Combines Gleaner 800 flex

[T__langan]

I'm wondering if you have had any experience with Gleaner's 300 series flex headers. If you had, I doubt you'd complain too much about the 800's. The only time we have ever had feeding trouble with the 800 is in very short beans and the hose mod cured that and makes the green stuff feed that much better too. Give it a try - it will put that green stuff up a few inches where the reel teeth can sweep it in. Run header in low setting too - that also helps to keep the cutterbar closer to the reel. I also believe there are three settings where the reel lift rams attach to the header - perhaps try a lower setting remembering to be careful to not allow the sickle to give your reel teeth a "haircut". Since we installed the hose mod on our 800 two years ago, I doubt we've plugged our feederhouse three times from slugging. It is a gift from above for us! We leave it on for small grains as well as beans. Tom langan

 

[NDDan]

Absolutly no problem what so ever feeding with that set up unless you have something totally wrong. Where was it not feedingIJ Far left, left, middle, right, far right, or all the way accross. Crary reel is narrower than I would like for the 30' thus they have the outboard finger option if feeding bothers on far sides. Just left or right side would indicate header not level to combine. All the way accross would indicate improper aimed nozzles or a bunch plugged up. Check drive shaft speed at gearbox for blower. Maybe MF shaft runs slower than Gleaner thus Crary has wrong speed on fan. Only thing I noticed is in the very worst conditions that reel would start wrapping up before feeding would be affected much. Don't know how that MF works with that header but it makes a perfect match with the R Gleaners. We've run days and nights where the conventional header and combine setup couldn't even think about running. Anyway don't give up on that header for something very simple must be wrong. let us know what you find.

 

[Brian]

We run a 830 with Crary Air Reel and feeding is awesome! We had plenty of short and green beans this year and had no trouble whatsoever. Keep playing with the adjustments like reel tine pitch, reel fore_aft, as well as aim of the air tubes. I've seen it make a big difference. We run with a green combine at times and they usually fed some better...not anymore. The 800 with that set-up should be tops. I must say however, it is about time Gleaner made this head it was long over due.

 

[MW]

We currently run a MF 8780 XP with a 30' 800 series flex head in beans in Il. We trade both the combine and platform each year for newer ones. This is the third 800 series head we have had and we have had nothing but trouble as far as feeding goes with every head. It does do a good job of cutting though. The beans will just not feed in evenly unless they have gone through a frost and even then we still have trouble sometimes. We have tried everything possible to help improve feeding. This year we put on a Johnson rock guard and it did help some but not a whole lot. We believe that AGCO needs to put a full fingered auger on this head. All of our neighbors who have new Deere heads with the full fingered auger or who have installed the full fingered auger on their older heads love them. We helped our neighbor last week finish cutting beans. He runs a 9650 STS with a 925F platform and was absolutley embarassing our machine. He was running 5 mph when we could only do 3 to 3.5 mph and doing as good or better job of cutting. We love our combine and it has tremendous capacity when it is fed evenly. But thats just it, the combine can not reach its full potential because of the poor feeding at the head. In tough conditions a wad of beans builds up on the front of the auger until is gets big enough for the flighting to take it in and then ROMP! The combine pulls down and you have to pull back on the hydro handle. In good conditions the flighting takes the beans across but does not pull any beans underneath the auger. This results in a build up of beans on the front of the auger near the center of the head on each side which makes you slow down to avoid running beans over with the head. AGCO needs to wake up and smell the roses. Everyone else now has a full fingered auger in their platform. They do definately improve feeding as I have seen this with my own eyes. We are considering installing a full fingered auger ourselves in our head as we know of someone who installs full fingered augers in all brands. As I said before other than the platform we love our combine, it does a great job of threshing and cleaning both corn and soybeans and is very reliable but also very easy to work on and set.

 

[NDDan]

We're really spoiled by having Crary air reels on most machines but have made a machine with HCC level two work pretty well in the weedy or short crop areas. Most machines of any color around here have the Crary air reel. You see a complete terrible job hear and there from all machines which depends mostly on operator or gatherability (is that a wordIJ) of crop. look back at previous posts for fairly simple mod to get HCC reel down and back. It may be just the ticket for you and wouldn't it be nice to stay away from the extra fingers!!!

 

[brassring]

We are running a 20' 800 flex with the hose mod on it we have trouble with it spearing corn stalks(no-till) we have changed the angle of the sickle and moved the reel (U-11 type) up down back and forward but it still pushes at times thought about going to the sch bar any thoughts or can I still change something on this setup.it gets the small beans well enough but when those push piles hit it chokes the throat tia Bob

 

[NDDan]

OK. I looked at head today to see what would be major hangup for guys without air assist. I see a plate all the way accross head holding rear of feather sheets. First and easiest thing would be to grind forward edge and smooth off so material would easily flow beyond it. It is fastened far enough ahead of auger to see it could hold up material. If grinding forward edge didn't do enough I would remove plate and cut to fit on bottom side in pieces. You would likely have to double the amount of fastening points to hold tins from distorting to much. looks like a very simple mod to give a try. Natural tendency of flighting is to draw material under auger so I think the 7" will do a wonderfull job in all conditions if you get rid of restriction. As far as Brassring was wondering I think the guys prefer the live sickle (sections protrude in front of guard) (Quick Cut)if spearing corn stalks in notill.

 

[silverluv]

Well this something that I have noticed is wrong with the 800 head versus the 500. The problem with the feeding is that the reel is actually too big in diameter. The centerline of the reel is actually in front of the cutterbar than over top of it which causes the fingers to lift up before they ever get to the cutterbar causing it to not bat in what is on the cutter bar. When they went to the bigger auger they also continued with same reel. They had to move the reel out to allow room for the auger. This is what cause the centerline of the reel to move out in front of the cutterbar. The 500 head fed much better because of the smaller auger the reel could be back farther. It has nothing to with the full fingered auger theory. I always thought that the grain was supposed to stand up in the flighting instead of having some fingers pull it under the auger causing a possible slug.

 

[NDDan]

Went ahead and trimed flighting on far sides of 800 so we could move reel back and feed the short bean or weeds. Worked well but be sure to recheck finger tilt and reel height to prevent metal to metal or metal to plastic contact. I think a good look at that strip of iron holding rear of feather sheet deserves a good look for looking at machines with out air reel I can see it may well be giving problem in the short crop or weed conditions. To get head to feed in them conditions without air reel would be a big plus for I can't imagine anything that would work better in normal or tall bean conditions. Take care.

 

[Rolf]

G'Day Guy's Just one point that NDDan makes here in regards to the steel strip holding down the back of the feather sheets! The first year we had our (94) R62 with Flex 530, we had terrible problems with barley hanging up along that steel strip, So then (Rolfs.Old.Man.) got to the feather sheets and folded them (stepped up) so as to make the back top of the feather sheets just before the steel strip 1 or 2 mm higher than that steel strip, (putting small folds in stainless steel Hmmm, that was fun!!!) but it sure did make one heck of a difference to how the front fed!!! Some of the blokes around here grind that steel strip down at the front of it so as to make a smooth transition, some also put some smooth "thousand mile hour tape" along there as well to help as a quick fix. May be you could try that to see if that's what is holding up the flow in to the table augerIJ Rolf