One of the biggest issues facing farmers at harvest is the limited capacity that they encounter with their draper header feed drum. As OEM header drums force material towards the center of the drum and only feed through at the center of the drum, this limits the capacity to feed crops into the combine,and ultimately reduces the capacity of the header. In addition farmers run the risk of plugging their machine, as well as increasing rotor loss as often the material will clump when feeding with the OEM drums.
Mic Fels, an Australian farmer, solved the feed drum issue with 3 changes to the existing OEM drums.
- Make it Smaller
Mic shrunk the overall diameter of the drum which increased the feeding window of the drum by 33%. This change gave more room for the material to feed through the center. - Use it All
Mic wanted to utilize the whole drum for feeding not just the center – which is what sparked the idea for the mini paddle flighting. By adding 2 additional and more aggressive paddle flighting on the drum, Mic discovered he no longer had to force all of the material through then center and the flighting would push feeding evenly across the complete width of the drum and create a more even continuous flow of material - Give me More
Now that Mic could feed material much faster through his drum he had to figure out how to grab more crop when harvesting. After multiple versions Mic found that increasing the number of fingers in the drum from 15 to 26 and adding a timing adjustment tool allowed him to feed more crop through his drum. The single bolt timing adjuster allowed him to move easily from barley to wheat to canola, and field to field easily and change the fingers feeding timing based on the yield demands from each field.
The Typhoon™ not only helps you get the job done better and quicker, it’s also built to last. The unique design eliminates the problem of the retractable fingers getting stuck inside the drum with this 35 millimeter diameter of fully welded crankshaft. The reversing clutch has been completely eliminated from inside the drum, however this does not have any effect on the ability to reverse the header feed drum when needed.
An exclusive standard feature of the iPaddock Typhoon™ is the quick timing system which allows you to adjust the retractable finger timing anywhere within an arc of 150 degrees just by loosening one nut. With this fast and simple adjustment the Typhoon is the ideal combine farm equipment for any crop or field condition.
Mic’s new Typhoon™ drum was launched in 2016 and has been the gold standard in Australia and North America for farmers looking to increase their header front capacity and their overall productivity in high yield and heavy biomass crop. The Typhoon™ feed drum is available for Macdon and John Deere Draper headers.
We were able to get our hands on only 90 Typhoons for MacDon headers and 8 for John Deere’s for the 2023 harvest season and are currently taking pre-orders! If you are interested in being added to the pre-order list, click here, or if you have any questions about the Typhoon from iPaddock, feel free to reach out at 1-855-612-7006.