mennoboy - 11/20/2008 00:29

When deere introduced there class 7 in 2000, we heard of guys trading 3 9600's on 2 9750's and then be dissapointed that they couldn't do as much. Our experience with demoing a 9750 was that we could get 20% more with the class 7 so I have trouble believing that you could replace 3 class 6's with 2 class 7's.

On a pure ac/hour standpoint, labor needs not taken into account, i think it would be difficult to replace 3 class 6's w/ 30' heads with one combine. 3 combines with 30' heads at 3 mph are doing 32.7 ac/hr not including turning or dumping. 1 combine with a 40' header would have to go 6.7 mph to harvest same number of ac/hr. Seems fast but I have never driven a class 9 combine.

Labor savings, maintenance on 1 combine instead of 3 would definitely be a plus though.

Have a friend that owned a 9600 and replaced it with a 580 CAT. Maintains that the CAT will do 2x what the 9600 will do. Hard to believe but he's not one to overexagerate or blow smoke.