Combines Bin ExtentionsIJIJIJ

I worked with a guy who had the huge Crary extensions on a 9600 he had the extension on for 2 seasons and at the start of the third season he backed the combine out of the shed and the rim on the ladder side cracked out around the bolt holes we caught it before it came off the combine. I can't say though if the reason for the rim to break was because of the hopper extensions.

We have 2 9600's and have had to replace 5 rims on the front. We run 18.4 R38 duals. We have Maurer extensions on both of them. Although we have hopper extensions, we attribute the cracking to the number of miles we travel on the highway. We run 930Fs and do not remove them for road travel. When meeting traffic there is a large amount of sideways strain on the rims as the right side of the combine goes down in the ditch. I don't know if this helps, but that is what we have come up with.

I gotta ask out of curiosity. What sort of roads do you have to travel on with the 30 footers on the machineIJ Here in rural West TN some of the bridges are less than 30ft wide. I could make short jaunts down a few roads, but sometimes even have to take the header off for 3 mile moves. I've been running a 20ft on a 9500 and I can go almost anywhere with it on (if no cars are parked on the side of the road). It does get tiring on long moves, the constant moving over especially at certain times of the day. Thanks BH

We farm in eastern ND where there are very few bridges and very little traffic most of the time. Most of our travel is done down a 2 lane state highway. The only obstacles that we have to watch out for are a few mailboxes. The worst time we have each year is on Friday nights after high school home football games. We often have to pull over 20 times over 7 miles.

I have a friend with a 9610 sporting the big Maurers, and after filling the bin he headed back to the truck(no grain cart was available). Running approx 8 to 9 MPH, he hit a drainage ditch. He was doing custom work and was not familiar with the ground. It split the grain tank at a corner down inside the combine. This is not a typical situation, but thought you might like to know. By the way he has never had final drive or wheel problems. It has 30.5x32 drive tires. Best of luck.

We have a 9600 with bin ext, we had to put tubes in 2 of the tires(got duals) in the last couple of years. We have a auger wagon so we don't run full very much and hardy road with the platform, corn different story! Both times we lost the tires we where about to finish a half round, so basically when the 9600 had around 350 to 400 bushels on it! Machine is a 1994 so we didn't have problems until lately. Running with bin ext is a mixed bag! Never run fast when loaded and if you can wait on the auger cart. My dad is bad about waiting on the cart, he will run the thing till corn is pilled on top of the cab. Guess he uses that as his alarm for when the hopper is full! HA HA!

I know this is older and maybe they built things a little stronger in the old days but I just bought a 7700 that has a 360 bushel grain tank on it. See the link at the bottom. It was customized by a guy in our area several years ago, quite an original machine-they did a really nice job. I would have been nervous about the final drives but they have been running it this way for 20 years. They built it to avoid having a grain cart and to make full rounds in 1_2 mile rows and unload over ditch into trucks. If one would go I figure for that capacity I can find another final drive at scrapyard and still be $ ahead. I haven't personally ran it yet but am anxiously waiting for fall. I figure if a 7700 will handle that (albeit beefed up rear axle) then I wouldn't worry much about extensions. Most of the people in our area run the extensions and pile corn over the top-haven't heard of many problems.

I remember reading about that machine back in the 70's in a magazine.I got in touch with the son's builder a couple years ago,to show my son,who is now in JD mechanics,what some smart people were able to achieve back in the old days.No reason why it wouldn't work. I assume they ran a 6 row head,but since the front axle was built to support a 8 row wide head,they had considerable lee-way to work with. Also notice how the front wheels have a shallow dish.That puts the final drive at the center of the wheel.VERY important. They also beefed up the rear axle[maybe a 4WD axle].The work they did with the hydraulic unload is very creative. That machine is a classic.Take good care of it.

Can't any of you guys afford a "header trailer"IJ Nothing like risking all you have worked for just to save a few minutes moving. I'll bet the first time some young kid piles into the header and looses his brains you'll be wishing you had a trailer. Come on guys practice some safety out there.