Combines R62 vs R65

In my area some dairy farmers are calling me to combine their wheat or barley rather than a conventinal,they like my straw better because it spreads a lot easier.Once we tried side by side comparison with a JD4420 and my R52,in short and dry barley the differencewas about 30% more with the 4420,in normal to long strawed barley the difference was less than 5 %.In wheat there wasn`t much difference even though the windrow looked much bigger where the 4420 combined.

That's really good to hear, because I'd hate to lose the few dairy and horse farms that I still have, should I decide to deal! My C62 is hard on the straw as well, probably due to all the beaters. I'm wondering if there is a company that manufactures chaff-savers for rotary gleaner combines! It would be worth looking into.

Thanks Ed, My dealer is checking the final drives out too. I have mixed feelings about that new cab too. I have a new 5 series on order which I probably won,t get till spring. I also took dealers last new 2 series that he got in September because the price was really right on it. It has the external grease zerk for the rotor coupling. While I like the 2 series cab a lot, I guess we can,t stop progress so am looking forward the new 5 series also. By the way Ed how far are you from Medicine lake Montana, my newphew is a school teacher there.

We use our hyper'd R5 to do some oats...straw came out very nice, a little broken up, but the balers all seemed to pick it up just fine. We pulled the concave knives, ran the chopper on slow. We plan on doing a lot more oats in '03 with our combine. Talk around here is that people prefer the straw out of rotary machines.

We'll look forward to your comments on the differences this fall. Med. lake is 50 miles east and 30 miles North. Ed in Montana

Thanks for the reply ED. I've got a good idea of where you live. Nephew is an art teacher. Helps a local farmer with harvesting each year. Also has done some paintings for the antique tractor guys up at Plentywood. Ron

Whats wearing out on feather sheets that fastIJ Are they comeing out of place bending them and you are calling that wore outIJ I think I noted in earlier post that front wear area of feather sheats on 500 heads have a wear area which could likely be done to a 800 if that is where your wear is taking place. 1000 acres is unbelievable but I suppose there are abrasive dusts ect out there that could!! Maybe smoothing or tapering the contact part of hold down will prevent wear if that is where you are having problem. Be sure cutter bar stabilizer is preventing bar from moving left and right. Sometimes you have to go outside normal channels to make a machine last or work the way you want in crop and condition you are in. I do believe your complaint with feeding would be in short crop or wet crop. I wouldn't want to sacrifice the great capacitiy of 800 head in heavy crop. I don't think the size of auger tube or depth of flighting is giving any problem but more so the distance from cutter bar to auger flighting. That distance should be the same on a 500 head to the 800 head however the 300 head was further ahead thus likely more problems. I think decreasing that distance would help for short crop and hurt in tall crop. I'd think you can make the 800 work in the conditions you were in plus about any other condition by following one or more of the tips discussed lately. 3"tube and or, Gleaner hump and or, HCC level 2 reel and or, reel bats and or, panel that recipricates with sickle (hard to do on a flex)and or, cut back 7" flighting at ends to allow reel to be moved back another inch or two and or, air assisted reel. Usually these 800 heads will work wonderfully right out of the box but if not then adapt them a bit and enjoy.

I think if a guy weighted a R65 and compaired to a equally equiped R62 you would find it quit close and same goes for R75 to R72. You know the way these guys can play with numbers. Some will brag to be heavier some will brag to be lighter. Well as long as the weight is well used or the lack of weight is not sacrificing strength where needed ect. Basically you need to go to the scale and weight your machine the way you have it equiped. Thats what we do with tractors if we are checking out the balance.