Macdon Split reel vs Single reel and 5 bat vs 6 bat

I prefer a single reel. If you buy a split reel , take a good look at the center shaft. Mine broke in half a few years ago. I think it was from a leaking cylinder in the middle and or the operator failed to rephase the cylinder. Anyways its was a big job to fix in the field. I guess double is all they offer now so just be careful on what you buy or how you run the reel. I would say 6 is better in lodged crops.

Split reel more complicated/heavy, has visibility issues, cylinder phasing and crop flow issues. Kinda need it if you are getting a flex header though. Didn't know you could get 6 bats, I have heard of guys buying the parts and re-working a 5 bat reel into 6 though.

What series? Macdon generally has a good reel setup.

Can order the header with 6 bat. I did that on my FD75. Planning to add a sixth bat to my FD70. Six bat seems to work better when things are lodged.

One thing to watch out for on the 2152 is the steel lines that pass through the main frame tube from the far left panel to the right-most panel (and come up in the middle for the center reel arm). Two of them connect the reel fore/aft cylinders together. When they wear and leak inside that beam the reel will tend to slide forward, perhaps unevenly. We replaced the steel lines with rubber hoses and we routed them along the back of the header. The newer headers do this from the factory if I'm not mistaken.

I've seen too many wrapping issues on a split reel in canola, especially when guys are cutting lodged stuff that is a little on the green side, i.e. not ready to cut in my books.

We have the 6 bat split reel on our swather. That split does leave a gap where the knife doesn't get swept off so if the knife is going to plug, 80% of the time it'll be in the middle. Can't say we've ever seen wrapping and we'd be cutting a lot greener than a header on a combine (I'd hope 😐). You do have to check that center though. Loosen the drive cover and make sure everything is torqued under there. We had ours loosen doing oats this year, where the plate driving the right side is bolted to the sprocket. It got to the point that the remaining bolts sheared and the right side dropped. Luckily the shield held it above the knife or there would have been a lot of missing reel tines.