# Anyone experimented with removing the Croplifters from a NH DiscBine turtles?



## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

Our H7220 cuts fine in heavy crop but if you try to cut anything thin or light crop like volunteer Brown Top Millet it doesn't cut worth a hoot. We've tried different ground speeds, a wide range of RPMs, different tilt on the head and it just doesn't seem to make much difference even with brand new knives and yes they're installed correctly. I have to wonder how much more wind turbulence those big chunky croplifters create mounted out on the end of the turtles. We recently mowed some fairly thick but short volunteer foxtail millet and some crabgrass mix and it cut that real good, it was actually pushed up to 7-9mph in that stuff and it cut it fine. We're short on our hay for the year and will take whatever we can get. I'd like to mount a cheap camera in there and might actually get a short video of what's going on before it gets covered with sap and crap.

Also with the head tilted all the way forward the heavy rubber curtain basically touches the ground. We're just wondering if it is knocking the lighter crop over and not having time to stand back up before being cut.

I have to say the cut quality with the Kuhn we had before was a bit better. I think the NH is a heck of machine but if we can't find an answer my wife said it may have to go.


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## mike10 (May 29, 2011)

Removing the lifters will probably not help you. When you get into those conditions it is difficult to get a clean cut because of the turbulence from the rolls. If I am not mistaken, you installed the high skid shoes on your machine. I think in the conditions you have right now, the high skid shoes could be contributing to the problem. I have no scientific information or proof, but I think when the head is tilted that much the air flow from the rollers is directed straight towards the ground in front of the cutterbar. Also, since you are cutting high it is easy for the thin crop to slide under the bar. Even with the low skid shoes you will still not get as clean a cut as you might like in those conditions, but it should be better since the closer you cut to the ground the better the cut should be. If you have the low shoes on already, just ignore what I just posted.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

I'm glad I have a flail machine in those kinds of conditions. With good knives it looks like a lawnmower regardless of crop. The roller guys always struggle in light crop.


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

I hope someone can answer this one. I lost one and took the second one off that particular turtle and cut quite a few acres that way. Can't see any difference


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## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

It does have the high stubble shoes on it. With it tilted all the way forward it's cutting at about 3" high. We do have some rocks and that's why we decided to go with the high stubble shoes. We have about 10 more acres of volunteer junk to mow hopefully Sat. Wife said we're going to experiment with it on one round and see what happens. If we don't like what we see we're going to stop and put the std. shoes on and flatten her out a bit and see how it goes.

Thanks.

It looks like we're going to have to buy some hay for the Winter, probably 30-50 bales, what a difference a year makes. She gave her sister over 30 bales last year and carried over 60 bales from last year. My son has calculated it out and if they can go to the first of Nov. and feed only one bale per day we'll be ok. Possibility of frost this weekend so that may have a little bearing on the pasture grasses.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

New Holland feels that its the turbulence from the rollers that blows a light crop over, thats why on the new discbines you can get an optional two speed kit for the rollers to slow them down in a light crop.


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

I would love to see a video of what is happening if you could ever get it to work. Might answer a lot of questions.


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## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

Not my video but you can a bit of what's going on in there.


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

Mine cuts pretty well in all conditions including light crop.. I have to ask which knife set you use. I switched from the plain knives to the serrated knives, crop lifters in place and low skid shoes.


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## barnrope (Mar 22, 2010)

Would a higher degree on the knife bevel help? There are a few options when it comes to knives. I can tell you that rock knives don't work too great on fine stemmed forage. Been there and done that.


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## Colby (Mar 5, 2012)

I have yet to figure out how to fix it. Don't worry about it anymore. I just see it as now it'll grow back that much faster when you leave a little behind.


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

barnrope said:


> Would a higher degree on the knife bevel help? There are a few options when it comes to knives. I can tell you that rock knives don't work too great on fine stemmed forage. Been there and done that.


I'm assuming that the rock knives have a less tapered taper to them and end in a small flat rather than a knife edge?

The serrated ones (from NH) have a knife edge with ground in (or stamped in) serrations that tun the vertical length of the bevel and are 2 sided.

I would assume that like a rotary lawnmower, blade tip speed is everything in light forage, like a rotary lawnmower when mowing light lawn. With a lawnmower, the higher the blade tip speed is, the better the cut (light grass).


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## carcajou (Jan 28, 2011)

Using a knife with a higher degree of bevel wont help in thin crops. I cut in the same fields as a NH H340 a few years ago and the the owner/op never got it to cut clean in thin stands of timothy. New Holland sent a dealer mech out for 2 days and they adjusted everything they could think of. The owner come unglued over the situation. In heavy conditions his took a day longer to dry and he never got any lighter fields afterwards do to the poor quality of cut. The factory never came up with a solution and the dealer and NH bought the machine back a few weeks later. I know they never adjusted the roller speeds so maybe as mlappin said that is the answer.

Have you tried cutting with a dew on? If it is a light crop it will dry down fast anyway.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

This certainly is not a new complaint with NH.....we have had posters on here in the last several years complaining about the very same issues.

Regards, Mike


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## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

We put down about 8 acres of volunteer Millet and Crabgrass today and it did quite well. RPM's were 540 and running about 4.5mph, field was pretty rough. It left a few sprigs here and there but over all we were pleased. High stubble shoes and full tilt, knives were decent but definitely not new.


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## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)




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## 3string (Sep 8, 2014)

I lift the curtains up. It helps a lot in light crops.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

3string said:


> I lift the curtains up. It helps a lot in light crops.


I have often thought about that.....it would give the turbulence other avenues of dispersal other than forward.

Regards, Mike


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

Grateful11 said:


> We put down about 8 acres of volunteer Millet and Crabgrass today and it did quite well. RPM's were 540 and running about 4.5mph, field was pretty rough. It left a few sprigs here and there but over all we were pleased. High stubble shoes and full tilt, knives were decent but definitely not new.


I think you snitched my mower.......... Only difference is I ran into a fence post with my outet shield which is getting replaced to the tune of 700 bucks.... oh well.


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

Vol said:


> I have often thought about that.....it would give the turbulence other avenues of dispersal other than forward.
> 
> Regards, Mike


The downside to that is simply the curtain is there to mitigate objects (stones, wood. etc) being thrown forward. Would work on familiar fields but a no-no on uncharted ones.

I'll have to try that myself next season.


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## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

ARD Farm said:


> I think you snitched my mower.......... Only difference is I ran into a fence post with my outet shield which is getting replaced to the tune of 700 bucks.... oh well.


Wow that's steep.

Does all the drive side tophats on these NH Discbines pack up with crop like this, it does with everything we cut here:


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## 3string (Sep 8, 2014)

Mine is a self propelled so I guess I don't really worry about flying objects. Pull type probably would knock out back windows of tractors. I know some farmers that have cut holes on top of the header just in front of the rollers. It does make a difference. I have often wondered if speeding up the lifter roll would help. I think a lot of the reason they don't cut well in light crops is the crop is not processed to the conditioner fast enough. I often miss my sickle in light crops. It does make a guy mad when a field is not cut clean.


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## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

We still have a nice NH 478 HayBine but no one wants to go back to it no matter the cut quality ;-)


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Grateful11 said:


> We still have a nice NH 478 HayBine but no one wants to go back to it no matter the cut quality ;-)


Yep, they had issues also.....like with mowing in a tall green juicy lush crop and wrapping the rollers. As long as you caught it right away it would disperse itself clean if you stopped soon enough. If not, it was a lot of cutting, tugging, and knashing of teeth.

Regards, Mike


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

Next year I'm going to give it a shot (mowing with the curtains raised) and see what happens. I don't have any trash in my fields to worry about coming forward and I have a safety glass cab.......

Won't be first cut but I'll short time the next for lower crop height.


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

Grateful11 said:


> Wow that's steep.
> 
> Does all the drive side tophats on these NH Discbines pack up with crop like this, it does with everything we cut here:


Now, I know you have my mower....   Mine actually get worse than that and I get quite a buildup in the cavity under the angle gearbox on the lower side too. My alemite fittings on the drive side, I've had to replace numerous times (in the double U joint), from abrasion.

I've just reslolved myself to getting under there and cleaning the hats and cavity daily. I even get the same pattern of cut forage in them....

You must have my mower but I just looked out the window and it's there, how do you do it....lol


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