Combines Combine Fires

last summer in wheat harvest I had a bearing go out in the feeder chain drum on a CaseIH. The drum was naturally packed full of chaff and dust and that started burning or I should say smoldering and putting out enough smoke to make you think the whole combine was on fire. Because of the location we could'nt get enough water into the drum even after we took the header off to put out the fire. We finaly had to unbolt the drum to get it out of the combine so we could get water into it. By that time all our fire extinguishers were empty. So we put the drum in the back of the service truck and drove to town where we must have ran at least 50 gallons of water through that drum with a garden hose before we finaly had all the hot chaff and dust cooled down. After all the excitement was over the only loss we had was the bad bearing and about two hrs. down time. I should say it was one frustrating adventure but we had to laugh after it was all over. K.A.

We had a small fire on top of the transmission. It did very little damage (burnen a couple of wires). The fire seems to have been due to the disk brakes. Our combine (465 cat) had a brake update during October of 2001 supposedly to cure this problem. Our soulution to this problem is to do a better job blowing the combine off each evening. Currently we use the largest Homlite leafe blower available. Needless to say we pay particular attention to the undercarriage area.

In soybeans we had a JD9650 walker machine that had a spot in the cylinder bars that was smooth from the returns dumping in that spot of the cylinder.Material built up in the concave and friction cased a smoldering fire in it.Took two water ex to put it out..It could of never happend if deere would of spread the returns over most of the cylinder or we replaced the bars sooner..We put alot of acres on our combines it happen last fall and the combine was a 2000.

I run a 1680 I have had many fires inside the combine when doing sunflowers I have no Idea how they start but it is a big problem I haven't burnt up the combine I've always got it out. One year I had a water truck sit at the end of the field and every round I would hose down the inside to put out the smoldering dust.

Had two near misses with a Massey 760 in engine bay - overload cutout on air conditioner had malfunctioned before I bought the machine and the previous owner had bypass wired it - causing the unit to lock up and burn the belt - lucky I blow the engine bay out clean every day! later in a wrecking yard I saw 6 masseys 4 of them had a fire in the engine bay starting at the air conditioner compressor. In the same yard I saw three almost new CIH 2188_2388 burnt from the hydro transmission setting alight to straw that collected on top of it. In lupins and beans any bat reel front will generate static enough to set a fire very easy - these crops should all require a good static strap_chain before starting. Insurance companies will wake up to all this stuff one day and then look out!

Had two near misses with a Massey 760 in engine bay - overload cutout on air conditioner had malfunctioned before I bought the machine and the previous owner had bypass wired it - causing the unit to lock up and burn the belt - lucky I blow the engine bay out clean every day! later in a wrecking yard I saw 6 masseys 4 of them had a fire in the engine bay starting at the air conditioner compressor. In the same yard I saw three almost new CIH 2188_2388 burnt from the hydro transmission setting alight to straw that collected on top of it. In lupins and beans any bat reel front will generate static enough to set a fire very easy - these crops should all require a good static strap_chain before starting. Insurance companies will wake up to all this stuff one day and then look out!

With my R60 with air diesel I noticed a smoke odor. Upon investigating I found that dust that settles on the exhaust manifold had ignited and then dropped down(blown down as there was gusty winds) to engine floor and started dust smoldering. In my excitment I grabbed a fire extinguisher and gave it a shot. All the extinguisher did was blow the smoldering dust around and I suddenly had numerous smouldering dust fires going. All the extinguisher did was blow the fire around. I then emptied my drinking water and truck drivers drinking water trying to extinguish these smouldering dust fires. My truck driver went to a dugout for water and we soon had the fires out. Wasted about an hour. I now carry a hand weed sprayer filled with water in the engine compartment should this happen again.

2388,s we have had a couple of fires on the lHS of the rear axle. Managed to get them out with only moderate damage. Strongly suspect dust and fines coming through the rotary screen igniting on the turbo and being blasted downward by the outer service panel

Re burnt N7 Glenn from Eastern Australia. The fire was started by the main power lead from the battery earthing out as it goes through the plastic covered steel securing loop. This is situated over the top of the hydraulic oil cooling lines right in front of you when you climb up the access ladder on your right side. The power lead burnt through the high pressure line, igniting the hot oil on the way through. The time it took was approx three minutes for the engine bay to be engulfed in flame. Yes I did loose electrics in the cab initially, but thought it was a main fuse or a main wire, not a dead short!! Fire extinguishers were on hand but proved futile as one could not open the engine bay because of heat. The rest is history, just one more thing to put on this years check list before harvest,

Several fires in an old red cab 750; 1: corn head. row n 6 quit with 10 acres to go and a snow storm coming so I shifted over one row and kept going around the outside of the field. The trash built up in row n 6 and since one snapper roll was still turning heat started to buid up. I got to the end of the row, turned into the wind and the next thing I knew the head was in flames. I put the fire out and carried on. 2: The combine block heater was plugged in because I would go out in the field every few days and do a few more loads in January. Plugged it in one night just like I always did for the previous few weeks. I get about 30 metres from it and turned around just in time to see it burst into flames in the engine compartment. Got that fire out also. 3: Had to repair a straw walker so I was in the back with a grinder . I didn't think much of the burning smell until I turned around to get out and noticed the corn husks on the walkers were on fire. Got that one out to. 4: The battery cables were routed under the rad from the factory and eventually the insulation wore through. It was very close, but luckily the air intake cyclone through which you access the batteries wasn't bolted in and the battery cables unscrewed very quickly. Traded the 750 for an 8560 1: Some twitch wrapped around the front beater just as I finished up one night . I could smell smoke and I knew it wasn't a belt or oil etc. Then I could see smoke and it started to get a lot worse. I was getting panicky, my new to me combine was burning and I couldn't tell where the fire was. Finally I did notice it smoking around the right beater bearing. Poured a little water on it and it was fine.