K502STOP - Feeding Ear Corn with a 498 Claas®

Feeding ear corn can be a struggle. Kooima Ag can help! We recently developed a new block to help raise your upper rear feed roll on Claas^® 498 Series choppers. Follow along with Nolan as he walks you through how to install this block!

Nolan worked on a 498 series machine with a low serial number, but this will work on the 497 series also. It is important to specify the low serial number because the low serial numbers have only one hydraulic cylinder while the higher serial numbers have two hydraulic cylinders.

To help 497 and low serial number 498’s feed better, we added a series of blocks to the cylinder. Then, on the other side of the machine, we took off the spring. We also added some washers to raise the upper front feed rolls. This will help you grind ear corn better, especially when using the dual roll adapter from Kooima Ag. Last year, we did a lot of testing with this and found that it worked very well. As for the later 498 series machines, they will act like 502 series machines with dual cylinders. We also have a solution for the late 498 and 502 series machines in another post.

Now let’s go through the steps of adding the blocks and washers to help raise the feed rolls. First, you are going to need to have your feed rolls up. We used wood blocks to help them stay raised. With the upper feed rolls raised, the cylinder was fully extended which allowed us to place the blocks. We added 4 blocks (2 K502STOP kits) to the cylinder. Simply, add the blocks and tighten them around the cylinder. Then, we added 8 washers to the upper front feed roll. These were 5/8 washers. Tighten the bolt about to the same place that it was previously. Depending on if you are grinding lighter or heavier crop conditions will determine where the bolt is placed. This can be adjusted up and down to however you see fit. We adjusted the bolt with about 5-6 threads showing. Once in place, lock it. Now you can remove the boards the upper rolls were resting on and you are ready to grind ear corn.

Get your K502STOP kits for your 497 and low serial number 498 series machines today! Contact our sales team at 800-522-8874 or email them at [email protected].