Combines N6 settings

[gaffer]

The concave will have a wear pattern. About six to ten inches from the seperator side there will be a dip in the first few threshing bars at the front of the concave. Put a straight edge across the first threshing bar and if there is more than 1_4 inch wear, it would be prudent to replace. The o.e.m. concave is a good replacement part. There is an extended 13 bar concave available through your dealer as well. This will involve the removal of the first cage panel behind the concave.It is unlikely that the concave is causing the cob breakage you describe. This is a basic trait of any rotary machine. The helicals are the spiral bars attached to the inside of the processor cage. If they are worn, the material is delayed in being discharged from the processor and this can result in excessive cob breakup.You can "piggyback" the existing worn helicals to improve discharge or install the o.e.m. transition kit if not already done. Do not piggyback on the belly of the seperator cage or you may end up with rotor loss.If the machine has an enclosed rotor with four solid discharge paddles, make sure the paddles are set on the "in" position. In the "out" position they will break and jam cob through the cage and put more work on the cleaning system than necessary.As to your question about lower speed rotor speed causing more cob breakage, I can't really answer other than saying sometimes yes, sometimes no. Spongy cob acts different than dry but generally, the manual is correct.

 

[John]

Soybeans, Cyl speed 400-700 concave 1_2 Milo, Cyl speed 600-750 concave 5_8 These are the factory specs., I have found that they work fairly well, don't expect the green stem soybeans to go through as easily, run as fast as possible without cracking_split.

 

[Gleaner_Guy]

Haven't done any tall fescue, but have threshed Bluegrass the last two seasons which should be harder to thresh, as it is smaller and lighter seed. I use rigid airfoil chaffers in my machines, although if you are going to buy some you might want to consider the adjustables to keep some of the material off the seive. I tried the small seed kits. Ended up throwing them in the scrap pile because they plugged up with straw and chaff ect. Instead I just built some panels 5"wide by the width of the seperator with a 1" lip all the way around, and rivoted them to the lip on the fan housing thus choking the fan more. Now I can run the fan choke at about 3.5-4 most of the time. You will need a little more air than that probably. The seive will want to be about 1_8-3_16" open to start with. I run the concave about 1_2-5_8 open and the cylinder anywhere from 800 up to 980 rpms depending on conditions. Your fescue should be easier to knock out so you probably won't have to be as aggressive. Don't be afraid to experiment. Always remember that the guys that write those operators manuals are not farmers and generally haven't spent much time making a combine work. Everyone told me that Gleaners won't do bluegrass seed worth a hoot and are barely acceptable for fescue and ryegrass. Even the dealers and the factory reps said this. This is true if you want to leave the machine set for wheat. I got pretty discouraged until I finally decided that these combines have pretty much all the same stuff inside as anything else (JD,IH)that will do a good job on these crops, plus they have some things that the others don't (accel rolls, dist. augers, pnuematic cleaning). Once I stopped lamenting and started thinking, I learned that with very little work I could make my $15K N6 do as good a job as those other high $ machines. The key for me and it may be for your fescue is to learn how to feed the shoe. This is done by making the distribution augers do their job-that is spreading the material evenly on the shoe. These machines are alot like a computer-they will do anything you are smart enough to make them do-that's where my challenge was. You just have to stop and think, and usually all it takes is a little sheet metal and about 20 minutes and you can solve most any problem. If one side of the shoe is overloading, make the material go where you want it to go. Didn't mean to get so windy. The main thing is don't be afraid to go against the "conventional wisdom".