Combines CHIS would be good for future farmers

as to functional aspect n1.. I have never heard yet of one farmer who threw his ratchet strap over the reel and if there is one (or more) I bet they never do it again. A sliced piece of rubber hose over the cutterbar will suffice to keep from cutting the strap too. I don't beleive the auger sticks up into harms way from the said strap at all. Also, in case you have not noticed yet, every head trailer manufactured that I have looked at so far has movable feet with hooks to tie to for the skids already on the heads. This kind of negates your need for this fix..I know, it is a small thing. I still don't get the safer part.. but I am old. Now for the easy part, your so called centerline drive thingy.. Can you imagine how unhappy a guy will get when your thingy takes a crap at night and he will now have to dig under the middle of the head (not dangerous or anything, lawsuit) and try to figure out this best thing since sliced bread deal that is so much better than having all the drives exposed to veiw on the ends as in the old daysIJ I can, and feel that this is one engineers idea that should never have made it past dreamland. Maybe I am wrong, You know if you had a running working demo of this whole shebang, that you could take around to farmers and tell them "here, use it and tell me what you think" you wouldn't have to heat up the balloon and send it over here without warning. Maybe farmer input is not exactly what is looked forIJ Just a thought, but hey, I play guitar so I usually don't get to count past about 4 or sometimes 6. Have a great day, these are the best of times. gs

Yessir, that helps a bunch. Thanks.

A keen thing to always remember is trust the "Farm Buddy," he won't steer you wrong! He is the Advocate!!!

Greenstat, thanks for the added comments. I've used many different types of header trailers moving headers over the years while working for JDHW, Claas, Agri-Technology (Bi-Rotor project),Cat Claas lexion launch, Machinerylink, and farmers around the world. I agree that the header trailers have various adjustable saddles and retainers, BUT we all know that these are often a pain to move and reposition as they bolts rust and get bent or worn. Granted, if you are always using the same header and combine this is not a big issue, but it is to the many farmers who I've talked to and who signed the petition sheets advocating CHIS. It will become a bigger concern as heads continue to get larger and as road transport restrictions require removal of wide headers. Biomass collection will also become a factor in this area. Unfortunately, sometimes the saddle positions are not even the same for a given color, between rigid heads, flex heads and or corn heads. Maybe we can at least get this done in the future. CHIS will not happen over a short time, but probably take a decade or two to become uniform. ASABE standard would be recommended targets for manufacturers to work toward when upgrading to future models. Regarding the centerline drive, we've been evaluating the safety and maintenance aspects of three different drive configurations. There is a substantial reduction in operator hazzard exposure by eliminating the drive shaft and drives from the back side of the left hand header, where the operator and co workers exit cab ladders and pass by every day. I believe that the repair work on the centerline drive compononents creates no more risk exposure than current repairs to center auger fingers, sickle sections or bottom mounted skid plates, stabilizer arms, auto height control rods or cornhead slip clutches. Feederhouse safety stops still have to be used along with prudent caution. I have had the center dividers run and evaluated by USCHI Kansas wheat harvesters in 2004 and here in Indiana applications this year. I do definitely appreciate their input and suggestions. An added benefit of the centerline drive will be the inverted V covering __ over the feederhouse which sheds fodder, leaves and straw. This much nicer than the pile of view obstructing material that has to be kicked off the top 2 or 3 times per day. As an individual, it takes a lot of time and work to do the test and evaluation and promotion of this improvement, but I have had the cooperation of other local farmers and USCHI harvesters. We could use more help and funding, but have to make do with our limited resources and time. I wish I could share the entire paper and powerpoint presentation with all of you, but just can't yet. I gave the brief overview again today to the Indiana Agricultural leadership Program Class 12 earlier today (7 Sept 06) and once again found overwhelming support and another dozen signatures on the CHIS petition.

n1. The bolt tighteners for the sliding saddles are not and will never be a pain if you use your head the first time and use anti seize on the threads. I realize this is not something taught in engineer land, but it will cause your argument for this one to be moot. n2. Safety again.. You wrote in the above post "There is a substantial reduction in operator hazzard exposure by eliminating the drive shaft and drives from the back side of the left hand header, where the operator and co workers exit cab ladders and pass by every day." What I have to say to you now is something you evidently have no knowledge of or you wouldn't have written that, so listen up, it might save your life. Do not exit the cab ladder and pass by anything that is running, ever..period. Shutdown of machine before you get off and walk around it is paramount to a long life. If you do this you will not have a danger. I have first hand knowledge of what it feels like to get caught in turning iron and it is something you never forget, and usually think about several times a day, if you live of course. Shut down the machine before you get off. Always. Also, the pile of shucks is not in the operators line of sight with the work area ahead of him, so I don't believe this affects performance in any way. One big negative effect to removing the flat feeder is now there is nowhere to stand safely to clean the windshield. I like to see where I am going. I know you mean well, but your idea looks to me like what my dad sometimes says about overengineering marvels: "guilding the lily". Before you dis my dad, you should know he is a P.E. in mechanical and now is 93, but had one good thing going for him, he was raised on a farm. You take care.. gs

greenstatic, The anti zeeze helps treat the problem but is not a solution. it would be better if bracket positions could be more common in the real world so then they wouldn't hve to be moved for every other platform or corn head. gs, you should have taken your Dads or own advice before gaining your "first hand knowledge of what it feels like to get caught in turning iron and it is something you never forget, and usually think about several times a day" Didn't you "Shut down the machine before you got offIJ" or were you just working on itIJ Hate to hear about that, how bad are your injuriesIJ The build up shucks on our feederhouse does bother view of auger feeder area through out the day. It be better if it shed off by itself and still have a place to stand to clean glass. Newer combines have step pads for this. Do you work with you PE dad still or whereIJ

Hi william.. No, my dad is retired from air force civilian engineering. He had a great run but hated the bs politicing. I see you are a real smart guy telling someone how not to have a pto shaft accident which had all shields in place, but their was about an inch exposed over the shear bolt next to the auger which was loading my truck (kind of hard to load your truck without running it, but when you figure that one out let me know) and I was standing about 6' from it, next to the bin door on concrete with some corn scattered over the area, just enough to make it like marbles. Anyhow, I had my back to the auger, and I somehow lost my grip on the door handle (January has a way of doing this) and fell backwards toward the pto shaft which was idling real slow (I thought before the little problem started) My gloved left hand went back and lit on the auger tube, slipped off that and right onto the one place that could grab me, the shear bolt at the very end of the shaft. It was exposed just enough to grab my glove, then my shirt, then my coat..get the pictureIJ I was lucky, this was 1990 and I only broke one little bone in my palm, it healed. As my shirt and jacket shredded off my arms and back, the turning shaft quickly pulled my left arm down till it had the left side of my face hard against the now pretty large diameter shaft and it scraped all the skin off much of my neck, and left cheek. After a few seconds, when all my upper clothing was completely off me and wound on the shaft, I kicked me off like a bull in a rodeo. My skin all healed back pretty good, and never offered to scar for some strange reason. My left hand got banged up pretty good, even though only one little bone was broken, and became pretty stiff. After a year or so, I got real tired of not having much use of it, so I picked up the guitar after not playing for about twenty years and this served as excellent therapy and I have full use of all my hand and fingers again. You see, this series of events may not have been quite what you thought. I have told this story many times, once to the 4H kids, and showed them the pile of shredded cloth that was my brand new coat and shirt. I could have lived my life and never done this, and I considered not doing it for the farmbuddy dude too, but I thought if one poor shmuck can avoid this, I would gladly bear the brunt of the occasional insensitive person like you who have been lucky enough to miss out on this rather unfun experience. Good luck to you, remember, just when you think you are so smart nothing can go wrong, it will in a big way. Interesting you would choose to razz me for this instead of considering what it would be like for you to get all chewed up. GS which stands for green stratocaster.

Greenstat You mentioned in your earlier reply that "Also, the pile of shucks is not in the operators line of sight with the work area ahead of him, so I don't believe this affects performance in any way." In rebuttal, after picking around 100 acres _ 20,000 bu of corn this weekend with a 2388, it seems that the build up of fodder on the top of the feederhouse is a potential problem. I agree that visibility to the header auger remained adequate, but the material build up creates a fire risk, especially along the right side header drives. There is also potential damage to the cab skirt and steering pump under the cab by mid afternoon, when the header is raised completely up. This is the toughest area to clean off at the end of the day. An inverted V will shed this material on center line drive headers in the future.

leaf blower. end of problem. You are trying to engineer something that doesn't need to exist. gs

We kick the material build up off a couple of times during the day, when moving between fields or waiting for trucks, but it would be nice to not have to do this. leaf blower is used at the end of each day, but not always nearby during mid day. It is my feeling that the build up of shucks on feederhouses is real, creates a fire hazzard, restricts visiblity and looks objectionable. It has become more of a safety problem with wider feederhouses, lateral tilt systems and fore-aft adjust retainers mechanisms, esp. JD. It will be nice, plus a cosmetic improvement, when this is alleviated in the future.