Swather Opionions Wanted.

[boarderbloke]

just wondering, are they making the 36' Honeybee (or 30' for that matter) header for a windrower any lighter than the Honeybee headers for a combine??? i had a 36' HBee header (w/UII split reel) on a 2388 CaseIH combine a few years back, it was terribly heavy, even after adding fluid to the rear tires of the combine.

[Jay-mo]

Cris, I know what your saying with the tines getting trimmed. I definetly would want the split reel on a 36'.
Does HoneyBee make their own reels or do they use the UII's?
I dont have any experience with the Macdon reels but to me they look cleaner and simpler compare to the UII's?

[mustardman]

They use UII on honeybee and unless macdon has improved since my pull type swather with macdon pickup reel ,I wouldnt go there.

1998 30 foot honey with uII and have never replaced one part on the reel

[cris]

They use a UII, The header is different than a combine header but I don't think it is any lighter. It doesn't have an adapter, all the hydraulics are on the swather. It cuts better than our combine header as well. The tractor unit is a lot more substantial to carry the weight of the header(longer for better balance).

[cris]

I personally would take a U2 first. I think the MacDon is OK but on our 974 header, the reel needs all new bushings and our U2s have been trouble free. I also like how the U2 is somewhat more like a bat than a rod with fingers on it.

[Jay-mo]

A friend of mine has a recent model CIH WD 36' and he's had problems with the connector tube on his UII split reel breaking quite often. Is this a common problem with UII split reels?