Combines R50

Ed

I'm up to 76 acres planted, as of monday night.

Tom, I assume Mrs. Russell's expenditures are mostly discretionary. These are not. Yes, they are Canadian $. They are essentially all parts, only the odd repair is hired ie A_C work. Allis joined my fleet in Sept 1994 as an experienced combine with 1650 engine hours. My 1999 repair bill: $7960.98. In 1998 it was 10,824; in 1997 11769; in 1996, 12249. So slowly I am going the right direction.

Ed - Out of the nine Gleaners we have bought over the years, ranging from a K to an R52, we have owned exactly one new one, an F3. All the others have been preowned. We usually try to find a good, late model with 300 - 600 hours. We very seldom have any breakdowns that can't be attributed to neglect or abuse by a previous owner. On the last machine we had before our current 52, we had to replace the rear feeder chain because, believe it or not, the dealer we bought it from did custom work and continued to run it after the chain had jumped a cog causing it to run crooked. Also had trouble with the wires coming apart the powered the main separator clutch. When we asked the dealer about that, he admitted to turning around in some tall brush on the end of a field and tearing the wires loose. Instead of fixing it correctly, he spliced them back together and we ran into trouble several times after until we replaced the harness. The only trouble we had with our 52 this past fall (our 1st year running this machine) was with the open gears that run the accelerator rolls chipping teeth. There again, it was a previous problem that wasn't fixed correctly because the gears on our machine are actually from a 62_72. We have yet to get to the bottom of what is causing that problem but intend to before we start another year. Obviously, the previous owner just replaced the gears without trying to find what caused them to go bad. It is very possible, or probable, that the previous owner(s) of your machine neglected to maintain it correctly and you are having to pay the price. Every maker has it's lemons but I don't think you should blame Gleaner. Just my 2 cents....

Ed, thats whale of a lot of money to pour into a combine. Did the former owner try to combine rocks with itIJ Even figuring Canadian dollars, you should have replaced just about everything that can go wrong. At some point you should run out of stuff to replace. Were the parts you replaced damaged from abuse or worn outIJ Were major repairs needed to the processor or drive trainIJ That should give some indication of the type of care or abuse the former owner gave it. Tom Russell

In reply to Ed as well. I too seem to spend an awful lot of money to upkeep my '89 R50. I bought it in '95 with 600 hrs. The former owner was a tough operator but nothing negative really showed up when I was looking at it. The first couple years we were spending $3-4_ac. on parts. I do almost all my own work except for motor and related stuff. Two years ago we put a pile of change into the machine. Feeder chains, clean grain chain, many bearings, rasp bars, threshing clutch, seperator clutch. By the time I was done, my average over the 3 years I had owned it, was about $7_ac. I thought I was done with expensive repairs for a while. Then last year one of my RWD hubs self-destructed. Cost was $5000 Cdn. Couldn't find a used one and could not rebuild the old one. Replaced the concave. $1800 Cdn. A concave for a JD9500 which is twice as wide is $1100 Cdn. The upper feeder chain is showing excessive wear. Thru AGCO the chain is 1400 Cdn. I bought a loewen chain for 600 Cdn. I wonder what I am doing wrong that it costs so much to maintain this machine. Maybe I need to deal it and start again. I would appreciate some thoughts from others on this point. Just an aside, I have a very good friend who runs a CIH1680 on about 2000 acs._yr. He says his repair cost is 6_ac in a good year and 8_yr. in a bad year just parts. He is a licenced mechanic and does all his own work. Bearings I have found to be quite reasonable thru Agco, but belts seem very expensive. i.e. A rotor drive belt, $400 Cdn. Rasp Bars are over $100 Cdn. and there is 18 of them on that rotor. Have you guys got better sources for these kind of expensive parts. I like my Gleaner but I sure get tired of spending alot of money on it. Sorry if it sounds like I am whining but this is a frustrating point for me.

I've did just that on at least 3 R72's with no problem. I extend the other four bars to start of discharge area which I consider very important on the large P3's. I would have the full length bars stop at least 1" short of the length of the discharge paddles. If you are extending helicals into discharge area I would be sure not to get any closer than about 3" from bearing plate. Upper most helical would dump the straw closest to bearing plate and the next would dump into middle area of discharge. In other words if you follow the straw flow you want to drop the straw evenly across the area just ahead of chopper or discharge beater. Good luck and be sure to fasten things in very well.

Dan I have 4 reveres bars in the machine should I put in 4 half hight bars to replace theseIJI am told that I can buy theseIJFrom whereIJI only run cornandsoybeans so I was not going to do the helicals.What do you thinkIJ

I would get the half height bars from Hyper. I'm sure you caught his number above. The Hyper boys are the champions in Gleaner performax for corn and soybeans not to mention many other areas also. I would do the helicals while you are at it. Best of luck.

This would be a step up and if you would Hyperize it will be about 2 steps up. The Rotary combine will teach you how to drive better with the 6-30(running much faster). l2's tend to bring 10-15g trade value in my area. R50's I have seen advertised as low 40 and as high as 80g. Hard to check with the hours, but the accelerator rolls are a wear to look at and the bars on the rotor, but they can be seen easier than the accelerator rolls. Conveyer chains, etc, talk to the previous owner about maintenance records. Deutz engines need to be kept blown out and clean and NO oil leaks.