Lex 770 or CR9090/9.90

[snarling bee]

I don't wish to start another "What................" thread, but what are peoples views on these 2 machines, which will be 3-6 yrs old.
I have taken on a fair bit more land and need to upgrade my 30' CR9080 for the next size up. Trying to cut 2100 acres, for 9 customers, of which 1700 acres will be WW (mostly Grp 1 milling) or at the same timing (malting SB and premium peas). Only on floor drying so don't want to cut above 18%. Quite a bit of travelling and small fields involved as well. I would like to be able to get it done in about 180 drum hours. Either 35' or 40' would be fine. Local dealer is Claas, but there is a good NH independant locally. We have a few hills/slopes.

 

[puma power]

Reading a post like this just makes cry/laugh! 1700 ac wheat below 18%! I'm happy if we're not cutting over 22%!
I'm in a similar position love the CR, so simple great output and i know it fairly well. But I need a narrow body and there is a lot more choice of Claas about! They also have a far better dealer down here!

 

[Northdowns Martin]

Sub contact some cutting out to neighbour. Five local farmers sat round a table discussing their own combine capacity, reckoned we had at least 3000ac spare between us across the 5 machines. Bet there’s a few local to you with bigger machines than they need.

 

[snarling bee]

Not really any spare capacity round here. Most doing 3500 with 770/780, or 1200+ with straw walkers. If anything I was the spare capacity in the area, and the 2 farmers I could have called on are the ones that I am now doing/going to do. Many others would do in a day what I would do with the 9080 in 2 hours, so not much help.
We are in a bit of a CNH vacuum with dealers, JD and Claas are the best dealers round here. NH only works as I have an indy and APH to call on.

 

[chaffcutter]

With a good local Claas dealer and not far from Saxham, and a need to keep moving on to cut that spread of crops in a short window for quality, I would consider it a no brainer and go Claas.

Also after a demo of the flex header, either their version or a Macdon would give you a hell of an increase in capacity.

 

[fudge]

Not really any spare capacity round here. Most doing 3500 with 770/780, or 1200+ with straw walkers. If anything I was the spare capacity in the area, and the 2 farmers I could have called on are the ones that I am now doing/going to do. Many others would do in a day what I would do with the 9080 in 2 hours, so not much help.
We are in a bit of a CNH vacuum with dealers, JD and Claas are the best dealers round here. NH only works as I have an indy and APH to call on.

Why not get a new Claas? The greater diameter of drum in theory should give a step change in output compared to the older machine. Obviously there are many on here who decry lexions on grounds of maintenance costs/reliability/too complicated but they are capable machines in a wide range of crops and conditions.

 

[Clive]

I don't wish to start another "What................" thread, but what are peoples views on these 2 machines, which will be 3-6 yrs old.
I have taken on a fair bit more land and need to upgrade my 30' CR9080 for the next size up. Trying to cut 2100 acres, for 9 customers, of which 1700 acres will be WW (mostly Grp 1 milling) or at the same timing (malting SB and premium peas). Only on floor drying so don't want to cut above 18%. Quite a bit of travelling and small fields involved as well. I would like to be able to get it done in about 180 drum hours. Either 35' or 40' would be fine. Local dealer is Claas, but there is a good NH independant locally. We have a few hills/slopes.

770 is a great machine and will breeze through 2100ac - ours has just completed season 8 and has yet again been no trouble / zero downtime at all - over the years it has had bugger all wrong just routine maintenance, best combine we have ever run, it's over due change but has been so good we worry about its replacement being as good

they need a 12m header to get the best from them

 

[warksfarmer]

I don't wish to start another "What................" thread, but what are peoples views on these 2 machines, which will be 3-6 yrs old.
I have taken on a fair bit more land and need to upgrade my 30' CR9080 for the next size up. Trying to cut 2100 acres, for 9 customers, of which 1700 acres will be WW (mostly Grp 1 milling) or at the same timing (malting SB and premium peas). Only on floor drying so don't want to cut above 18%. Quite a bit of travelling and small fields involved as well. I would like to be able to get it done in about 180 drum hours. Either 35' or 40' would be fine. Local dealer is Claas, but there is a good NH independant locally. We have a few hills/slopes.

1700 ac of milling wheat through one machine . That’s potentially £150,000 of milling premium per year. I’d be hiring a top of the range 40ft claas 8900 with macdon header for that. Even if it costs half the milling premium you’ve still have that premium in the shed. Plenty lost milling this year cutting half that area with similar sized combines.

 

[Chae1]

Reading a post like this just makes cry/laugh! 1700 ac wheat below 18%! I'm happy if we're not cutting over 22%!
I'm in a similar position love the CR, so simple great output and i know it fairly well. But I need a narrow body and there is a lot more choice of Claas about! They also have a far better dealer down here!

Why do you need a narrow body?

Looking at used machines a 770, 780 is normally cheaper than a 750, 760.

We don't need the capacity of a 770 or 80. But will probably go for one of these models when we replace our 570.

Give one a retirement home for a few years.

 

[puma power]

My roads!!!

 

[Feldspar]

I don't wish to start another "What................" thread, but what are peoples views on these 2 machines, which will be 3-6 yrs old.
I have taken on a fair bit more land and need to upgrade my 30' CR9080 for the next size up. Trying to cut 2100 acres, for 9 customers, of which 1700 acres will be WW (mostly Grp 1 milling) or at the same timing (malting SB and premium peas). Only on floor drying so don't want to cut above 18%. Quite a bit of travelling and small fields involved as well. I would like to be able to get it done in about 180 drum hours. Either 35' or 40' would be fine. Local dealer is Claas, but there is a good NH independant locally. We have a few hills/slopes.

IF we get it drilled, we'll have 1750ac of wheat of which just about 2/3 will be group 1 and 2. 150ac feed barley to do at the start. Aim to do it with a 2016 CR 10.90 and that's with individual blocks of 250-400ac with no header changes. I would be nervous of doing what you intend to do with a CR9090 having had one previous to the current machine. I'd say you want to be spending a bit more than that.

 

[snarling bee]

Thanks for your comments.

I'm leaning towards the Claas.
I think a 12m Claas header is better than a 12m CNH. The ability to go from pulses to cereals in a few minutes, rather than an hour, will give us between 2 evenings on wheat when doing the peas, and conversely 2 days on wheat when doing the beans early or late.
Can't justify a new one when a 5 year old one is less than half price.

Puma Power may laugh at us southerners cutting only below 18%. Perhaps we laugh/cry back at them growing cereals when drying from 20% is the norm not the exception.

 

[Phil P]

My roads!!!

You’d struggle to get a ride on lawnmower down your roads

 

[deleted user 837354]

1700 ac of milling wheat through one machine . That’s potentially £150,000 of milling premium per year. I’d be hiring a top of the range 40ft claas 8900 with macdon header for that. Even if it costs half the milling premium you’ve still have that premium in the shed. Plenty lost milling this year cutting half that area with similar sized combines.

Numbers like that certainly put it in perspective! Suddenly combining capacity looks cheap.

 

[puma power]

@Phil P the roads are narrow and then all the holiday makers turn up! The numbers of times I’ve eaten my dinner box watching someone with a stupid box on the roof of there car reverse!!! You get strange looks when you get your flask out!!!

 

[fudge]

Thanks for your comments.

I'm leaning towards the Claas.
I think a 12m Claas header is better than a 12m CNH. The ability to go from pulses to cereals in a few minutes, rather than an hour, will give us between 2 evenings on wheat when doing the peas, and conversely 2 days on wheat when doing the beans early or late.
Can't justify a new one when a 5 year old one is less than half price.

Puma Power may laugh at us southerners cutting only below 18%. Perhaps we laugh/cry back at them growing cereals when drying from 20% is the norm not the exception.

Interesting word “justify” when talking about machinery. As a contractor you have to admit that some of your potential future customers will be persuaded by the blingest combine. The other point is people who buy wide bodied claas combines do it for a reason, ie to do a lot of work, even a five year old one will have received the odd moment of abuse in less than ideal conditions. The new one makes sense for you IMHO.

 

[snarling bee]

I would hope potential customers would prefer the whole service I provide and how I provide it rather than the biggest bling combine. I only do combining as part of a contract farming rather than an individual service, although I will help out neighbours if required occasionally.
I also tend to buy end of line models rather than the newest development out there as I tend to think they have most of the problems ironed out.
I think spending less than half new price on something 5 years old is good business sense, generally speaking.

I use the word 'justify' rather than 'afford' as they don't mean the same thing.

 

[Mark C]

Can understand you leaning towards the Claas with Olivers having the infrastructure and ability to give you some support with a spare / demo combine should the worst happen. With the best will in the world Steve at GTEC’s is brilliant, but there’s only one if him , if only we could clone him!
Speaking to to a good friend in Northants who runs a Lexion 780 the biggest game changer they have experienced is a MacDon header they had on demo. Genuine 10-15% increase in output. On the same combine on the same farm , same crop. Would be worth considering especially with SB and peas in the mix. A NH varifeed is much better than a Claas vario in flat crops.

 

[warksfarmer]

Numbers like that certainly put it in perspective! Suddenly combining capacity looks cheap.

You can get a 780tt with 40ft on hire with full backup for about £16/acre for the acres the OP is talking about. That would still leave him £115,000 in milling premiums in a bad year like this one just gone or 2008, 2012 etc.

 

[snarling bee]

1700 ac of milling wheat through one machine . That’s potentially £150,000 of milling premium per year. I’d be hiring a top of the range 40ft claas 8900 with macdon header for that. Even if it costs half the milling premium you’ve still have that premium in the shed. Plenty lost milling this year cutting half that area with similar sized combines.

But you would only loose a proportion of the premiums if the combine wasn't big enough, but it might be 1000t, say every 3rd year which could be £20,000, so £7k a year. That's equivalent to spending an extra £30/40k cap ex on a combine.
It's more about keeping 9 customers happy.