How do I set up my corn head for top efficiency?

To get the maximum efficiency from your forage harvester, you’ve got to set up the head properly.

The key to all harvesters is that the auger speed and the feedroll speed must be matched so that the auger and the feedrolls will not fight one another. If the speeds are not matched, the machine will sound as if it is surging while running down the field and the header will fail auger drive slip clutches, auger drive chains, or even auger drive shafts.

To make the auger and feedrolls work together at top efficiency, you must always change the auger speed any time you change the length-of-cut levers.

Chart 1: Settings for 360W5-360N6 Corn Heads

Length-of-cut adjustments

FX35, FX45, FX55, FX38, FX48 and FX58 harvesters have four different lengths of cut. You can change the length of cut by changing the shift levers in the length-of-cut gearbox.

When these changes are made, the output drive to the attachment does not change.

As you can see from Chart 1, you must either change the auger-driven sprocket or slide the driven sprocket to get the proper speed match.

New HydroLoc™ system

With the new FX40, FX50 and FX60 harvesters, making length-of-cut changes couldn’t be easier. The FX models use hydrostatic drive to shift feedroll speed from low to high. The feedroll drive automatically speed-synchronizes the header auger and feed rolls whenever you change the chop length. The only time you need to manually change the speeds is when the HydroLoc gearbox is changed from high to low or back.

This new, innovative HydroLoc™ system allows the operator to set the length of cut right from the cab. With the HydroLoc system, you can cut from under H inch to 1I inches in the high range, which is the range where most corn silage is cut.

Chart 2: HydroLoc ™ Gearbox Settings