I'd say go with the 9860, it uses a good bit more fuel than a 9760 but the 98 will way out do the 97 any day. We ran a 98 and 97 last year and there was no comparison, we ran the 9860 beside a 9770 this year and our 9860 was still much more machine in corn and rice, the 9760 and 9860 were comparable in soybeans, both machines were running 30 foot heads and 12 row corn heads, hope this helps