Silver_Shoes
Guest
Rolf, feeder shocks are standard equipment now
Combines Massey Ferguson Australia invitation
Rolf
Guest
Thanks Silver Shoes For that bit of info, That tells me that there current expert for our area is not up to speed with what works and what doesn't! Im more than happy to eat humble pie if AGCO's Aussie experts can make our machine go as good as it does at the moment by pulling all the upgrades the we have done! better still if AGCO would like to bring a factory set R65 out to us and do a side by side comparisonIJ I would think that they should still do a better job with more HP but I like to see how far behind we are and what the losses are between the two machine'sIJ I'm in need of some bench marking! Rolf
Silver_Shoes
Guest
Rolf, I do understand your side of the issues. It definately is understandable. Basically my opinion on the situation is Allis Chalmers built a monster of a combine in a small package and then ran into financial difficulties in the 80's. After the parent company lost everything basically, it turned into a new ballgame with alot of new issues. The company went through 2 different of administrations and also 2 different CEO's. They started buying companies like mad, which is somewhat of a good deal and somewhat bad. They definately didnt put the money into research and developement into the Gleaner line which is what probably should have been done. Massey for instance got alot of money spent on them and I assume it took money away from Gleaner. The agco company is still evolving and we, as well as agco are lucky to have some of the rural engineers that are on this site. Agco has learned through these guy's experimenting and complaining. Also the third helical is standard equipment today. I think the new CDF rotor is an example of how Agco decided they better step up to the plate with the Gleaner boys because Gleaner is the parent company. Im not sure how much more capacity can be gained from the transverse rotor but we will see I guess. I have a friend that hauls them out of Hesston and says when he gets in MO, he is barely legal hauling them because of the width of the machine. To me I feel like I am lucky they are still around, I really like my transverse rotors and accelerator rolls, it will be a sad day if this design ever dissappears. Constructive critisism is good, but I can thank Agco for sticking with the tranverse rotor because I can get a newer model every now and then, and yes they are experimenting and improving them also. What upsets me sometimes is seeing a good Gleaner sitting on a different dealers lot. I have a neighbor that traded (to green) and they told me that there isnt much difference. Agco still has the best machine for terraces and slopes. I think Agco is getting things straightened out, the problem is the competition is getting things straightened out also.
Rolf
Guest
G'Day Silver shoes It' nice to see that there might be some AGCO staff looking and watching this site, and I thank you for you involvement. It might be because Im passionate about my Gleaners that I just can't understand why AGCO Australia (Massey) are not supporting the "Farmer or contractor" that is using there header's! like this year Massey OZ didn't stock a lot of parts because dealers were not stocking parts because there was a perceived thinking that we weren't going to get a very good harvest (Farmers also sweated over that to!) but even if we were to have a "bad" season WE still have to go out and use our machine to get what we can (what ever color machine you have) and they still breakdown in bad seasons. Then to have so called Experts say that feed shocks restrict feeding!!!!! and yet they are standard on new machines!!! I would just like to see someone from Massey Oz come and have a look at what were doing. If a couple of Dealers in The USA suggest some upgrade ideas that work in Corn and soybeans and we try them here and they work as well IT Must tell AGCO management there might be something in there them upgrades if they can work 14000 miles apart in two completely different climates!! I know things take time, But AGCO are losing clients around here big time I know of another client that is considering going green! Common AGCO, send a R75 to NDDan or Tbrand and Set up A Stock Factory R75 then run them side buy side, also so find an Aussie dealer that is into Hyperzing and get him a R75 to Hyper and have a stock R75 run beside him also!! both side of the argument can be discussed and both sides can learn from something like that. Rolf
Rolf
Guest
Hmm just re-read my above rant and the last line should read AGCO just send ME an R75 to Hyperize and you guy's bring the Stock one, then we can compareIJ PS:I would keep the Hyped R75 for my trouble 
johnboy
Guest
Rolf, it's not only Agco that can be slack on parts. I have a contracting mate with Cats and had a windscreen that shattered and Cat did not have a windscreen in Australia to fit. Not only that they were quoting him around $11 000 to airfreight a new one in.We might be lucky in that our local Agco dealer do their best in supplying parts and keeping us going but we never seem to have any great problems for parts for all of the Gleaners we have had.
NDDan
Guest
That guy needs to be tracked down. I wonder what else he had to say!! There is no way in this whole wide world we could run without feeder shocks. Only one time in my life that I was phoned by head Gleaner engineer was to find out how we did shocks. They were installed standard equipment that very year (1997) and they even went back a year and put them on all them machines. We have went a lot further with feeders since and I've been begging them to take a look. May even be able to remove shocks if they streamline the feeder like we have done. Anyway on a couple good notes. Our traveling combine specialist (who is new to Gleaner) and has most of Canada has saved a few soon to convert long time Gleaner custumers by tiping them off on what can be done to bring machines up to speed. Once again this fall a trend is continuing where more Gleaners are coming into our trade area displacing other colors. I'm not saying hear the currant models are so far off because they surely are not. I'm just pushing for a little to no cost feeder streamline job that will benifit areas of the world that feeders are limiting factor and we can simply hype up the couple other little things. Good luck getting your head to head challenge. Have a great day.
Kurt
Guest
NDDan, You have made several references to changes in the feeder house but I couldn't find any post that you were more explicite on the issue. I am very interested as I have just ordered a 36' draper head to increase my capacity in wheat. In the back of my mind I have always worried about that little feeder house and can it handle all the material that I am going to be cramming into it. I will have that draper head on a 75 with a cdf rotor. I am still trying to decide on the cylandar bar setup as one person told me that in wheat I should run 1_2" bars over the concave and 3_4" over seperator with 4 reverse bars for wheat. I would be very interested in your advice. Thanks Kurt kurtmaurath@ruraltel.net
NDDan
Guest
OK even after feeder shock we kept looking for more capacity in feeder. Big improvement was made by building floor forward from the bottom of square tube in front feeder. At same time we replace hex head bolts on side of feeder and under drive sprockets with pan head bolts. We also weld in filler to smooth out the square corners at both sides toward rear of front feeder. Them mods helped plenty but we wanted more. We then tilted back 20" of front feed floor down by 3_4" and front 20" of rear feed floor by 1". This worked great but even better when we removed hump from first 8 or 9" of the lowered rear floor. Another plus to transition area between chains is the posi-feed rear feed chain tention drum and we have built poor man version of this by welding angle iron to currant tention drum. Gleaner certainly improved feed capacity also by removing slip clutch from rear feed in '04. Slip clutch would slip a bit from poor transition and front feed would plug up quickly. I'd recommend rock door hump if your not loaded with rocks and transition helicals with steep pitch to prevent second pass over feed chain-concave area. I hear the CDF also reduces feeder stress so you will likely benifit there also. Your draper head will also likely help prevent feeder problem if it is feeding smoothly and because you will likely be running feeder at a height more favorable for a nice transition between chains. I can't comment on CDF cylinder bars. We do run all wide rasp on standard eight bar rotors in all our crops including hard to thresher wheat but I don't think it is a bad idea to have narrow rasp over concave if wheat is a big part of your mix. I'll send you some pictures. Have a good one.
Kurt
Guest
Just want to thank you NDDan and everyone else that is willing to share there knowledge and experience freely on this site. It really makes one feel there is hope for humanity after all. Have a great New Year! Kurt