We ran the 962. The 960 is the older model and has a gear box to run the middle draper. Since MacDon had trouble with it they changed to a hydraulic drive on the 962. I don't know too much about the 972. As far as I remember it had two sickle drives on each side and a finger reel. But you can have a finger reel on the new 962 as well. I don't know about the interchange between the 9600 and the 9650 yet. But I will be able to tell you soon when we get our 9650's we have bought together with 2000 model 962 MacDon's. By harvest service of MacDon I was talking about their harvest support group what is following along the harvest. But I am sure if you would call them as a farmer, they would do what ever they can at the time. I also think their headers are fairly easy to maintain and fix. And we could always call the hotline and ask for advice. The problems I've heard about Deere are that they don't cut low enough on the ground for soybeans and somebody else wrote on this website that he had a lot of welding to do. I defenitly agree with riceman. You want that middle cylinder on the MacDon to adjust your pitch for cutting the soybeans. It helps in wheat, too. For that you will not be able to adjust the reel for and after by hydraulics, but I think you don't need that.