|
Kentucky | In addition to Silver's comments, here's what I learned last night at the MacDon meeting. Here's some of the changes:
-- There are indicators for both header height and guard angle.
-- Guard profile went from 10 degrees to 5 degrees.
-- You can adjust the knife speed somewhat without changing the header speed.
-- No right side hydraulic hook ups.
-- Changing stabilizer wheel height is easily a one man job.
-- Deck space is deeper because it has a 6" step back allowing fluffy material more feeding room.
-- safety locks for both sides of the reel can be engaged on the left hand side.
-- V-guides for draper tracking are front and back so drapers can not only be switch from side to side for longer wear, but also turned 180 degrees to "double the life" of the draper.
-- Orbit motors for draper drive are inboard so drapers are pulled instead of pushed giving them more torque.
-- New bearings for draper rollers are non-greasable double seal bearing to be maintenance free.
-- Snouts are "hinged" and removeable.
-- More adapter clearance under the head so the adapter won't rub in muddy conditions.
-- Bottom of adapter is thick flexible poly which drops down when latch is released for quick and easy clean out.
-- 3 points monitered for header height sensing instead of one. Sensing occurs and header is carried on front of the adapter as opposed to the rear of the adapter.
-- Quick adjust skid plates instead of needing wrenches to remove bolts when changing skid plate height.
-- ***Much easier header leveling/balancing. No more left and right hand pins to pull and adjust.
-- Improved heavier reel slats and fingers with no more total weight in the reel. Quicker reel adjustments.
-- Feeder drum fingers grab material better when unslugging while reversing.
-- Very little dealer set-up compared to the 974.
This is not an exhaustive list, but I would say that compared to the 974, it is definitely more user friendly and adjustments take less than half the time with the FD70. It looks to be much better in muddy conditions and has better floatation. I think a new 30' head is about $8000 more than the 974's were last year. How much of that is due to the weak dollar? I don't know.
Hope this is a good start on the changes. Happy shopping!
Edited by Jmark71 3/5/2008 09:22
| |
|
Mac Don FD70 and Mac Don 974 Flexdraper
