A Header Trailer is a type of trailer in Farming Simulator 17 designed specifically to carry Headers, and particularly the long Harvester Headers that cannot easily be transported on roads.
Headers tend to be very wide, and transporting them from place to place while mounted on the front of a Harvester is somewhat tricky, as they can snag on trees and lamp-posts on the sides of roads, collide with buildings and cars, and otherwise be a bother. Furthermore, Harvesters themselves tend to be slow vehicles, which take a long time to travel from place to place. A Header Trailer solves this problem by mounting Headers sideways, aligning them with the axis of motion, effectively making them much narrower than they are when mounted on a Harvester. Some Harvesters can even tow a Header Trailer behind them as they move from field to field.
A Header can be placed directly on top of the Header Trailer, and will "stick" to it with some force, like a sort of magnet. Different Header Trailers are designed for different models of Headers, but in truth any Header Trailer will cause any Header to stick to it in this magnetized fashion, and can therefore theoretically transport any header.
Farming Simulator 17 offers four different models of Header Trailers, each designed for a different size and shape of Header. In objective terms, these models differ from one another primarily in length, but they also have a hidden quality - the strength of the "magentic" force they apply to the header they're carrying.
List of Header Trailers[]
Below is a list of all four Header Trailers in the base game. They can all be found in the "Header Trailers" category at the store.
| Name | Price | Maint. Cost per Day |
Carry Length * |
Magnetic Force |
Hitch | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Krone Trailer | 3,000 | 5 | 6.5 | 30 | Drawbar (Bolt) | 1,635 |
| TAM Leguan 24 | 4,000 | 5 | 9.5 | 500 | Drawbar (Bolt) | 1,587 |
| TAM Leguan Quattro 40 | 8,000 | 5 | 13.5 | 500 | Drawbar (Bolt) | 3,153 |
| Holmer Exxact Transport HR 9 | 9,000 | 5 | 5.0 | 1,000 | Drawbar (Bolt) | 4,043 |
Notes for Table[]
- The "Carry Length" is a rough approximation of the maximum optimal length of the Header that can be carried on this trailer. Longer headers can sometimes fit just fine, but may be more difficult to place on the trailer properly, and may not be held as tightly to the trailer as smaller headers.
Why Use a Header Trailer?[]
The most straightforward method to move a Header from place to place is to simply mount it on its Harvester and drive it there. Harvesters are perfectly capable of carrying their own header when working, and are just as capable of carrying it on the road.
Unfortunately, there are several problems with this method, especially when moving a Header to somewhere distant:
- Harvesters are slow. The only harvester that rivals a Tractor in speed is the New Holland CR10.90 - the most expensive harvester in the base game - and it is still rather slow.
- Headers can be very wide. Aside from a few models that can fold up neatly on themselves, many Headers are too wide to be easily transported this way. On the road they can bump into cars going the other way (or overtaking the harvester). In the field they can fail to pass through a row of trees. Driving around town with a header mounted on a harvester is also often impossible.
- A Harvester can only mount one Header at a time. If you need to move two headers from one place to another, the Harvester would have to go back all the way (again, at a slow speed) to pick the other one up.
Header trailers solve these problems rather easily, and do so for a very small amount of money. The Header Trailer can be hitched to a fast vehicle - like a Tractor, Truck, or even a Car - and towed to their destination very rapidly. The header is aligned on the trailer in a way that makes it very narrow and unlikely to collide with any scenery. Finally, a fast towing vehicle can quickly transport several headers, one after another, clear across the map.
Furthermore, Header Trailers are designed so that they can even be towed behind a Harvester. Therefore, a Harvester may be able to carry two headers simultaneously: One mounted on the harvester itself, the other on a Trailer behind it.
When you begin working with larger Headers, a Header Trailer may be a good (and very small) investment, if you find that you are having trouble moving your headers from place to place. As your farm and inventory get bigger, however, you will have less need of moving headers around the map at all, and the usefulness of Header Trailers will diminish respectively.
Note: The largest Harvesting Headers (the Case IH 3162 Draper 45FT and New Holland SuperFlex Draper 45FT) actually have their own built-in Header Trailers. Simply unfold the tool while it's still attached to the harvester, and detach it to turn it into its own trailer. With these headers, you do not need to buy or use a Header Trailer at all - although it's still technically possible to do.
Loading a Header[]
Loading a Header onto a Header Trailer is very simple if you have a Harvester present at the loading location:
- Attach the Header to the Harvester normally.
- Drive the Harvester so that the header is perfectly aligned with the Header Trailer. Try to aim the harvester so that it is pointing at the exact center of the Header Trailer.
- Drive forward until the Header is directly above the Header Trailer.
- Detach the Header. It will fall onto the Header Trailer, and hopefully be grabbed by the magnetic force (read more on this below).
If a Harvester is not present, loading a Header onto a Trailer may be difficult if not impossible. You'll need to find a way to force the Header up onto the Trailer somehow. A Loader with the correct tool may be able to do this, e.g. by sliding a Pallet Fork underneath the header, lifting it up gently, and placing it on the trailer as described above. Unfortunately, even this method is difficult and may not work for all models.
Note: All Header Trailer in the base game are non-symmetrical. They are meant to be loaded from one specific side - specifically, the left side. When looking at the Header Trailer, you'll clearly see that one side is taller than the other. The shorter side is where the Header should be loaded from. You can technically load the Header from the other side, but this may cause a small collision, or prevent loading altogether.
The Magnetic Force[]
In real life, Header Trailers use a system of clamps to hold a Header firmly, preventing it from moving around or falling off as the trailer is towed from place to place. The developers of Farming Simulator 17 have decided to use a different system to keep Headers on Header Trailers. Instead of attaching them together as would happen in real life, the Header Trailer keeps the Header in place with something that can only be described as a "magnetic" force.
All Header Trailers exert this magnetic force, which emanates in an invisible sphere from the center of the trailer. When a Header comes in contact with this magnetic sphere, the magnet holds it in place. The same type of force is used to keep Vehicles steady on a Low Loader, and appears in several other machines - but it is much weaker and barely noticeable with those tools. Header Trailers exert over 10 times as much magnetic force!
The magnet is not all-powerful - there are limited to its strength. While the Header is on the Header Trailer, a sharp turn or sudden deceleration can still cause the Header to fly off. However, on most turns it will keep the Header tightly linked to the Trailer.
This magnetic force seems to be strongest near the center of the Header Trailer, and has a limited radius. This is one of the reasons why it's important to place the Header as close to the center of the Trailer as possible - to make the best use of this force. Placing the Header too far off center can cause it to release from the magnet very easily.
Transport[]
Once the Header is on top of the Header Trailer, it's ready to be moved. All you need to do is hook it up to a towing vehicle.
All Header Trailers in the base game have a Drawbar (Bolt) attachment, which can be hooked up to virtually any vehicle - including even most Harvesters. Note that Trucks require a special upgrade to be able to hook up to them, but this upgrade is very cheap.
Naturally, you'll want to tow the Header Trailer with the fastest vehicle available. A powerful Car can handle a loaded Header Trailer fairly well, though a Truck or a fast Tractor may be more suitable thanks to their high-powered engines. Again, most Harvesters can also tow Header Trailers, but they are much slower.
Whichever vehicle is used, it's important to drive carefully, especially around corners and turns. As explained above, the magnetic force holding the Header to the Trailer is not all-powerful, and will disengage if the Header is pulled forcefully away. High-speed turns, sudden collisions, and other sudden applications of force can easily cause the magnet to detach, and the Header might fall off - and getting it back on is usually a serious problem.
Unloading a Header[]
To unload a Header from a Header Trailer, all you need to do is push/pull it off. This can be done with any tool (such as Loaders pushing it off with their main arm). You can even try flipping the Header Trailer over, or ramming it powerfully with another vehicle - there are many potential methods.
The most reliable method of course is to use a Harvester to simply pick up the Header off the Trailer. Drive the Harvester into position on front of the Header, and hit the Attach button 
AttachDefault Buttons: 
Q
??
?? to hook it up to the Harvester, then carefully back away. The pulling force applied by the Harvester is easily enough to overcome the trailer's magnetism.