Flail Chopper Shreds Stalks Behind Picker

Flail Chopper Shreds Stalks Behind Picker COMBINES Corn Pickers(13) 19-1-18 "I've tinkered with mounting stalk shredders behind corn pickers for 30 years, but this is the best one I've come up with yet," says Carl Schultheis, Caro, Mich., who turned an old 5-ft. wide International flail chopper into a 6-ft. stalk shredder that he pulls behind his New Idea 2-row corn picker and wagon. It shreds two rows at a time. What makes the set-up unique is that the pull-behind chopper is electric-powered by a generator mounted up front on the corn picker. Schultheis paid $50 for the flail chopper. He removed the blower and cross auger, widened the shredder out to 6 ft., and added a couple of hammers. He bolted a 30 hp electric 2-phase motor on top of the chop-per to belt-drive a gearbox that powers the shredder. He mounted a splitter gearbox (a heavy duty transfer case off a 1971 Dodge 4-WD pickup) on the corn picker's tongue and hooked it up to the picker's pto shaft. He clamped a 3-phase generator onto the picker frame behind the splitter gearbox. Two shafts extend back from the gearbox - one to drive the picker and one to power the generator. An electric cord runs from the generator back to the motor on the chop-per. Schultheis uses a Deere 4240 to pull the picker, wagon, and chopper. It saves a pass and does a better job than any commercial shredder because the tractor doesn't run over the stalks first," says Schultheis. "The hammers cut the stalks twice as they swing around against an angle iron bar. There are no unchopped stalks. Chopped stalks are forced back down onto the ground so nothing flies out the back of the chopper. I used it last fall for the first time on about 20 acres and it worked great. However, it got very windy after I picked the corn and I was afraid the chopped stalks might blow around too much so I plowed them under. The corn stalks were chopped so well that I could hardly tell I was plowing corn ground. I spent less than $500 to build it. I paid $200 for the motor and $50 apiece for the flail chopper and transfer case. I already had the generator. "I use two wagons to pick corn and mounted a telescoping hitch on both of them. I leave a power cord permanently on each wagon and unplug it from both the picker and shredder whenever I switch wagons. I can pull on a rope from the tractor in order to unplug the cord from the genera-tor. The 30 hp motor is under full load most of the time. I ran an electrical lead from the generator up to the tractor so I could mount a clamp-on amp meter, and I plugged a volt-age meter into the extension cord. The amp meter tells me the load that's on the motor, and the voltage meter lets me know if I'm running the generator at the right speed. I mounted a 2-wheel dolly under the chopper's tongue to carry the weight of the flail chopper and make it easier to hook up to an empty wagon. The dolly wheels are off an old land leveler. I use them to swing the chopper over to the wagon. By pulling a pin I can adjust the tongue and set the chopper as close as I want to unpicked corn. If the field gets too wet for the flail chop-per, or for some other reason I can't pull the chopper behind the wagon, I simply pull a pin from a clevis to remove the dolly. I can also put the pto shaft back on the chop-per and use any 50 hp or larger tractor to pull it." , Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Carl Schultheis, 2999 Van Geisen Rd., Caro, Mich. 48723 (ph 517 673-3409).

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