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Tell me about the Massey 9740 swathers

36K views 73 replies 19 participants last post by  newfarmac 
#1 ·
I am currently considering a Massey 9740 swather. I am having a hard time justifying the price difference to follow everybody else and go to a new MacDon. The Massey swather seems to be a very nice unit but I am a bit concerned because most people here will only buy a MacDon. Can anybody tell me of their experiences with these swathers? How well does it perform cutting canola? Anybody running both machines in the same fields? It would have the 5200 head, not the 5300, so it still has the UII reel. Any pros/cons would be greatly appreciated.
 
#2 ·
Get the red or green mcdon whichever gets you the best deal.No matter hoe you adjust it the header does not make a nice swath it looks nice from the road but once sit in combine at harvest you see the swath is full of bundles and there nothing more to make combine thrash to full capactiy than a nice even consistant swath. This happens in all crops but in canola it is the worst because canola gets caugt by wheel motor shields not enough clearence and by the diesel exhaust fluid tank of all places.Reel does not lift high enough in good canola and dont even atempt to swath hemp. Its impossible to swath dry beans because you have to cut on ground and cutter bar angle is wrong no matter if its tilted all the way back or forward. These are just a few things about header. On the tractor side i dont even wanna start about the stupid armrest display it not user friendly and have of the time when you push buttons and scroll with knob on the side nothing happens .Did i mention its not user friendly. The multifunction or hydro handle is from a decade ago . It does not have automatic variable reel speed like when you speed up or down reel does not automaticaly speed up or down . This is the expirience from 2014 models. trade four in for mcdeeres and none of these complaints and i know macdon is not perfect.
 
#5 ·
Well I don't know what your talking about I have a 9735 and love it works great in canola I haven't had any issues with a single item. easy to set very nice swath in any crop. swaths go through combine like nothing. On the other hand a CaseIH neighbor ran 2 Macdons for years now has 2 MF 9770 and said the MFs are a far better machine then the Macdons they replaced. So as a farmer judge for yourself and get the best deal you can. Don't pay an arm and a leg for any brand!
 
#3 ·
Very happy with mine. Self cleaning rad works great, auto steer great, lots of power, uses very small amount of DEF, good on fuel, header floatation excellent and electronic monitor easy to use, header has Schumacher knife and v-groove drive canvasses which never gave a bit of trouble. I've also never had any problems with a UII reel. Works good in canola at 5-6 mph which I am content with. In my opinion the tractor unit is every bit as good or better than the MacDon but the 5200 header may not be quite up to the MacDon heads if you need to cut very heavy canola at high speeds .
 
#4 ·
Well...ahem...I just went from a MacDon to an WR9840 with a 5300 header. Not exactly what you are looking at but I believe the tractor to be similar. I won't go into the laundry list of problems I had with my MacDon swather but it mostly related to cheap components. There were some major design flaws but the downtime relating to knife repair was completely unacceptable IMO. I previously had Honeybee heads with the Schumacher knife and NEVER broke more than a handful of parts in a year. I am quite pleased to see a Schumacher on this AGCO swather again.:smile:

Before I bought I talked to a few guys that had run both the brands in question and all preferred the AGCO swather. I will be able to give a much more detailed report after harvest but it looks like a swather with a lot of very nice features.

The UII reel wouldn't concern me in the least, but we aren't particularly hard on machinery here so maybe if it were spinning 20mph and bouncing through ruts there would be issues.:rolleyes:
 
#7 ·
nope you are not alone ....I know of one that was bought close to hear and the guy dumped it immediately because of problems you mentioned. they did several hundred acers of silage and it couldn't keep up to a macdon . dealer was out to it and still no better. the 5300 header is supposedly better
 
#11 ·
I deal with both machines and see pro's and con's to both units but if I had to buy one personally it would be the MF either in the new header or old. Massey has come a long way in the header department but as far as the traction unit Massey has the nicer machine. Nicer cab suspension if you have the big cab, better seat (heated and cooled), nicer electronics to deal with and far more information to work with on the display. The C1000 is somewhat small but compared to the Macdon screen its huge. I see where people complain about the rotary dial to change things but to make it simple you just can't crank on it fast, you have to take a few extra seconds with it. The hydraulic flotation is hands down better than the aged ol springs on the Macdon which Macdon has personally told me are more responsive than hydraulic float but then what happen's when you're just a little too heavy and the float adjust cylinders are already maxed out, you have to get a wrench or impact on them to manually adjust them where the mf you just hit a button and you're done. The one big pro is that you don't have to turn your massey around to get full road speed out of it. I would say most of our customer's don't turn their seats around and just drive the 17mph in header forward mode, the MF is capable of 22 header forward. Both machines are simple to deal with mechanically and when it comes to hooking a service computer onto the machine, Macdon has done a nice and simple job of that with their Canwin program. MF's hydraulic drive cooling fan gives you the reverse function like the combine and it does the best job of keeping the system clean and cool. When it comes to the worries about the frame leg's on the MF I have not found a issue with this in the bushiest crops of canola, on the earlier machine's we had some issue's with the hoses getting rubbed on and MF came out with a cover to protect them and then changed the hose to a long steel pipe which solved the issue all together. I have spent time in the MF cutting canola and haven't ran into crop hanging up on the legs and it leaves a great swath out behind. When it comes to headers Macdon does have a better header compared to a 5200 in some aspects but I have seen the changes over the years of what the 5200 has come into and it's a solid header. I would say it's biggest weak point was a MF knife on 36ft and not being able to make it double knife drive. We have issue's with repeat knife breakage's at the head. The Schmacher knife pretty much fixes this issue although they can fail too. I have not personally spent any time yet in a 9800 series MF with the 5300 but have watched them cut and they will be making Macdon change the way they do things with that combination. My last bit is for "havin'funfarming". Massey is simply blowing out old inventory to make room for new. There is nothing wrong with the old, they are awesome machines they work great. The new headers and traction units do have some new bells and whistle's that greatly improve them.
 
#15 · (Edited)
The hydraulic flotation is hands down better than the aged ol springs on the Macdon which Macdon has personally told me are more responsive than hydraulic float but then what happen's when you're just a little too heavy and the float adjust cylinders are already maxed out, you have to get a wrench or impact on them to manually adjust them where the mf you just hit a button and you're done.
You know a lot more about Massey than you do MacDon, hydraulic floatation can never match the stiction free nature of coil springs ever, and yes, M series MacDon tractors do have on the go floatation setting, left/right, less/more arrangement.
a U2 Reel is twice the reel on anything Macdon builds, The MacDon reel will easily have twice as many moving parts. I PDI'd enough MacDon Headers to remove any temptation to ever own one.
I've used U2 for about 20 years and D/FD MacDon reels for 11 years.
Granted, never PDI'd, only in the field, a MacDon may have 200% of the parts but it has 10% of the maintenance.
 
#12 ·
a U2 Reel is twice the reel on anything Macdon builds, The MacDon reel will easily have twice as many moving parts. I PDI'd enough MacDon Headers to remove any temptation to ever own one. At least CNH use(at least used too) Honey Bee headers on their swathers, but they couldn't build a tractor unit that was half as good as the headers. I don't know much about new Massey Swathers, but the 220's were fantastic machines..
 
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#16 ·
personally I'll take the hydraulic floatation over the springs any day my 9220 had it and now the 9735 has it, REALLLY is AWESOME to be able to adjust as needed without leaving the seat. As far as heated cooled seat I have it on mine the cooling is really good on a hot August day. Funfarming I really recommend you go to your MF dealer and try the controls in the cab then check out the Macdon and think about readjusting those springs in the field when it's 90F outside. That cooling system on the MF is the best thing since sliced bread no more over heating or having to blow rads out!
 
#17 ·
As pointed out above, you can set MacDon floatation on the go from seat as well.
You however are correct about Massey's cooling, both swathers and combines, wonderful system once you get accustom to the reversing fan noise.
Claas and Massey are currently the two best combines at rad and air filter maintenance, read lack of it.:54:
 
#18 ·
I have had swaths laid by a Massey and MacDon. I believe it was 5200 header on Massey. From my experience you can pick up a 35 foot MD swath easier than a 30 Massey. The Massey swath was laid in 2 directions and very difficult to feed. I have no experience with the new header.
 
#19 ·
As far as the flotation goes yes the Macdon is adjustable from the cab, thus is only effective when you remember to center the float cylinders so that you can get a even amount of increase and decrease. If you make the mistake of having the cylinders extended all the way then adjust your springs you will find yourself in a bind when needing a bit more in the field but it's already maxed out which then results in resetting the float again. I find that the springs do work well but still don't compare to hydraulic. As for the reel's it anyone's opinion here. The reel that's given me the most grief the last few years has been the Macdon. Lots of problems in canola breaking the cam track arm off at the bearing or the control arm breaking off at the bearing. Once these break there usually damage done to the cam track which isn't fun to change. 30ft's with the lodge crop fingers on and single span 35's are the main culprits and cutting canola. I'm not saying the U2's have been perfect for some but for our most part they have been very good to use on all sizes. When agco released the high torque reel motor we did rip some drive ends off the tubes and probably the most famous issue on all Massey's and Hesston's was where the roll pin through the drive shaft would oblong the hole which resulted in multiple pin failures. This problem was rectified around 2011-12 when agco came out with the collar that clamped around the tube with a large bolt putting out the power instead of a little roll pin. With the last couple years of the 5200 they came out with a gearbox drive for the reel and a double clamp on the tube which has had zero failure's. The majority of U2 failures I've seen is guys with honeybee headers breaking the control arms on 36ft headers. One of things I get guys to do with a new machine is to run it for a couple days then go through all the hardware on the reel and make sure everything is tight. Once that aluminum starts to wear you might as well put new stuff on.
 
#20 ·
As far as the flotation goes yes the Macdon is adjustable from the cab, thus is only effective when you remember to center the float cylinders so that you can get a even amount of increase and decrease. If you make the mistake of having the cylinders extended all the way then adjust your springs you will find yourself in a bind when needing a bit more in the field but it's already maxed out which then results in resetting the float again.
Can't follow your mechanical reasoning here, to hear you tell it properly setting the float springs is a hourly event and it actually takes exactly...once.
Either I don't get your reasoning or you don't get how to set it properly, once.

Good point you raise on reels though, I have never run anything but DKD and therefore split reels in what ever size I bought right down to 30' in the old days.
The obvious halving of reel drive component forces likely contribute to little reel maintance required.
 
#21 ·
The point I'm trying to get over is the simplicity of springs vs hydraulic flotation. When it comes down to adjusting the settings the hydraulic system is far easier. My point about the macdon float cylinders is that if you make the mistake of not setting them in the center at initial startup of setting your float, you loose the ability to experience a full range of what they can do for you thus making you go through the process again. It's not a hourly thing but more time consuming on startup.
 
#25 ·
We have been running the 5200 headers for years, you can cut as fast as you can sit in the cab, they do lay a good swath, better than some and worse than some other swathers. But they are good headers, only problem is the drive rollers, but on the newer 5200's they did change it. The u2 reel works good but as was said before you have to keep the bolts tight, if things get loose stuff wears out quickly. I just take a quick look every time I grease. As for the tractor units I only have had the ones before the 9700's. But we never had one problem with it, except mice. (Take roof off and fill the cab corners up with steel wool, this solved that issue.)
9740 Massey is $50000 cheaper than a 155 macdon, $60000 cheaper than a 9840 Massey , so I think it's a pretty easy decision. Get the 9740 , then buy a new truck, boat, take the family to Hawaii, no family, go to Vegas, a guy could have a lot of fun with that kind of money down there.
I think a person could get better value out of his money some other way. But hey that's just me.
 
#28 ·
Well, I made my decision. I bought the 9470/5200 combo. Thanks to all who shared their views and experiences. Like usual there is a variety of experiences and I appreciated hearing them all. Ideally I would have liked to get a machine with either the MacDon header or the new Massey 5300 header. In the end though I have a feeling that in most conditions there will not be a significant enough difference in performance to justify the price difference. And I like the comments about using the money saved for other purposes! ;)
 
#33 ·
Having experience with both machines cutting side by side,you will get the job done with either machine but like some of you, we havealso struggled with the D65 reel cams. The 5200's weakness (the Reel) is also itsstrength. The Macdons reel can powerthe crop through better in tough conditions and therefore has a little morecapacity in those conditions, but if you blow the cam you are down for half aday or better and it will cost you a couple thousand when you’re done. The UII reel will also give you trouble, butthere is literally nothing you can't fix in an hour. So if you are a little careful, the extracapacity of the D65 reel is mute as you basically can’t use it anyway. I would imagine the 5300 would havecomparable performance to the D65 but probably not necessary if you use yourhead. The 5200 and D65 are so close in performance thatyou just can’t make up a lost day of production. If The Massey is more economical to buy I thinkthe decision should be easy. The Masseyhas integrated auto steer which works great and the tractor itself is bulletproof. Neither machine has apparentreliability issues, more about the operator and bad luck. We had A/C issues with the Macdons which have beensolved over time. Also had a water pumps go on one M105 which is not a big dealbut Cummins had no pumps on the continent. But that was a few years ago and probably would not happen today. In wetcanola you have to open up the canvases on the D65 to let some debris out asyou can tear the canvas when too much stuff gets in there. It’s also worth noting that the guys thatrun the combines say they can tell when the Massey swaths are being pickup as they seem to pick up about a halfof a KPH. As I write this I come torealize that we have had a few issues with the Macdons. In the days when we also cut Rye Grass, youhad to remind the operators to stop every couple hours and tighten the bolts onthe wobble box. The box wouldliterally get rips of the machine ($2500 hundred touch). On the 5200 you may want to change yourroller bearing every two year and the D65 you can probably push it to three,other than that not too much to choose between the two

Good luck
 
#37 ·
For a machine that gets used 10-15 days a year at best that is a heck of a pile of cash to spend. Swathers generally don't give massive trouble if maintained. You can buy a brand new one and ram it through sprayer ruts and wreck it just as easy as an old one if you are a guy that does that. I can't afford or need to do that in my operation. A friend who has zero mechanical ability had a 9220 and had the typical Massey issues. Minor electrical gremlin with starting and canvas motor seal and broke the knife once a year. Cutting to fast as he admits. He hates fixing anything with a passion and goes to great lengths to avoid it lol. Everytime his JD sprayer took out a wheel motor he upgraded to a bigger one over the phone the same day trading the broken one. He has since bought a Macdon 150 I think it is and says he likes it lots. He said it never broke down yet lol. He said it doesn't lay as nice a swath as the Massey but to him as long as he never has a wrench in his hand he is happy lol. Everyone has different needs or expectations and being mechanically inclined goes a long way into decision making on any purchase. I prefer to save myself the $50000 price difference and the $150000+ and drive my old 220.
 
#45 ·
You would have to redesign the hydraulic system on the massey to run a macdon header. Massey splits the flow on the header at valve to run the knife, reel and canvas where macdon has a circuit built separately for each one. If you were some kind of a whiz with re-engineering things you could probably do it.
 
#51 ·
Would you mind explaining a bit more why you moved the outrigger wheels? I am sure the ones on this head are a reasonable distance from the end of the header. They are not as far inboard as the MacDon but I didn't think it would make any difference as long as they are behind the header. I have never had a header with wheels on it so it might be a learning experience.
 
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