Combines Is there an easy way to change gratesIJ

In regards to the concave changing, always take the middle one out first and install it last. As I grow older I question too when it will be that CaseIH will come up with a concave that will not need changing for different crops. Vanes usually get bent or broken because they are worn beyond specifications.

George: The rearmost grate can be a witch to get back in, so what I do is take one of the plastic lids off my dumpster here at home and use it as a creeper to lay on over the top seive. Crawl in the back end and lay on your back.Take a visegrip with you. Slide your way towards the front in order to get both hands on the grate which is resting on the auger shafts. Raise it on the one end to hook it on the perch, swing up the other end and visegrip it in position. Shimmy back out, go around and put the bolts in. Works for me, I don't have help either.

I never change concaves on my 1480,just use cover plates(3) for the small hard threshing seeds. I get a clean sample and good thresh on tiny stuff like flax or hard threshing spring wheat,all the way up to large field pea with the same large wire concaves. Cover plates install_remove in 10 min with little effort.

My experience is it takes more than ten minutes to clean enough trash out from under the cover plates to get them unhooked on the right side. That's not easy. Then, after the cover plates are removed, I clean all the trash out of the concaves which may take another fifteen minutes. That's a dirty, dirty job. All told, at least 30 minutes.

I remove the 2nd and 3rd grate first, then reinstall the 3rd grate loosely before going further. All it takes is a little twist and practice without n2 in there.

Do what my dad does....Make your kid do it.Really. If he is a small guy like me he can get up in on the right side of the combine and pull up on the grates in the back and help hook them. That's what I do it's a little tight and really dirty and I usually bleed a little bit...wait a miniute...I'm getting hosed...all I do is work on the combines I never hardly run them...all I get is dirty and bloody. I gotta go have a talk with the boss one of these days. Just kidding mostly, Will Bier P.S Corn crop is really good and looks to stay that way.Weather has held so far,I have the drier backed up this weekend so I am going tractor pulling today. No combines or bloodshed till tommorow.

I agree on the cover plates being a pain after you get them out and have to poke out the concave while its in there. The one reason I don't like cover plates is that you automatically eliminate threshing area from the machine once installed.

Have always used Harvest brand cover plates on Harvest large wire concaves,they come in_out easily. 10 min tops to install or remove 3 plates. You lose no threshing area with cover plates,only a little seperating area. In my crops it's not a problem.Rotor loss is near 0. Cleaning trash out of the concaveIJ 10 seconds of feeding crop through the combine after removing the cover plates blows it out like grass through a goose. Have never had to manually clean the concaves.