Just as the 8000 series foragers celebrate their 10th birthday, John Deere’s new range of F8 and F9 self-propelleds is about to start rolling out of the factory.

KEEPING IT BRIEF

  • The new F8 and F9 forage harvester generation from John Deere builds on the previous machines.
  • The cab offers impressive space, visibility and operator comfort.
  • Many details, such as a modified cracker, a new main frame and the silage additive dispenser were developed with practicality in mind.

John Deere has managed to keep it a secret for a long time … that it was coming with a new generation of self-propelled foragers. Enter the F8 and F9, which will hit the market next season. There are a number of pre-series machines operating this year, including the featured F8 600, which has been hard at work with a contractor in the north of England.

As with the old models there is a distinctive split: the F8 has a 660mm wide drum, while the bigger models in the F9 are the wide body line-up with an 830mm intake.

The F8 is powered by Deere’s own JD14X 13.6-litre, six-cylinder. This is the same motor that is also used in the X9 combines and the 9RX tracked tractor. In the biggest narrow body model, the F8 600, this twin turbo engine tops out at 645hp, which is 20hp more than its predecessor, the 8600.

The styling now mimicks the combines’.

As you can see in the model table on the next page, the rest of John Deere’s foragers also get a bump up in power. Its biggest model, the F9 1000, which uses the 24-litre Liebherr engine, breaks the 1,000hp mark for the first time, gaining 50hp more than before.

A new suite

It’s not only the snazzy panel curves that will catch your eye, but also the much bigger cabin with its prominent roof lights. The Zweibrücken engineering team dipped into Deere’s mass of parts, taking the cab from the X9 combine, which has proved a good fit on the forager. From the seat the sense of space is fantastic: it is not just wide, but also has good depth. Like in the combine, the luxury seat comes with massage and ventilation functions, has active suspension and swivels 16° to both sides — all of this adding to operator comfort.

It is not just good news for the chopper pilot, as passengers are also greeted with a large, leather-clad seat, and there’s no need to slam the door shut. The electric door lock means you leave it just ajar, and it closes completely on its own — great stuff. 

All the major information such as engine performance, fuel level and engine speeds are displayed on the 10.1-inch (optionally 12.8-inch) G5 screen and the smaller screen on the A-pillar. 

There is also the ‘Infotainment system’ up in the headspace. We really liked the new layout.

CommandPro joystick

Experienced John Deere forager users will appreciate one detail in particular — the new joystick. The CommandPro controller fits neatly in the palm of your hand. It’s a bit more complex than before, especially since the user can individually configure 11 of the assignable buttons.

New Deere software not only adds headland management, but also lets you set the speed range of the shift gate. While this may not be a fully-fledged cruise control system, it is a significant improvement over the old models. And then there is the auto function that returns the spout to its park position while the gauge wheels on the pick-up fold simultaneously. All this happens at the touch of a button.

Also looking to find favour with operators is the new stereo camera for the automatic filling. This now offers a mode for opening fields, which is claimed to target the crop stream with greater precision as well as a mode for side filling. The latter comes with an additional ‘topping mode’ where the spout moves back and forth to fill the trailer, just like a seasoned operator would do.

Agile and nippy

We were able to get an impression of the new F8 600 chopping grass in the North West of England. This was fitted with the 30R pick-up (which we have used before) and was doing a good job of keeping the F8 fed and happy.

The new engine seems to build up a lot of boost pressure and is then almost impossible to kill. The radiators have also been resized to handle the additional power. 40% more radiator surface area combined with a lower fan speed is reckoned to improve efficiency.

The modified forager chassis is particularly noticeable at the headland: the F8 is about 20% more manoeuvrable than the outgoing 8000s. The particular F8 600 unit we were looking at is a prototype, and we believe that the in-cab noise level will be further improved on production machines. 

The F8 range is now equipped with Deere’s ‘HarvestMotion’ concept — at low engine speeds, the engine has a high torque rise to ensure that the crop flow is smooth and consistent.

There’s the option to flush the silage additive system from a separate tank.

The silage additive dosing system has also been revamped. The insulated 50-litre tank now hides behind a cover, and there is only a single nozzle regardless of the application range. An additional 35-litre clear water tank allows the pipes and pumps to be flushed, and the concentrate can simply be drained. The 325-litre tank at the rear is available as an option for low concentration liquids or for dosing water at the headland when grass is sticky.

The rear unit can be removed as a whole if you want to add extra ballasting weights.

New conditioner rollers

John Deere has largely remained true to its chopping concept and crop flow. Four pre-compression rollers with beefier bearings up top and a larger shaft diameter compress the forage before it is chopped by the multi-knife drum.

The rail system for the cracker is new, allowing access when lifting grass.

Something new is the rail system for the corn cracker or the grass chute. If there’s a blockage, you no longer need to clamber  under the machine; instead you can access the chute from behind.

The mountings and bearings were beefed up, too, to accommodate Deere’s optional XStream processor unit with up to 305mm diameter rollers. Customers can also order the Ultimate 250 KP, which boasts bearing temperature monitoring, electric gap adjust and without forced feed oil lubrication, so the XStream cracker is hardly needed in the F8. The crane for removing the cracker has been beefed up, too.

Other details

  • The chopping drum is still sharpened in reverse. What’s new is that this hydraulic motor accelerates the chopping drum hydraulically once it is engaged — as a starting aid before the clutch mechanically closes the belt drive.
  • For the 3.0m wide version, the F8 has a modified front-wheel drive system and a different rear axle, with 710/70 R42 tyres at the front and 620/70 R 30 tyres at the rear.
  • The tyre pressure control system from PTG is integrated into the ISObus. The flange-mounted twin-piston compressor inflates the 2.15m high front tyres in little more than four minutes, says Deere.
  • The wiring is neatly routed; in fact the engine compartment looks clutter-free.
  • The engine has moved slightly over the rear axle to create room for the larger radiator pack.
  • The lead ratio for the hydrostatic four-wheel-drive system can be adapted to the conditions from the terminal.
  • With an additional height sensor on the spout, the gearbox swivels the spout through a range of 230°, which is 20° more than before.
  • Prices for the F8 will not be announced until September 2025, when it officially goes on sale. 
A PTG tyre pressure control system with two airlines is available as a factory-fit option. The twin-piston compressor with an output of over 1,000l/min is mounted directly to the engine.

Summary

John Deere has pulled out all the stops to ensure the F8 and F9 can grow its appeal. The armrest and controls are a big part of the really noticeable changes. But there are lots of other practical details that have been incorporated, too, such as the modified chute, the additive applicator and even the tyre pressure control system.

Tobias Bensing

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