[Wisconsin Corn Grower]

Wanted to know if anyone has installed an 8 Row 30 John Deere 608C Chopping corn head on a CIH 2188? We currently have a 2608 8 Row 30 Chopping head on the combine but have had problems with the gearbox on the chopper not holding up and a CaseIH dealer that is not very good with combines. My main concern is if the head will run at the correct speed seeing that the 2188 has a fixed feeder house speed verses John Deeres variable speed feeder house. We currently run 2.5 to 3 miles per hour in irrigated corn while chopping stalks.

 

[caseman1010]

We are in the same boat this year. Bought a 612c 20" head and mounting it on a 2388. Our concerns are the same as yours. We are in the middle of doing beans as I type and by next week we should be into corn. Let me know how it works and if you have any problems. Interested in your ground speed and how well of a job it does chopping being no variable speed on the feeder house.

 

[Wisconsin Corn Grower]

I went ahead and bought a 608C and had it put on the 2188 with the condition that if it doesn't work the John Deere dealer would take it back no questions asked which they agreed to do. They claim the shaft speed of the feeder house is similar to what Deere has. The head is mounted on the combine and the Head Sight adapter are on and that all works. We will not be doing any corn for about a month due to late spring planting and below normal temperatures during the summer. We normally run 2.5 to 3MPH when chopping stalks so we will see how it all works when we take it to the field next month.

 

[caseman1010]

How much did you pay for the head sight adapter? Right now we just adapted our hydraulic couplers and hard wired the lights. I guess if the adapter is cheap enough I'd be willing to splurged a little for header height control.

 

[caseman1010]

Well, day one with the setup went extremely well. The head chopped very good in 185+ corn. Ran any where from 2.3 - 2.8 mph. No lugging once so ever or having the slip clutch slip. Obviously our fuel consumption was up a tad but that was expected. Our only draw back with the head is the weight. We've added close to 2200 lbs (weight rack and fluid) to the rear end and it's still front heavy. As of now we are leaving everything the same. Other than the weight being a issue, this head seems to be a home run.

 

[8850jd]

Case man... Get yourself a spare steering buckle, likely to break that, we had issues on our 2388 when we had that kind of weight.. It often was once a year..
Also watch the center of your rear axle, it will crack and split right in the middle.

 

[caseman1010]

Thanks for the heads up. I appreciate it. Just ordered one today.

 

[Wisconsin Corn Grower]

We finally finished corn harvest and after running in some pretty tough conditions frozen corn, 30-35% moisture corn and snow covered corn the 608C preformed extremely well. The head took less power too run then the CIH 2608 and it weighs less. The Headsight automatic header seemed to react to uneven ground better then the CIH automatic header height. The only problem we had was we broke two poly gathering points one when we hit a frozen pivot track and the other when we hit a snow covered frozen chunk of ground. Talked to a neighbor who has a Harvestec head and he told me he broke one in a field that was snow covered also. I didn't feel so bad about it then.