[Mark01]

Hi y'all. I'm wondering what the differences are between a John Deere pull type chopper and a New Holland. I see a lot of both of these brands around and I'm also in the market for one now so I figured I'd ask for a few suggestions without getting that big Brand loyalty fight started. I dont know to much about either of them.

 

[uxbalex2]

There are probably more New Hollands out there, both brands make a good choppers. Budget / what model your looking at, along with what you have to pull it would help. Do you need a processor?

 

[Mark01]

I have a 260 Magnum and I do around 2000 ton a year of barley, that's about all I'm chopping so far. I'm willing to pay extra for something that's better, I'm a big believer in "you get what you pay for".

 

[caroncrest]

JD will have their cutterhead with more, smaller, staggered knives. NH will have fewer, longer, curved knives. Both dump into a cross auger that sucks up power and can plug when cut length gets longer. If you are set on either of these, I’d go with whichever unit ends up in better shape or whichever dealer can support you the best

If you are for sure only doing barley, some of the pull types that don’t have a cross over auger might be worth a look. JF Stoll (bought out by kongskilde I believe?) or Dion (out of Quebec). If you can find units or support....

 

[uxbalex2]

A fp230 or 240 would be a good choice, I think the 230 should be about the size of the deere, and the 240 a bit bigger. Dion and Kongskilde make higher capacity machines that the NH and Deere wouldn't be able to compeete with.

 

[Mark01]

A fp230 or 240 would be a good choice, I think the 230 should be about the size of the deere, and the 240 a bit bigger. Dion and Kongskilde make higher capacity machines that the NH and Deere wouldn't be able to compeete with.

Thanks, I'll definitely think about it. I figured Deere and New Holland ones are about the same. I doubt that I could get parts for the other 2 around here though.

 

[Mags]

New Holland fp 240 had worked very well for in-laws. It’s also currently powered by a 260 magnum, good match. He’s on probably third one since the old 900’s. Used to do a lot of custom work, they eventually wear out like everything. Spout tin wears out eventually. I’ve been silaging with them last 10-12 years. Just regular maintenance, keep it greased and oiled, blades sharp. Make sure the metal detector roller is working.

 

[farmshop]

Fp 240 will give that magnum a workout. Capacity is dependent on how dry you want to chop and how short of cut. The fp 240 is rated for 300 horse plus they have a better pick up head. You can get them with 9’ heavy duty head. Think Deere only had 7’

 

[Mark01]

Fp 240 will give that magnum a workout. Capacity is dependent on how dry you want to chop and how short of cut. The fp 240 is rated for 300 horse plus they have a better pick up head. You can get them with 9’ heavy duty head. Think Deere only had 7’

Seems like more people are in favour of the New Holland here. How about the kernel processer, which brand has a better one?

 

[uxbalex2]

Horning are definitely better than new holland OEM

 

[alta66]

The Dion would be my pick, we have one in a Hesston dress. It will out do a 240 in most respects, however it has a much poorer pickup. Personally a 240 will not handle 300hp for long, but it sure is fun to see what they can put through at that hp. I would say thanks to the Dion's straight thru design you can easily run 40 less hp then a 240 and get the same done. I know when it comes to our machine I can make the guy packing busy in good first cut or barley with 200+hp on the pto.

 

[Mark01]

The Dion would be my pick, we have one in a Hesston dress. It will out do a 240 in most respects, however it has a much poorer pickup. Personally a 240 will not handle 300hp for long, but it sure is fun to see what they can put through at that hp. I would say thanks to the Dion's straight thru design you can easily run 40 less hp then a 240 and get the same done. I know when it comes to our machine I can make the guy packing busy in good first cut or barley with 200+hp on the pto.

What do you mean when you say in a Heston dress?

 

[Mark01]

Horning are definitely better than new holland OEM

Which brand has this kind? I'm not familiar with them.

 

[alta66]

a 7500 hesston and 1500 new idea were built for agco by Dion 15 or so years ago. they are the same as a 1224 dion

 

[Jvdl]

Ran a fp240 for a number of years with 210hp, have also run Heston with the straight thru setup, I actually felt the Heston pulled a lot harder than the 240, pretty sure the 240 is actually rated for 360hp don’t think that would be a good idea but 250hp at the PTO would be a nice fit and would have great thru put. Have no input on a processer but do like the 9 ft pick up on it, parts have good availability and reasonable price also a good line of jobber parts thru a company called Koomia. Can’t comment much on a deere other than I thought the knife segments on cutterhead would be a good idea if you pick up a rock you can just change segments instead of full knives.
My $0.02

 

[uxbalex2]

Which brand has this kind? I'm not familiar with them.

horning makes aftermarket processors, around here most are ordered new without the new holland processor, and dealers install a horning.

 

[alta66]

Ran a fp240 for a number of years with 210hp, have also run Heston with the straight thru setup, I actually felt the Heston pulled a lot harder than the 240, pretty sure the 240 is actually rated for 360hp don’t think that would be a good idea but 250hp at the PTO would be a nice fit and would have great thru put. Have no input on a processer but do like the 9 ft pick up on it, parts have good availability and reasonable price also a good line of jobber parts thru a company called Koomia. Can’t comment much on a deere other than I thought the knife segments on cutterhead would be a good idea if you pick up a rock you can just change segments instead of full knives.
My $0.02

are talking the hesston built straight through or the dion built straight through?

 

[Jvdl]

are talking the hesston built straight through or the dion built straight through?

Not exactly sure can’t remember the model # may have been the Heston built unit, want to say it was a 7260 or maybe 7560

 

[farmshop]

We ran a fp240 for 4 years till we went self propelled. We ran a 3 row corn head and the kernel processor never gave us grief. I agree that 300 hp seems high for the rating but that’s what it is. We ran 200 pto horse on ours and only 6 knives for longer cut. If you got in hay that was 50-55 percent moisture the auger would get gummy and give grief

 

[712alberta]

are talking the hesston built straight through or the dion built straight through?

Those were one in the same. They replaced the 7170, I think was the model number of the last Hesston/Case forage harvesters. When case and new holland merged the partnership between case and agco for hay tools was dissolved. I don't know if sales volumes of pull type forage harvesters were to low for hesston to keep making their machine, or if they found it cheaper to out source production to Dion. The design of the Hesston 7500 and what ever Dion called it at the time was a good design, for small farms, with lower horse power tractors, who weren't putting up thousands of tons of feed per year. The bigger feedlots and dairies around here that had them wore them out the first year. All the liners in the spout, blower paddles, some of the feed rolls, and most critically the main gear box's were failing. They couldn't handle the power. The previous machines could handle power, but were limited by what they could feed into them. The 7500 had the capacity, but couldn't handle guys hooking up 500 hp 4 wd tractors to them. The gear box's heated up, and the gears failed, lost teeth on the gears, and in some cases, put a hole in the gear case its self. They did come up with a change up after the first couple of years, helical gears instead of straight cut. This was a fix as fail deal. If it didn't fail under warranty, you didn't get it fixed for free. While these changes made a huge difference, I think the damage to the brand was done, they weren't a long lasting model.

If you didn't put to much power to them they would last, until just after warranty, then fail. Thats what happened to us. Ran it a couple of year after we had it fixed and traded it on a new holland fp 240. Good machine. In this area, most of the hesston 7500's were traded on self propelled units, and they were worth slightly more than scrap metal price. I think the Claas forage harvester dealer in Eckville had 4-6 7500's on their lot for several years, before they ended up either as scrap, or sold at auction. The new Dion is the same design. The dealer told me that they have upgraded the drives, liners, and other wear points. But it just brings back a lot of bad memories.