# Any experience with SCH easy cut knife and guards in fine stemmed grass?



## Toyes Hill Angus (Dec 21, 2010)

A neighbor and I have been sittin the fence, I have used the SCH knife, and even the pro drive on the 930 JD grain table, but I have never seen them work on fine stemmed hay.
My neighbour has a 2450 NH Speedrower and he has the same problem that I have had before, with standard guards this realy fine grass will not get cut by the sickle it will bend and sway between the points, start a clump, plug and push ahead of the cutter bar (even with a new knife). 
How I got away from this before was to install stub guards on the machine, since the tip of the sickle protrudes past the point of the guard it can't build up. My neighbor tried this and it helped some, but he is still not happy.
He doesn't like the quality of cut at higher speed with the stub guards, this is a common problem with them, you just can't go too fast.
Before you discbine guys hit this with a sledge hammer, he already owns a 1431 NH, but has certain jobs he prefeers the haybine for. And so I ask the many gurus of hay about the SCH... and what do you think? Will it help?


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## carcajou (Jan 28, 2011)

We use them in Honey Bee headers cutting timothy and fescue for seed. The work well but being we cut a little more mature stands perhaps i'm not the best one to answer this. I can say for certain they will take a lot more abuse than anything else i have tried . Keeping the guards tipped down a little helps prevent plugging.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Does he have the adjustable hold downs installed? If I was cutting really fine grass and had plugging problems it usually meant it was time to grab the wrench and start tightening.


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## Toyes Hill Angus (Dec 21, 2010)

No, what he has is the standard pointed guards on the machine right now. The knife on my machine has adjustable hold downs, but they are stub guards. I would like to put the roller guides on to make it a little easier to drive the 14' single drive knife, as long as I don't loose cut performance or quality.
also Carcajou, he runs the head as far forward as the machine will allow, and the guards are angled down


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Ahhh, I can see the need to make it easier to drive if it's a single knife. We have the SCH system on our bean heads and they've been the only sickles a person can pull out or install by your self.

14' single knife is just a bad ideal IMHO. Our 495 had a single drive 12' knife and in tough grass you'd either knock the rubber bushing out of the drive head, break the bolt, or if the bolt and bushing held up, you'd just slip the belt instead.


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## Toyes Hill Angus (Dec 21, 2010)

Over the years my father's farm has traded combines and therefor grain tables several times, the NH TX68 had a 30' table with it. NH uses dual knives and even the OEM knife could be changed in 10 min. without sweating. The current JD 9660 has a 930 head with a single knife, and has caused nothing but headaches since new, broken pitman arms, failed wobble boxes, broken knives, and that stopped last summer when they installed the pro drive, 30' is way too long.
But the combine has never been into hay (obviously lol), and never caused a problem with a poor cut and I don't want to loose the cutting quality that I have with the stub guards.


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## maknhay (Jan 6, 2010)

My last 5020 MacDon left the dealership with an SCH installed. It had top serrated sections and it worked great in all crops. That machine probably cut more grasses of all types then alfalfa. I hardly ever broke a section because of rocks. The very simple concept of every other section upside down eliminated the tendency to ride up and away from the ledger plate of the guard. The rollers on the back spacer is a sure winner too. If I had to go back to a sickle machine it would be the only cutting system I'd use.

On the other end of the spectrum, I converted a 5000 MacDon over to a newly and not tested very well Herschel-Adams system that used a very coarse top serrated 2" section and hardend guard. Their theory was having more cutting edges meant more capacity in tougher crops. What they didn't figure is it pulling so much harder. In alfalfa I picked up 4mph in cutting speed but in very thick fine stemmed grass it would plug and smoke the drive belt. They finally sent out this Japanese engineer company rep with a different sickle (more teeth per inch) and he wouldn't beleive me untill we stalled it four times in one round. He was really trying to solve the problems and was frustrated about it also. Later that season it managed to shell the JD wobble box. Thankfully my dealer helped me fully into a new MacDon box. He felt bad about it since he was the one who sugjested it in the first place since he knew I was wanting as much cutting speed as possible.

Did anyone else happen to use this system with the 2" sections? I beleive it was in the early 90's.


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## Toyes Hill Angus (Dec 21, 2010)

I haven't heard back from the dealer on the cost for the neighbor's 2450 NH, but my 14' Hesston is $1100 with knife, guards, and rollers, and a few spare sickles and guards. 
That's cheaper than a 9' NH from the dealer, with no spare nothin'
I didn't price the knife from Hesston to compare, but its hard to compare if the SCH eliminates alot of friction from the OEM cutterbar


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## mnhaygrower (Jun 7, 2009)

I have been running with those for four years on my NH2550 with the roller bearings. I have had no problems and several neighbors are switching their sickle mowers and haybines to them as well. No broken guards and fewer broken sections.


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