Combines Mods increase rotor lossIJIJ

[tbran]

how much wheat... takes a lOT in a windrow to equal 1 bu _a. Second click on tips and then to upgrades and take a look at the p3 tips on adding a concave rasp bar ( I bet the folks at Batavia are scratching their heads over the sale of these things !) to the bottom 6 o'clock position to control loss. Works for me in soft red winter wheat. Proof is in looking at the volunteer wheat we have vs. competition.... Dan has used a rasp bar from a N P1 to do the same loss control. This is far less HP consuming than reverse bars. Most combines we set up use 4 paddle_bar combos and 4 bars extended nearly to the end .(Alternating) We bale straw with no problems.

 

[Nobul]

I've noticed the same thing-see my post below. Maybe its not as bad as I think.

 

[Hyper_Harvest]

Ed,

 

[Ed]

looking at volunteer wheat I'd estimate that no more than a bu_ac grew in the windrow area. How much did the baler pick upIJ The rest of the combine path has only scattered plants. I sold some winter wheat straw to a strawberry grower. He has about 1_3 of a wheat crop growing in the berries. Makes my combining look bad even though the grain amount is small. It seems to me though that prior to the additions last year, I saw much less loss. Generally, it has been difficult to find any wheat behind the combine. Reducing HP is not an issue - I am certainly afraid to start removing concave wires since threshing is already poor, especially in spring wheat. Sure wish I'd put an original concave back instead of this high wire one.

 

[Rolf]

G'Day Ed

 

[T__langan]

I had always heard the definition of an expert it someone who has guessed correctly more than once. And the definition of a consultant is someone who looks at your watch to tell you the time! Crop update - Oats are beggining to turn. They look to be a bumper crop, except last night we had severe storms blow through with high winds that knocked a lot of the taller ones down. Just another typical year for around here! Corn is shoulder tall in many places and we have surplus moisture. I'm thinking this year may cause a corn surplus around the country (lAUGH!). Tom langan

 

[johnboy]

Tom i thought the definition of a expert was EX is an unknown quanity and PERT was a drip under preasure.

 

[tbran]

Yup, and it scares the begeebers out of me. Going through the field at normal speed- after dumping to let her cool just a bit- reach over and turn off the key or jerk the throttle back or otherwise kill the eng dead quick. Then turn off the sep. clutch switch and recrank the eng and let it cool. Then shut her down and open up the hatches and inspect to yo' hearts content. Check out the straw at the discharge chute especially. One can check the threshing all the way across. 95% plus should be shelled over the grate!!!! Now open the grate to "clean out" and restart the cyl. w_o header clutch engaged at 75% rpm and let her clean out and then reset concave. This is also a good way to see if one needs a new sep. clutch!! ! Agco service rep performed this trick on a N6 'bout 20 years ago and I have never forgot the experience since. Customer said " Ah forgots to tell you boys, but the clutch don't work to good on the old gal. You shoulda not have done that".. he repeated this a hundred times in the next hour of digging out a P1` up close and personal....

 

[Dan]

I would not undo anything you have allready done. Do an accurate loss analisis once you get going again. Maybe it was the variety. Maybe it was shrunk up kernals that was still in the head that you would been docked for anyway. You've read all the posts for the last couple years and the answers are here. It is my opinion that all the so called upgrades here are very cost effective and well worth your time. We use lots of full high wide wire concaves with wide rasp bars in our hard to thresh wheat with no problems. We just install enough filler bars to do a great job. We also have the front grate set at least one mark closer to concave than mid position and sometimes two marks closer to concave when back of concave is nearing zero. Others and I are more than happy to help you make your combine work as well as or better than any other class 5 machine with equal to or less operating cost (if you arn't allready there) but you must be willing act. Keep in mind that there is a huge variance of crops and conditions out there which dictate wear and tear on a machine over X amount of acres or hours. let use know how you are doing and we'll try to help if needed. Good day.

 

[Dan]

I havn't fastened in any P1 rasp bars but know some who have. I'm unsure how they were modified to fit or where they installed them. How do you fasten the F2 bars inIJ Do you just set them on seperator grate and run a bolt up threw a plate and then threw the barIJ Are you at all worried that bar could slip rearward and then become loose or do you weld a square piece to backside of bar to prevent it from slippingIJ I just get some cylinder bar stock that was used on old competitor combines from loewen and drill and tap holes to match cage. I used the forward rasp if I just wanted to mildly rasp the straw and reverse rasp to more aggresively rasp the straw. I install a 30" piece to belly of seperator side on the P1's. I have covers on top of seperator grate on most of the large P3's so I fasten short flat rasp bars inbetween the helicals just behind seperator grate. I have never had a big problem with rotor lose that couldn't be adjusted for but when you mentioned the rasp bar trick last summer I gave it a try. It took low losses even lower according to what you could find on the ground and according to monitor. I believe it will make machine more forgiving of misadjustment. More reports will be coming when we get into harvest. We are about two weeks from getting started. Have a good one.