Combines 9650CTS

[kiwi]

Nice website! John Hudson

 

[MM_H2O]

About your beater issue, make sure that the concave is level and straight. If your machine got some hard use, such as what you would see in the contracting business (rocks, auger fingers, slug feeding from rice, and other foreign material). The rasp bars and concave may have some damage, also, the concave could be out of level, causing uneven feeding from the cylinder_concave into the beater (mainly to one side). This can improperly load the beater and cause it to break the gearbox and shaft. I have only heard of beater shaft and gearbox failure in very high feed rate situations, such as pushing the machine to its limit in down rice.

 

[FRENCH_RICE_MAN]

This talk remind me a few months ago when i talked with an Australian farmer rod (on this site on the second page) and i told him than cts was a good combine in rice but she liked spare parts as she liked rice.. I combine my tx 66 nh for 5 years now without changing something more than 100 dollar...in the other hand my neighboor run cts so did more than i run faster but spent more also.. So maybe it's a choice to do but for me or for what i saw cts isn't good and here we say: DON T GO FAST JUST START IN TIME meaning it s better to slow than fast and be stopped every week during a day or more... If john deere do effort it could be the best combine but reliability is too poor now.

 

[dakota]

I am curious how a lexion would perform for you.

 

[Cutter]

Having harvested rice with both lexions and Deere combines, the lexions will certainly open some eyes to improved productivity in advers conditions. What I notcied first about the CTS was its increased grain loss through various openings around the machine. These openings were cranck and shaft openings and other ports that were simply not covered adequately for rice harvest. I also noticed that in standing water and soft mud, early in the rice harvest season, where the flag leaf was still green, the lexions (475 and 485, each a tracked machine) would operate around 1.5 mph faster than the CTS (all three with 25' rice heads),with minimal grain loss, much less than the CTS. A 480 (wheeled machine) operating with a 25' rice head, where the flag leaf was green and yield was 120 bu_ac, it was able to keep up with and exceed production levels of a 9600 operating with a 22' rice stripper head. Whether the lexion is equipped with tracks or not, it simply has a power and threshing_separating capacity to operate at efficiency levels far above those of competitive rice harvesting combines. And, with the continued, exclusive, sales and service of lexion combines through Cat dealers, I am sure more will be present in the harvests to come.

 

[FRENCH_RICE_MAN]

I ve worked with a lexion 420 so a small one with 5 walkers and it was a pretty good combine pushing a folding 18 header in a hgh wheat yied and it was better than a 1170 john deere (the farmer said no me). Anyway the number talks by their selves with 7.5 m square fo the sieve area so it should be the best conventionnal combine . I don't know about the 480 which use a different system like the cts so i just can tell you she goes as fast as a cts in rice . In my area the claas dealer is too far at 150 miles instead of the others are at 25 max so claas isn't good represented . i ran a 218 mega in rice but i had problem with the concave which was to small , they increase it on the lexion so theris no theoric problem..

 

[charlie]

I appreciate your comments about the lexions. last season we actually had Cat come and bring a 485 to demo and run along our CTS's in rice. We thought given the lexions have a much large sieve etc etc that it should have been able to perform better than our CTS's. We were actually disappointed. It did not do any better than our 9650CTS's and given it has a hefty premium in price over a 9650CTS we thought otherwise. Also the dealer did not even follow us up on doing a deal as we were seriously considering buying 2 480's. There loss as were bought 2 more JD's. The other thing that really annoyed us was the guy who had just bought the 485 was quoted in our domestic ag paper "THe land" saying he ran his 485 against 4 x 9650CTS's and he ran rings around us. All I can say is CAT must have given him a good deal.

 

[Cutter]

Remember, the 480R and 485R are each class eight combines and will have a price reflecting their size and power (400hp),thus the increased price difference. The direct lexion competitor to the CTS is the 470R and 475R, which is priced alomost list for list. Having been in the field with both machines harvesting with CTS's and a uniquely constructed rice version of the 9750STS, I can admit that if not properly set-up a lexion is no better that a CTS (the 9750 rice machine leaves much to be desired and often sounds like a garbage truck going rumbling through the field about to have a major break down, and not a power problem either). When properly set-up, the lexion combines do extremely well in rice. With the preseparation system and hybrid ability to have the threshing system set independently of the separation system provides for excellent productivity in all conditions. the track option simply allows the machine to operate more efficiently and consistently in extremely muddy conditions. I would say the probelms that you experienced were set-up (i.e., possibly dealer) related only and not the machine's fault.

 

[dakota]

Charlie, we had that "demo problem", too before. We had a lexion once and a CASE. It seems to happen quite frequently that the demo personel can't get the max out of their machines. I am really glad that Cutter has a better experience to report. If you think that your local CAT dealer is not treating you right, I recommend to talk straight to the factory.