Combines n Flax wrapping on beater

[Big_Al]

Hoo boy, do I know where you are coming from. Not that this will help you much but we had the same problem last year with both of our 2188s. We would go 50 ft and then have to cut the straw off, we even had a fire start on the one side by the bearing. We tried it straight, then swathed and had no luck either way. The augers under the rotor looked like sausages, they were packed solid all the way back to where the paddles are! I have heard since that too much nitrogen causes this nightmare, we eventually let some NH conventionals have a go at it and they did get the job done, although this year we straight combined spring wheat in the same field and the volunteer flax was unreal, we did get through it though. Good luck!

 

[eyeball]

have run in to the problem.we have installed the rock trap fingers, try switching rock trap beater speeds with 20 or 30 tooth sprockets.we have installed marlin,s impeller blades (elephant ears).also we removed the retarder bars off the back of the specialty rotor and also make sure the reverser chain idter is tightened up to the stop block or as close as you can get it.we have had basically no stop since!!!

 

[Rotor_man]

This is kind of a high buck fix, but we love to harvest flax with a shelbourne stripper header on our old 1480. Huge capacity increase( 6.5 mph, fast as she will go) at 24 foot and no darn straw going through the combine and no cut straw to contend with next spring.We have no problem seeding through standing flax straw with 750 drills.

 

[Sparky]

I wondered if a stripper header would work, but I thought that the stripper would turn into a 24 foot wide flax straw bale. Do you have any problem with that in flaxIJ What other crops do you use your stripper header onIJ

 

[Rotor_man]

To get flax to wrap on the stripper rotor the flax straw has to be really wet and sticky. we have used it on wheat and flax with very little loss ( est under 1_4 bpa). Makes a real tiger out of a small combine when youre not running all that straw through it.

 

[Sparky]

Got the flax done today!! Warm and sunny and laid in a swath for 10 days seemed to help a bit. Just wondering about you're experience with the stripper header. What are the drawbacks as you see itIJ Have you used it in pulse cropsIJ How hard is it to set the combineIJ Thanks.

 

[Rotor_man]

Good to hear your done with flax. I have another 400 acres to do, so hope the weather holds out.

 

[Big_Al]

Just an update to our last message. We are doing the same flax again, but this time we took a grinder to the sides of the guards to sharpen them up and put in a knife with fine tooth sections. I am not sure if the difference is in the cleaner cut not fraying the ends of the straw, or what else it could be. It seemed the frayed ends would catch on any rough edges and start the wrapping process. This time it is working like a dream. Al

 

[Sparky]

Good to hear things are going well. We finished our flax after we let it sit in swaths for 10 days. It still wrapped, but not as bad. Good to be done though!