corn head for L2

probably should be on the gleaner forum for this, but I really don't need another forum to keep up with, so here goes. I am wondering if an L2 will handle an 8 row 36" corn head, or if gleaner ever did even make one for it. And if yes on both of the above, where could I find one to buy. Thanks, Darrel

I used a black A830 corn head on my L-2. I had 30.5 drive tires, and larger lift cylindars. If your L-2 has the shorter cleaning shoe, you might need to drive slower. I think after '82 they put longer walkers and cleaning shoes in. It is light on the back end. Don't make sudden stops with the grain tank full.

Ryan, I've got the 301 engine. I am pretty sure I have the long shoe. I know that I would not be able to break any speed records with it, but I don't have the variable speed header drive either, so I wouldn't be able to speed the header up to go that fast anyway. We do run a 4 row 36 on our M2 without the variable speed header drive and get by with it, so I am sure that won't be an issue. Guess my main concern would be the weight of the header. Another issue is the cylinder speed. According to the decal by the cylinder sheave, with the largest sheave installed, 450 rpm's is the slowest possible cylinder speed. Is this slow enough for corn? Our M2 has the newer style cylinder drive with the torque sensing hub, and thus the cylinder will slow down to I think about 350. Thanks, Darrel

Darrel, it's been since 1994 when I sold my L2 on my sale. But I think you'll be fine at 450 RPM on cylinder speed. I don't know if you've had a Gleaner before, but I was told by my AC mech. to run the cylinder-concaves at 5/16ths of an inch. He said to put a bolt in each side of the cylinder and bring it down to where it just snugs up, then back it off a smidgen. That worked well for me and didn't crack a lot of grain. Speed is the biggest reason for grain damage. By having close tolerance in the cylinder area you eliminate slippage at that point and get quicker-better threshing and it seems to help "slugging" the cylinder, specially if there are green weeds and trash. His argument was too many think you need a bigger space when the opposite is better. The same way with running the cross auger in the grain head closer to the bottom sheet. Anything you can do to eliminate slippage and improve feeding helps put more mass through the machine. I wish that I had known that when we owned an IH 815, because it just would not process bunchie stuff without slugging, and I spent so much time unplugging that I grew to dislike that combine. I had the big engine in my L2 and seldom lacked for power. The PO had an 8-30 corn head on it and I only had 4-36's, with  a 20' bean head. I generally ran both in the 5.5 mph range. Hope this helps!