Do most combines lift headers high enough to go over gateposts?

[Flat 10]

I doubt it. I think you need header tilt to cock one end right up but I thought i would ask the question.
Thanks

 

[michael N123]

No

 

[Bury the Trash]

Doubt it. Ours wont.

Would be a good idea.

Our 10ft cut NH will go through a 15ft gateway all guns blazing and with the ul auger out which saves a lot of time...... until you get going in the field good for laid crops and combi cropping tho.

The 13ft one will go through a 15ft gateway but not with the dividers on and better only if the gate hangings are sticking into the gateway etc, sort of thing....suffice to say it's pretty darn tight ..

I hate driving over crop to fit the header....

 

[KennyO]

20" header on a tx will scrape over a low strainer if tipped right to one side.

You really need a hillsider combine to do it. Think @Chae1 posted a pic of his one doing it.

 

[JLLM]

Our contractor has a JD hillside combine, he seems to be able to get through in a lot of places he shouldn't.

 

[Badshot]

I can just get over most of my gateposts with my hillsider Massey.
But only if they're cut as low as possible.

 

[farmerm]

most combines can not lift over most gate posts

 

[Flat 10]

That's what I thought, thanks everyone.

 

[Flat 10]

Another stupid question because you have all got me thinking. Can you you drop most combine headers on the floor? Rather than just on the trailer? You don’t see it done much, is it because it’s difficult to pick back up?

 

[Shutesy]

Another stupid question because you have all got me thinking. Can you you drop most combine headers on the floor? Rather than just on the trailer? You don’t see it done much, is it because it’s difficult to pick back up?

Most you can yes, I know Claas ones have little metal feet you attach underneath to keep the angle correct, however if you drop it off in not quite the right spot or it sinks slightly and then the angle is wrong to re attach it you can have a lot of issues trying to get it back on. For that reason we always drop it on the header trailer as its always there with the combine anyway.
For your original question no I wouldn't think the majority of combines could lift the header over a gatepost but will depend on the combine, header width, gate width and gatepost height.

 

[Bury the Trash]

Another stupid question because you have all got me thinking. Can you you drop most combine headers on the floor? Rather than just on the trailer? You don’t see it done much, is it because it’s difficult to pick back up?

Isnt it the angle that's most important rather getting really,really low?

Theoretically Could build a light weight cradle (without wheels) with pallet fork holes / tubes under .....designed to hold the header just right on level ground I guess.
Could then pick up and move with a telehandler and lift over the gateway
Would be easier to build than a trailer ....and the wheels wouldnt be in the way of the header at all , as they annoyingly are on a trailler

 

[Timbo]

Our contractor has a JD hillside combine, he seems to be able to get through in a lot of places he shouldn't.

I have a JD 2256 Hillsider with 16ft header - with the trunk tipped fully and her on tippy toes I can get over most gateposts (carefully)

 

[Brisel]

JD Hillmasters can but as above it depends. I could get a 35' over a 30' gateway but one end was scraping the ground. MF Auto levels were better as you could manually raise both front wheels. JD can only manually tilt.

 

[puppet]

In the mists of time we could get through a 10 foot gate with a 10 foot header by running one wheel up 2 sleepers to tilt it over. Bit dodgy as if it had slipped off then major damage. Usually insisted the farmer pulled the strainer out.

 

[DrWazzock]

Or run the combine up and over ramps in the gateway.
Our JD1085 can lift the bed over fenceposts but struggles a bit with higher gateposts.
Sometimes you can get through by driving along tight to fence then turn full lock to swing one side of header through first and then the other. Depends whats around the gatehole though.

 

[Tonym]

Probably nothing!

In the mists of time we could get through a 10 foot gate with a 10 foot header by running one wheel up 2 sleepers to tilt it over. Bit dodgy as if it had slipped off then major damage. Usually insisted the farmer pulled the strainer out.

I did that once and fell off the sleepers. Sheared the bolts at the top of the trunko on one side. Did not save much time in the end and taught me a lesson. Never ever tried again though so lesson learned.

 

[Two Tone]

Another stupid question because you have all got me thinking. Can you you drop most combine headers on the floor? Rather than just on the trailer? You don’t see it done much, is it because it’s difficult to pick back up?

I’ve never been able to successfully drop a NH header on the floor then pick it up again easily. The angle isn’t quite right unless you put a block under each side somewhere near where the knife is. If I need to take the header off, I always put it on the header trailer unless there is something handy nearby to use as a block.

What will happen if you try (without the blocks) is that you can drop the header off on the ground, but will not be able to pick it up again. The lip on the top of the feeder housing (Straw elevator) will not quite go far enough under the box section at the top middle of the header to catch hold of it and pick it up.

It is such as close thing that I’ve always imagined NH had designed it to do so (on level ground), but forgot that off concrete, the tyres sink in the ground enough to prevent you being able to pick it up, especially if there is still some grain in the tank. It is just enough that the angle isn’t quite right and you end up pushing the header forward like a bulldozer, the traction wheels dig in and make the angle even worse!

Every time I have tried or been forced to do it, I’ve always ended up having to go back to the farm and get the loader to lift the front of the header up enough to hook it back on.

 

[Flat 10]

Our trailer is the biggest cow ever to line up. It’s a mekanag for a JD and I hate it. Despite adjusting all the brackets it’s still trickier than any other combine I’ve been involved with.

 

[Two Tone]

Occasionally I have been able to get the header over a gatepost by tilting it hard over. But not very often.
However, there has been many a time that I have had to use the rape side knife switched on to get through a gateway where the hedge has grown just a bit too wide!

 

[Two Tone]

Our trailer is the biggest cow ever to line up. It’s a mekanag for a JD and I hate it. Despite adjusting all the brackets it’s still trickier than any other combine I’ve been involved with.

Many years ago in East Anglia when the biggest header was about 17 feet wide, many of the NH dealers (Dalgety type and M Bloomfield &Sons, not sure about Pecks of Ely) got together and made a rather simple header trailer made out of 2” box section. Under the knife side of it, it was raised up by about 6” to get the angle of the header right to drop it off. But there were 2 x 2’ wide flat pegs that had to slot into the upside down channel at the bottom rear of the header, which were a bugger to line up!

What I did, was to weld a 4” strip of flat metal from the raised side of the trailer where the knife sits down to the box section where the rear of the header sits, which the header bottom skid plates sit on, then a 4’ bit of angle iron at the bottom end to stop the header sliding backwards off it (again where the rear end of the skid plates are bent at a 90degree angle). Once I had done this, I removed the 2” wide strips that would originally fit into the header channel.

From then on dropping the header off was a doddle! I could drop it off slightly forward of its final resting place and it would slide backwards until it hit the angle iron stops.

It wasn’t long afterwards that E H Knights of Harleston (Dalgety) saw what I had done and copied it on all their header trailers!