Combines R52 trouble with beans

[IowaDan]

Do you have front and rear blocks in the grain position and conveyor on fast setting.IJ I know sometimes I've gotten lazy and tried to keep my rear blocks in corn position and thats when I've had the most trouble with beans.

 

[buba]

We started out with all the blocks in the correct setting for beans, but the speed was set for corn. We changed the rear conveyor blocks to the corn setting thinking it might grab the stems better and we switched the belt to the grain platform setting and it plugged anyway. Do you think we should put the rear blocks back to grainIJ

 

[Silver4life]

This might be a silly question but do you have the shocks installed on your machine. You say that you had the torque limiter rebuilt, did you doublestack all of the springsIJ If your head is feeding evenly you should not have any problem whatsoever unless it is wrapping on the driveshaft! If it worked fine in corn and now it don't in soy's I would have to say that it is not feeding smooth. I know what kind of fun it is to plug between the two chains! Kind of amazing how much material can be squezzed down to 2"! I used to have same problem as yourself till I bought a 800 series head. Also changed the chains and beefed up the limiter, but the head was the biggest winner!

 

[pack8fan]

Is the 800 header that much better than the 500IJ I am about ready to either go to the 800 head, or dare I say it go JD green! My 500 is a 1996 and I feel it has never been right from day one. My R52 with hyper mods is no problem but the header just sucks!

 

[Buba]

Yes we double stacked the springs and we have shocks. We have a 800 head. After sleeping on it, I too think it has something to do with the feeding. Although it will not appear to bunch and all of a sudden........... The book doesn't say much about some of the head settings. What about the retractable fingersIJ How close on the lower side should the auger runIJ

 

[IowaDan]

I would try blocks in grain position and conveyor on fast setting. like I said, that seems to be the best for me. I change blocks to corn position and slow conveyor for corn. I have R42 with 816 header and have gotten lots of good advice on this website about my header. like everyone says even feeding is the cure but sometimes that is hard to accomplish. This is my 4th season with this combine and I'm STIll learning how to set things.

 

[Silver4life]

OK since that is out of the way, do you have an adjustable feederhouseIJ I don't know if they still have them on the newer models. I have heard of guys that will change them between the two heads. On my machine the slats on the feeder chain almost catch the flighting on the conveyor auger. Some times you will hear the slat barely make contact with the flighting on light crops. I don't know if that is the problem but if there is a (dead) spot between the auger and slats that is where the crop will bunch and you will not see it. This is truly a unique problem unfortunately for you though I will try my best to help you out. I have a little free time since the rain so I will watch the board a little closer.

 

[Silver4life]

Yes you need to have the fingers retracting in the right spot. I believe that they are supposed to be fully extended at the 3 o'clock position, although I may be wrong. Now that I think about it I believe that that they should be retracted at the 8 o'clock position. The auger should be almost toucking the stripper angles on the bottom. A tech told me on the 800 series head if the auger is having problems to go up and forwardIJ I was schooled to go back and down all these yearsIJ I don't know which is right but mine is the latter of the two.

 

[PoorFarmer]

I was told at a GlEANER Performance meeting to run the Rear Feed Conveyor Chain in the Corn Setting on soybeans. This will allow more room for the beans to come in at the transition point, while at the same time allowing the chain to grasp enough of material to continue up to the rotor. Front feeder house chain is run in grain position. (Besides, those rear blocks are a pain in the tail to change anyway from Grain to Corn)I don't know if that will fix your problem. Header feeding is critical. I hear from people that an air reel helps feeding dramatically, especially in short beans. A tip for unplugging the slug between the two chains: Have your separator running, then hit the reverser while still at full throttle. At the same time, try then raising and lowering your header at different positions to see if the correct angle at the transition point can be achieved to back it out.

 

[NDDan]

I would set blocks and speed for grain on that machine. Corn position will lock drum in very near middle position not allowing drum to go up for max capacity. I have found it to be more the angle of feed into rear drum that give a person more trouble than anything. If your not running wheat with sometimes heavy return I would set rear chain in corn position and cut top of block to get equal max height as if it were in grain rear position. This will locate drum a bit higher so it is more ready for a clump of material to hit it and then float up as needed for max flow. Now after that is said I would agree with others that you need to present better feed to feeder chains. Pipe or Gleaner hump kit have helped many. People won't even run standard reel after running air reel. I was looking at an 800 today with HCC level two reel to see what could safely be done to help feed short beans. I think what I will do someday is cut and taper flighting at far left and far right side so I can run reel down and back so far that pipe holding fingers will just clear flighting. That way when I need to I should be able to keep the short beans coming in. Just remember to put proper stops in place to prevent overtravel on something causing big damage. I remember one time I believe on R50 that header and reel lifted all the way with reel moved rearward could catch windshield!!!!