Flexible draper headers have a lot of things to get right when loaded to capacity in tough harvesting conditions
When MacDon requested customer input on updates for its new FD2 FlexDraper, increased efficiency was a common request.
“The combines keep getting larger and you have to be able to feed them to the capacity or the load they want to be fed. If you took a header that we built 15-20 years ago and tried to put that on one of the new big combines there would be a bottleneck,” said Russ Henderson, product manager at MacDon.
Compared to previous models, the new FD2 FlexDraper offers 20 percent more capacity, made possible by several changes including an increase in cutting speed, deeper deck, and increasing the width options up to 50 feet.
The increase in speed comes from changing the geometry of where the sickles pass the guards, and by increasing the knife speed up to up to 15 percent faster compared to previous draper headers.
“The combination of increasing the sickle speed slightly and the new geometry gave us up to 30 percent more cutting speed in all types of conditions,” Henderson said.
The high-speed system comes with two kinds of guards, a longer pointed guard that is good for lower crops because they help protect the knife from rocks, and a stubbier guard that cuts a little cleaner and works well in crops like canola.
“In order to increase the speed, you have to have a better drive system. You have to have a machine that can manage the vibration because when you’re throwing a big piece of metal back and forth, you have to be able to manage all those components to have something that’s reliable and lasts a long time,” Henderson said.
The changed geometry of the sickles includes a wider taper at the back with an overall increase of the length of the section that provides 25 percent more cutting surface.
Henderson said a big benefit that came with the increased cutting speed is a cleaner cut on the crop.
The FD2 also has more flex compared to previous models, up to 17 inches on either end of the header.
“The combination of making the decks deeper with 50 inch drapers as opposed to 42, and that’s the side drapers; allowed us to increase the geometry of our flex system,” Henderson said.
“This allowed us more range, to be able to get up to 70 percent more on our triple reel machines.”
The reels on the triple reel machines line up with the hinge points on the frame, which allows the increased flex while keeping the reel fingers close to the cutting bar.
The 40-foot FD2 is available with a double or triple reel, while the 45 and 50 foot come with triple reels.
The smaller draper headers are all double reel, which still have the same flex range, but the reel will be further away from the knife in the max flex range positions.
Some of the updates to the FD2 are in a direct response to the increased practice of straight cutting canola on the Prairies.
“Part of the reason for going with the deeper decks up to 50 inch was to give us more volume to be able to handle higher volume crops like straight cut canola,” Henderson said.
The Contour Max wheels system that was launched with the FD2 can be adjusted from the cab and they help keep a consistent stubble height while cutting from one inch up to 18 inches in height in crops including canola.
Previously, when cutting higher the headers would have to be locked in rigid mode and were guided by a couple of gauge wheels behind the machine
“It would stay straight and then the wheels would kind of guide it, but as you move down the field the header would just move slightly. For some guys it didn’t bother at all but more and more agronomically people want consistent stubble height,” Henderson said.
Having consistent stubble height has several benefits, the most obvious being that it is easier to achieve a consistent seedbed for planting.
The Contour Max system came from the Contour Buddy package that was originally developed by a customer in Saskatchewan and then bought by MacDon.
The system used to be mechanically adjusted, but this has been updated to be hydraulic controlled.
So now growers can change the desired height from the cab, from one inch to 18, and cut the crop higher with the wings unlocked.
“As you look across your field your stubble height is consistent across the field wherever you go. That helps making one less thing that a customer had to worry about, with a corner drooping down and digging in getting a big mouth full of canola on one side or missing pods on the other side as it was rocking going down the field,” Henderson said.
Operators can switch the header from flex to rigid mode with the flip of a lever.
Another addition that helps with straight-cut canola is the addition of vertical knives that come from the factory, as opposed to having to rely on the aftermarket.
“One person can undo a latch and take the whole vertical knife off. There’s no hydraulic lines to disconnect because the motors are mounted in the end frame of the header. You can put it in the storage position or in your truck, so it makes it easy to put your vertical knives on and off,” Henderson said.
The Active Float system continues to use mechanical supports that place up to 97 percent of the header’s weight on the combine and is integrated, yet independent, of the combine’s auto header height control system.
Henderson said the FD2 is the first time the company departed from the tube frame and leg design that was integral in the MacDon drapers built since 2004.
The main frame is now a five-sided back tube that enables the deeper draper and is available from 30- to 50-foot widths.
The reels still use the uniquely shaped cam that allows the fingers to get underneath lodged crop and pick it up before it’s cut, but it now has more aluminum components to help reduce its weight.
The ShatterGuard Reel Positioning comes standard on all FD2 models, and it was designed to help with bushy crops like canola. It allows the reel to be set further back on the header to prevent crop shatter on the ground.
The FD2 fits all major brands of combines and there will be a limited release of the flex draper in 2022.
