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12r22 chopping head vs 8r30

1K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  Jeff-C-IL 
#1 ·
OK, how much more power does a 12r22 claas chopping head require than a 8r30? We have a 2014 740TT with the C13 engine (rated at 402 HP I believe). We currently run a 8r30 chopping head on it because we have a 16r30 planter we plant corn with. The combine uses that head like it's not even there - you can't go fast enough to work the combine hard and if you go much over 5 mph it seems like the choppers don't do quite as nice of a job. A 12r30 chopping is probably the right size head for the combine but I don't want to go that direction because of our planter size.

To throw another wrinkle in things I have a 36r22 planter that I put all of my soybeans in with. I could put corn in with this also but have not because we don't have a head for it. If we got a 12r22 head I know we would have enough power for it but would it's only 2' wider than a 8r30 but has 4 extra rows to turn. What would the engine load be at 4-5 mph? And I know I would probably be a bit light on power for a 18r22 but what size machine minimum would run that header at 3 mph? Just thinking that there's a chance we would move up a size in the future and then we'd be in the same problem again with too small of a head for too big of a machine. FWIW typical yields here would be around 150, but possibly up to 200.
 
#2 ·
Chopping heads take a certain HP per row---not by overall width or row spacing. So comparing a 8 row chopping to a 12 row chopping of the same brand should take roughly 50% more HP to run the header--reqardless of row spacing. Maybe slightly less due to fewer plants per foot in narrower rows.

There are a lot of 12-30's running on 740's
 
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