I am a little confused about your ground sensing part. Are you cutting on, or above the ground?

Headsight makes great products for practically any machine for cutting above the ground.

 

Automated on the deck is what I am looking for as far as harvesting beans and peas, I was wanting to hear what peoples thoughts of the Claas auto contours ability to follow the ground in this type of situation and how well they fed the Lexion compared to a draper, I can guess what they'd be like but I was hoping for people who used the Vario to give me there thoughts on their abilities

 

They feed well in most conditions. Weeds still tend to wrap abit around the centre of the table auger. They are a heavy front when working on the ground, feels like a dozer blade when it hits the ground hard. No suspension is hard on the feeder house. We never used any of that automatic stuff. Maybe that makes it nicer but judging on how quickly our sensors played up on the varios i would be wary of the continual communication between the two. No forward or rearward tilt is a negative when you have used it on a macdon.
The reel is not really suitable for legumes. Fingers are to short, the support bars (finger tubes) knock seed off. Once again, Macdon have that nailed.
They will take in heavy crops well. Two speed table auger is handy. But typical Tin front, they need to be under cover, and or painted each year to try and prevent the rust in the centre intake area which causes plenty of heart ache when starting the season on barley.
We have two 35' varios, for one specific crop. They dont do the contract run as they are to small. We had a 40 footer one season but it was that bad year up north when only drapers could cut and feed the green straw which was full of Victorian red dust. It couldnt do it no matter what we tried. Gave it back onto another Macdon.

Long and short, stick with the Drapers. Work better in all conditions, and you can get good trade on them. If you end up with an auger front you will be stuck with it for ever unless you take a big $$$ loss.

Had a 45' flex Honeybee. Gave alot of trouble. Sent it back. We have a rigid 42' Honeybee with a flex adaptor in it, (twin centre belts) and its actually a very nice front. Has been faultless all last season.

Have a couple of 40' Macdon flex, and they are brilliant for ground work. Only negative is doing 40' tramlines, they arent wide enough.

 

Have a couple of 40' Macdon flex, and they are brilliant for ground work. Only negative is doing 40' tramlines, they arent wide enough.

Agree on both counts, they measure center to center on crop dividers, with CTF now that sucks.
What do they need, 10 cm?
20 cm more?

 

6" each end and a divider with some side adjustment would be ideal.
Are you listening Macdon Industries???

Soldiers!!! Hate em. Especially when the bin boy/girl is not allowed to run'em over.

 

Thanks Phantom for your no bs straight down the line assessment, without the hp feeder house you certainly would loose a lot of ability to get that knife close to the ground chasing those short legume crops that's for sure, from what I am hearing the position sensor setup needs to be a lot more robust ( I was told you don't go on here much)

 

( I was told you don't go on here much)

Dont believe Big Hat Wearing mechanic that listen to Sad music. (Country & Western) gross!!!


I was very impressed how the vario took in heavy irrigated wheat. No problems what so ever keeping a 600 fed, day or night. Yes, the vario looks good perched on the feeder of a lexion (if image is your thing) But in AUS, in our crops and conditions you best stay with a draper. Macdon 1st, Hbee 2nd.

( bout time Midwest built a flex)!!!!

 

Vario 1200

I have ran the first Vario 1200 in WA around 5 years ago now and it was in a word awesome. The biggest thing with these headers is to get the auger set correctly and with the center hanger bearing it allows the auger to be set tight to the 3 stripper plated at the back of the header. I had competitors come with Midwest, MacDon and also Honey Bee headers and they could not keep up on production.

Also with the direct Knife drive there is no stopping you at 3.00am because of damp as it dose not stop!! Also with the correct sensitivity on the CAC it will beat any other sensing system on the market.

Again with the correct auger placement its all in the book and the correct finger positioning the header will not be the limiting part of harvesting. I've experienced them frm 10bu/acer all the way up to 190bu/ acer oats rye canola wheat barley and nothing will beat it.

 

Also with the correct sensitivity on the CAC it will beat any other sensing system on the market.

That's more to do with, oh yeah, header than front, it works well on MacDon as well.
You can not beat a coil spring for flotation in rapidly changing landscape/high speed though regardless of how good auto height control is, it's just not possible with rigid control.

 

Bought some Bristle Crop Holders & fitted to my vario front, harvested my beans, this was a great investment, machine ran beautifully, reccon what these bristles saved paid for them easilly. Vario ran really smoothly with them, no need for an Air reel / bar. Made harvesting shaving the ground a delight!
Of course Vario followed the ground like a dream!

 

I got forced into buying a 30'Vario about 5 years ago when the canola froze about a week before swathing stage. In 3-4 days it was brown, stiff, dry and fluffy and would not flow through a swather or a draper header ( HB and MD without augers). In the 6 weeks of letting the canola mature and dry while standing, I bought the Vario and installed Auto Contour on my 590R. It worked so well that I have not swathed canola since. Those tall , lodged and twisted canola crops that we try to grow are just no problem. It still takes a lot of power to put that rank green stuff through the machine, but it feeds very well. Almost no slugging and plugging of any combine components. Less straw breakup and overloading of the sieves. In the first year of frozen canola before maturity, my green count at sale was substantially lower than swathed seed. Mine made #1 all but 2 loads of the worst green low spots that is easy to see and cut out separate. The issue of the crop stickI got forced into buying a 30'Vario about 5 years ago when the canola froze about a weekbefore swathing stage. In 3-4 days it was brown, stiff, dry and fluffy and would not flow through a swatheror a draper header (HB and MD without augers). In the 6 weeksof letting the canola mature and dry whilestanding, I bought the Varioand installed Auto Contour on my 590R. It worked so well that I have not swathed canola since. Those tall , lodged and twisted canola crops that we try to grow are just no problem. It still takes a lot of power to put that rankgreen stuff through the machine, but it feeds very well. Almost no slugging and plugging of any combine components. Less straw breakup and overloading of the sieves. In the first year of frozen canola before maturity, my green count at sale was substantially lower than swathed seed. Mine made #1 allbut 2 loads of ing on the wide pan behind the knife is an issue after dark when the dew comes on, but only when coming into the crop to start a new pass. After the flow of material is going it feeds fine. The auto contour works well enough for cutting canola but as low as we ever cut in lodged crop would be 4". The auto functions work very quick and well for header ht, reel ht, FA, reel speed all with one touch of the button. Very happy with the vario in canola.