Combines 30 flexhead

[minorfarmer]

The only time our 30 footers have broke a sickle is when the stabilizer under the feather sheets broke at that ball joint. Just shook the sickle in two.

 

[tbran]

yup, take off a gaurd and look the the cutting profile, is it smooth and dipped in the middleIJ If so replace, if it is smooth and not dipped use a side grinder to put on a new cutting edge. How are your wear platesIJ Can you grab the sickle and move it forward and backwardIJ If so readjust the wear plates or replace and readjust. look at the back of the sickle does it have wear groovesIJ If so move the holddown and wear stips to another non worn area. I have installed wear plates in all possible holes. You need to have hold downs every foot. Verticle clearance should be no more than the box top thickness you sections came in. The material wedging between sections and gaurds is what is causing your breakage.

 

[goose]

i had an older machine that the variable header speed was set to fast and caused the sickle to break.

 

[buckeyegleaner]

where do you break the knife at speed is big problem also if sch style use loctite on splice and head bolts and gleaner now has a 3_4 drive head yoke instead of 5_8 bolt also have to change the head but worth it if you break 5_8 yoke

 

[hop_a_l]

Sorry it took so long to get back, been in the feild til all hours of the night until tonight when it rained about a 1_4 inch and chased us out. The Dealer came out the next morning and said that are guards were worn and we replaced all of them and have not had a problem since. I still think that no more acres than the header has been through that the guards should have lasted longer than that. I know when I was on the harvest run our headers would cut thousands of acers and the only time we replaced a guard was if it was broke. Maybe these flex heads are just a lot higher maintance than I am use to.

 

[l3]

What style of sickle was itIJ I need to replace the one on my 520 flex.

 

[hop_a_l]

It was the sickle that looked like two smaller sections side by side, in other words it has 4 cutting edges instead of 2. And we broke another one this morningIJIJIJ The dealer did not have anymore so we welded it back together and cut the rest of the day. Got me on why it keeps breaking.

 

[Rolf]

G'Day hop-a-long I have a 30' 500 Flex and one of the problems that your having could be with the

 

[Dan]

You seem to be descriping what I call the Gleaner Quick cut (don't know if it is Gleaners own design or where it originated). It's been available on the flex head for quite some time. We have trouble in our area with that sickle cutting clean and breaking (standard sickle like rigid head has works better). Rather than switch out complete system to standard sickle or aftermarket we took a full set of guards from discarded quick cut system and fastened them on top of sickle in place of hold downs. These guards needed to be spaced to just clear sickle and first two or three guards from wobble box needed to be standard guards with groove cut deeper to clear the longer sickle section of the Quick cut. Works very well like that but would rather go with standard, SCH or Crary in our area. For the guys no tilling into corn stalls may need the live front on sickle to prevent to much trouble spearing corn stalks. We have guys that prefered the Quick cut until we hit a year where straw was tough to cut and then we could have enough sickles on hand. Good luck.

 

[Rolf]

G'Day hop-a-long I run a double section knife as well, and we also use a four finger guard, Why Because when you have Hyperized your machine