owning and operating a chopper is..........

Good Luck

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chopper (600 x 450).jpg (81KB - 626 downloads)