8-Row Offset Corn Head Built From Two Used 4-Row Heads
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"You have to take a second look when you first see it, but it works great," says custom combiner Wayne Meerdink, Orange City, Iowa, who merged two used Deere 4-row corn heads to build an 8-row 38-in. offset corn head for his Deere 7720 Titan II combine.
Two of the head's row units are positioned beyond the left tire and three rows are beyond the right tire. The 24.5 by 32 tires are set 120 in. apart, allowing Meerdink to straddle three rows.
Meerdink custom harvests 1,100 acres for a customer who plants with an 8-row 38-in. planter. "I had been combining with a 4-row corn head but it was too small for this combine. To keep the machine full I had to drive so fast that the customer complained I was knocking ears off the stalks. Also, I was ruining combine tires by driving them on top of corn stalks, and I wanted to keep the combine tires off my own farm's 30-in. rows. However, Deere doesn't offer an offset corn head so I decided to build my own."
Meerdink removed one row unit from one of the heads and centered the three remaining row units with the throat of the feederhouse. He cut up the second head, adding two row units to the left side of the first head and put the three remaining row units to the right side, double splicing the header frame on the right side.
Next he reinforced the entire main frame with angle braces at the rear and underneath. He also built new drive shafts for the row units. "The most difficult part of the whole project was lengthening the feeder auger on the header," says Meerdink. `Because the head was offset, the auger is longer on the right side than on the left side. If I did it over I'd build the auger from scratch without splicing be-cause it's hard to keep the spliced auger from wobbling.
"One benefit of this offset head is that the left outside row is 57 in. closer to the cab than it is on a conventional 8-row combine. That means there's more room for the tractor and grain cart while unloading on-the-go and also while opening fields. I can go into a corner, back away, and make a quick right hand turn without knocking down much corn."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Wayne Meerdink, Rt. 1, Box 56, Orange City, Iowa 51041 (ph 712 722-1077).
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8-Row Offset Corn Head Built From Two Used 4-Row Heads COMBINES Headers 13-3-7 "You have to take a second look when you first see it, but it works great," says custom combiner Wayne Meerdink, Orange City, Iowa, who merged two used Deere 4-row corn heads to build an 8-row 38-in. offset corn head for his Deere 7720 Titan II combine.
Two of the head's row units are positioned beyond the left tire and three rows are beyond the right tire. The 24.5 by 32 tires are set 120 in. apart, allowing Meerdink to straddle three rows.
Meerdink custom harvests 1,100 acres for a customer who plants with an 8-row 38-in. planter. "I had been combining with a 4-row corn head but it was too small for this combine. To keep the machine full I had to drive so fast that the customer complained I was knocking ears off the stalks. Also, I was ruining combine tires by driving them on top of corn stalks, and I wanted to keep the combine tires off my own farm's 30-in. rows. However, Deere doesn't offer an offset corn head so I decided to build my own."
Meerdink removed one row unit from one of the heads and centered the three remaining row units with the throat of the feederhouse. He cut up the second head, adding two row units to the left side of the first head and put the three remaining row units to the right side, double splicing the header frame on the right side.
Next he reinforced the entire main frame with angle braces at the rear and underneath. He also built new drive shafts for the row units. "The most difficult part of the whole project was lengthening the feeder auger on the header," says Meerdink. `Because the head was offset, the auger is longer on the right side than on the left side. If I did it over I'd build the auger from scratch without splicing be-cause it's hard to keep the spliced auger from wobbling.
"One benefit of this offset head is that the left outside row is 57 in. closer to the cab than it is on a conventional 8-row combine. That means there's more room for the tractor and grain cart while unloading on-the-go and also while opening fields. I can go into a corner, back away, and make a quick right hand turn without knocking down much corn."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Wayne Meerdink, Rt. 1, Box 56, Orange City, Iowa 51041 (ph 712 722-1077).
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