Homemade Small Grain Head

Homemade small grain head COMBINES Headers 11-5-7 If you need a head for combining windrowed small grain, or if you own a platform head but don't like the time-consuming bother of having to remove the sickle and guards to equip it with a windrow pickup attachment, you'll like this low-cost homemade head that David Dowling designed and built for his father Jack Dowling, of Lohrville, Iowa. David started with a 12 ft. International bean head that he bought used for $25. He removed the reel and cut out the center section of the back side. He then used 3 by 6 in. tube steel to build a welded-on frame for attaching the head to the Quick-Tach of his father's 6600 Deere combine. "The auger runs by a chain, then back to a shaft coming from the side of the header on the combine," explains David. The windrow pickup is powered by the same hydraulic motor used on a bean head. "I use the same motor, switching it back and forth when harvesting oats and soybeans. Installing this motor, which only takes a few minutes, is the most time-consuming part of putting the homemade head on the combine," notes Jack. "I've used it two years now to harvest oats and it works great. It's narrow ùthe same width as the combine and real easy to maneuver through gates or down the road." Contact: Jack Dowling, Rt. 1, Lohrville, Iowa 51453 (ph 712 464-3017).

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