Hesston 7020 chopper

[Jhn]

Is the chopper the same as International or some other brand or just by itself. I am wondering to see if hay or corn heads and other parts are interchangable.

 

[NY 986]

Is the chopper the same as International or some other brand or just by itself. I am wondering to see if hay or corn heads and other parts are interchangable.

Not interchangeable and any parts would be through an AGCO dealer. The only connection Hesston had with IH was after IH was bought up by Tenneco with Hesston supplying forage equipment as IH had sold off its hay and forage line to New Idea several years prior. A number of dealers sold Hesston products around here until the early 1980's with a lot of them also carrying Ford. In general Hesston forage harvesters were well regarded.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

By the time Hesston came into the picture, it was "CaseIH" not International.

Tenneco ended the deal with New Idea in 1986 or 1987. We got one of the last "Case International" branded 435 balers as a leftover around that time, IIRC.

I believe the CaseIH choppers post-1987 were built by Hesston, but weren't the same as the Hesston choppers for some reason. Hesston supplied their mower conditioners and inline balers as-is, but for some reason the choppers were different.

 

[Brendon-KS]

By the time Hesston came into the picture, it was "CaseIH" not International.

Tenneco ended the deal with New Idea in 1986 or 1987. We got one of the last "Case International" branded 435 balers as a leftover around that time, IIRC.

I believe the CaseIH choppers post-1987 were built by Hesston, but weren't the same as the Hesston choppers for some reason. Hesston supplied their mower conditioners and inline balers as-is, but for some reason the choppers were different.

At the end of the CaseIH / Hesston joint venture (Hay & Forage Industries) the two brands of choppers were identical except for the paint and decals. As far as I know this is the way it was the entire time but the information I have access to doesn't go back farther than 2001.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

At the end of the CaseIH / Hesston joint venture (Hay & Forage Industries) the two brands of choppers were identical except for the paint and decals. As far as I know this is the way it was the entire time but the information I have access to doesn't go back farther than 2001.

Except, there is no CaseIH equivalent to the above-pictured chopper. None of the Hesston-built CaseIH choppers I have been able to identify had a blower mounted directly behind the cutterhead, and none of the Hesston-branded choppers I have been able to identify had an offset blower like the CaseIH models.

This was a point of curiosity for me several years ago when I was trying to find a replacement for our 881 chopper, so I spent considerable time researching. The Hesston-built choppers seemed like even more of a dog on the market than the New Idea-built ones.