Single Roll vs. Dual Roll Adapter

Struggling in the field? Wanting to go faster but can’t? We may have just what you need! At Kooima Ag, we take the time to figure out new ways to help you get your job done faster and more efficiently. Follow along with Nolan as he talks through an issue with a customer's chopper and how we helped them fix it!

The setup for the chopper was as follows: a Claas® 970 – 498 series with compression rollers, a Case IH® 3412 corn head, and the Kooima Ag K00494 single roll adapter. This customer was going about 4 – 4.2 miles per hour. Last year, this system struggled with ear corn because of the compression rollers.

Our new product – K502STOP – is used to raise the upper rear feed rolls a couple inches to allow more room for the feed roll to swallow corn better. Last year, without the K502STOP, were traveling about 1.5 to 2 miles an hour. Now with the stop added, moving 4 – 4.2 miles an hour the customers were very happy and getting a lot more work done.

Earlage is critical on the moisture content that you need to take it in at and the customer is very happy with the Kooima Adapter and the Kooima products.

Now that we have them moving a little faster, we are going to switch from the single roll adapter to the dual roll adapter to try get them going faster. After we switched from the single roll to the dual roll adapter we are going to put the same corn head on and go back to the same field to test the difference.

The new chopper setup was as follows: a Claas® 970 – 498 series with compression rollers, a Case IH® 3412 corn head, and the Kooima Ag K00498 dual roll adapter. With this setup, the customer was moving at 4.6 miles per hour with no bubbling. With the single roll adapter, the customer was experiencing bubbling consistently in the area.

The field this customer was working in was green corn. Green corn tends to pick a little easier. A dual roll adapter will do a lot better in the dryer corn in the middle of the afternoon when its dusty and slippery. You will gain about a half mile an hour up to a mile an hour difference. So, by using the dual roll adapter, you will grind ear corn faster.

Now, the Claas® 498 machine also has the K502STOP – as previously stated – for the chopper to actually grind the corn. With this, they are going about 4.7 miles an hour and they were going 4.2 with the old adapter.

When we first installed these, we found that two stops worked better than one. Then, we tried to take the springs off on the front. With the springs off, the corn kept getting lodged in the feed roll so it wasn’t feeding very well.

We updated the setup for this chopper again. Updated setup: Claas® 970 – 498 series with compression rollers, Case IH® 3412 corn head, Kooima Ag K00498 dual roll adapter, with 1 ¼" shims on the front feed roll and reinstalled the springs.

With this setup, we are doing about 5.5 - 6 miles per hour. Now we are going to see if we can work the cutter. The cutter, at this point, was idling at around 1900 and moving around 5.7 miles per hour with no building.

Overall, the customer was very happy with the Kooima Ag products. It took some time to figure out how to get to the result, but we got the results the customer was hoping for.

We have the tools you need to be successful every harvest season. Find out how we can help you save time and money! Call us at 800-522-8874 or email us at sales@KooimaAg.com to speak to our knowledgeable staff!