Floating cutter bars

[DeltaRed]

Been hearing for years about "floating"cutter bars,What are they?How do they work? never seen or used one.I guess they are only used in soybean country? Thanks,Steve

 

[JD Seller]

You are used to "rigid" grain heads. That means the sickle is in a fixed position on the header without any way to move. The "floating" sickle bar system allows the sickle to float up and down independent of the header for a certain distance.

A JD 200 series flex head would allow the sickle to move about six inches and it could flex across the width of the header. So if there is a low or high spot the sickle can conform to the ground contours. The electric header height control will hold the header about 3-4 inches off the ground so only the sickle and skid plates are touching the ground. They have a much lighter foot print than the weight of the whole header.

There where many after market floating sickle bar kits that you would put on a ridged header. Hart-Carter was the most common one and they are still made. Love was another one.

There also where several automatic header height controls made also. Robot was real common. These could be used on ether a floating cutter bar head or a ridged head to control how close it cut to the ground.

 

[JMS./MN]

Everything that JD Seller said. FCB are the middle ground technology- way better than a rigid head that you need to control constantly by hand, but not near as good as a true flex head that is today's technology, controlled electronically.

FCB could have manual control within it's range of up/down travel, or by robot (feelers on the header, monitored by the combine).

Big difference on a true flex head is the way the sickle and the front of the head flex over the ground, virtually shaving it. No robot can match it. I drop the header at the start of the round, hold down the button a second or two----header senses the ground upon contact and shaves it til I get to the other end of the field, I hit 'raise', and make the turn. I ran a FCB for decades, sometimes the robot didn't work, especially in mud......now, combining beans is relaxing.

 

[JMS./MN]

BTW- my Gleaner combine is an M2, 1980..........had the auto header height control....updated it to accept the true flex head like the M3 series and current rotaries would have.

 

[BANDITFARMER]

Here is a pic of my 95 with the 16ft head with floating cutter bar. This head has the robot fingers on the skid plates to control the head hight, The combine is not set up for the robot hydrolic control but dose have the old JD spring assc under the feeder house. All you have to do is adjust the springs tighter to make the head float if the ground changed up or down. When I cut wheat I raise the cutter bar up and shorten the lift chains to hold the cutter bar in the center posission so the sickle cuts from guard to guard as it would on a ridged head, This keeps the cutter bar from shaking and cutting properly. JD did sell a skid plate that bolted to the bottom of a ridged head and with the spring assc would let the head float along, Not the best system but it worked. With the spring assc and the floating cutter bar set up it has yet to give me any problems at all. Wish I had a pic of the spring assc to show how it works. I allso have 2 set of crop dividers to use depending on the need. Bandit

 

[Chester5731]

I have one like Bandit's on my 55.

 

[thartiga]

What JDseller said.

We call them flex heads around here. Going from a Hinicker fixed to a John Deere 200 series flex with electric height control you will never go back. Takes a lot of the stress away by the head raising over a mound or raising if a drive tire hits a rut preventing the cutter bar from digging in. The it comes back down automatically.

Tim