MacDon CA25 OM User Manual
Page 73
SECTION 7. OPERATION
169593
71
Revision B
7.9.5 Ground
Speed
Ground speed should be such that the sickle
can cut crop smoothly and cleanly, while giving
the desired delivery of material to the opening.
Excessive ground speed results in ragged
cutting.
In tough-to-cut crops, reduce ground speed to
reduce loads on cutting components and drives.
When cutting very light crops (e.g. short
soybeans), ground speed may have to be
reduced to allow reel to pull in small and short
plants.
Start at 3.0–3.5 mph (4.8–5.8 km/h), and adjust
as required.
Higher ground speeds require heavier float settings
to prevent excessive bouncing that would result in
increased cutting component damage. In most
cases, as ground speed is increased, draper and
reel speed should be increased to handle the extra
material.
The chart below indicates the relationship between
ground speed and area cut for the four header
sizes.
Example shown below: At a ground speed of
6 miles per hour (9.7 km/h) with a 45 ft. header, the
area cut in one hour would be approximately
33 acres (13.4 hectares).
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
miles/hour
acr
es
/h
o
u
r
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
26
28
1.6
3.2
4.8
6.4
8.0
9.7
11.3
12.9
14.5
16.1
17.7
19.3
kilometers/hour
h
ectar
es/
h
o
u
r
40 FT
35 FT
30 FT
25 FT
20 FT
45 FT