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D450 vs m150

24K views 62 replies 30 participants last post by  torriem 
#1 ·
Would like to hear some opinions from other people who have run a M series macdon swather compared to a JD 450.

Our dealer has been great enough to let us demo a D450 with a 635 header on for the last couple of days swathing canola along side our M150 with a 35 foot D60 header. I know the majority of guys lean towards the macdon but after running this Deere for 2 days now I can't see why. I have swathed with it in pretty much every condition we would ever encounter. That being mud, water, short canola, tall canola, tangled canola and drowned out spots full of green weeds. The JD is doing 6 or 7 acres more per hour then the macdon. It is a way nicer machine to run I think just because of the cab and the controls and the superior ride from the back suspension. It is also very nice to be able to carry tools and parts in your cab without having to worry about trying to turn your seat around so you can go faster down the road.

So why is everybody buying macdons instead of the deere? Would like to hear from a few people that have run both before we trade our macdon in on a JD.
 
#2 ·
The hart carter reel is not built as heavy as the reel on the D60. Have had a few hart carters in the past on various Jd headers and they require more upkeep. The rest of the JD header is better built though I think. Just little things like hydraulic hoses are better quality and also routed better. The gauge wheels also have quite a few less moving parts and linkages to wear out to cause play in everything.
 
#4 ·
Which cab is nicer and more importantly quieter?

I agree that JD looks like a good swather but it is good to hear from people who have run them.
 
#6 ·
The M155 has 2 tool boxes on the sides..nothing in the cab to rattle around..The suspension on the 155 is super sooth even against the seeding..The cab is so quiet you can hear your hair grow!! Never drove a JD, but find it hard to believe it could be better than the M155..Sure love ours..can cut canola as fast a you want to travel with zero issues...
 
#7 ·
I heard you can't see your cutter bar on the deer when in the field. We have 2 deer 635 for our S690s and 2 green W150s with 35 ft D60s. I have never run the 450 with the deer header but one other thing I heard was the divider was very wide and caused more losses in canola than the Mac. I would say that the deer header has to weigh much more as well. I would say the deer draper is over kill as far as a swather header application.
 
#8 · (Edited)
35 foot header. Going anywhere from 6mph where it is laying down and green and tangled up to 8.5mph where it is standing nice. If you averaged it out during the day it would be around 7.5. The macdon will keep up but its to hard on the operator to keep up the pace all day like that. Way more vibration in the Macdon and the header also seems to bounce around more while driving with it up in the air.

Yes, you cannot see your knife directly in front of you, but you can see your sickles towards the outsides of the header. That was my first concern actually, but you get used to it real quickly especially with the auto header height working so well.


We usually carry most of our parts on tool boxes mounted on the outside, but we like to keep our tools inside, and then you also have to have your picinic basket full of food, beverages and snacks cluttering up our floor.
 
#10 ·
I find the same thing. We went too fast (7.5) last year and had way too many lumpy swaths. 6 mph seems to be the right speed in heavy canola. Lighter crop 7+ seems to work. Like you said it pauses at the Center before falling to the ground and changing the settings helps but it seems to be a speed issue.
The combines are happier with a 6 mph swath.
 
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#26 ·
Bull ****. I lost my butt buying 3 jd a450s they are like riding a bull dozer and used ones sell cheap. Hesston and massey have the tractor machine that they all marvel over but macdon has a great header. Lift your skid shoes and learn how to run them. A superior swather over JD. I learned the hard way. Bought 3 deere and after 1000 hrs, i had issue after issue. imo. Also, new deere swather, 155x, new macdon 154, no gps either way and no dealing, that was the price out of the shoot. All colors have good and bad, but dont tell me price is the fact when the fact is they are all the same. Farmer Jones, if you painted dog **** green, your dog **** would be better then mine too.
 
#32 · (Edited)
Duchek ,back to your original post ,the spec sheets I compared gives the D450 70 more HP that would likely give it capacity for 2mph more presuming everything else would also work perfect and the big tires should also make the ride a lot better .
The only negative feature is the weight of the head which is about 900lbs heavier.
 
#33 ·
We have a w150 and I find the greatest thing about it is that it has a hydraulic knife drive, which means you dont have to run full throttle to maintain knife speeds. We typically run 1400 to 1500 rpm and have done over 350 acres on a tank of fuel because of that. We can almost cut for two days on a tank.
 
#34 ·
We find with our M150 that you are usually looking for fuel every 10 hours. We find that we can't run with the rpm's cut back though because it doesn't have enough power for in hills or in low spots where you have to throw the hydro lever ahead to keep from getting stuck. The D450 is burning more fuel though but it is also doing more per hour to.

Still haven't decided if we should trade or not.
 
#42 · (Edited)
Since some we're asking about the W235's, I will give our experience with them. The W235's replace the D450's we had the last 3 years. R450 with Honeybee before that. Macdon before that.
We really liked the D450's, had no issues or downtime. We share the headers with the combines, which made it more economical to keep them updated.
The W235's have all the same "auto" functions as the D450's.

Main differences between the two:
Integrated autosteer (works awesome, as expected)
Cab position is higher, farther forward, and centred (all good)
35 more horsepower ( not really needed for drapers. Great in mud and water though)
Lighting is better ( more HID's, rear cab lights are now above drives. No bugs in face)
Fridge ( nice )
DEF ( don't need that )
Deep tinted rear window with front and rear shades
Rear radiator chimney scoop ( seems to work great. Rads were clean and swing open)
XM Bluetooth radio with armrest or touchscreen controls.
S series combine cab ( wider, more comfortable, better visibility)
JD Link. ( gee whiz stuff, cool, but....).
Remote Display Access ( usefull for assisting screen functions from afar)

Disappointments:
Cab noise ( very quiet, until certain hydraulic functions are used, reel lift, tilt up, float )
Header tilt ( seems to tilt back less than D450 when header is down )
Header lift height ( seems same as D450, but was hoping W235 would lift higher)

One machine is quieter than the other ( hydraulic noise, so I am hopefull the other can be set that way). No time to work that out, since they we're running day and night for 5 days straight.
Almost seems like there is no sound insulation on the back of the cab. Should be, for the price.

Homework for Deere:
Fix the hydraulic "sizzling, bypassing noise when certain functions are used.
Soundproof the back wall of cab. Floor too.
Make the draper head lift higher.
Figure out a way to lift gauge wheels up, when head is all the way up.
Change position of knife drive motor, so head can tilt back more in working (auto height, position)

That's about all the info I have for those that we're wondering.
 

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