Combines R72 final drive IJ

Picked this up at our recent get-together of Gleaner modifiers and owners. There have apparently been some main axle bearing failures in the heavy duty final drives on the 60 and 70 series when constantly operating on slopes. Jack up the main wheels and use a bar to check for movement of the wheel and axle. If there is an oil leak around the main axle seal fix it fast as the tapered bearings will be slack and out of adjustment and possibly on the way out and new bearings may be needed pronto before major damage is done to the final drive !

ROM, Come on, you have kept us in suspence long enough now. Where did Rolf and you met up with Dan and see the R75 with a Bison rotor operating in that big barley crop. Knowing what the season has been like over most of the Eastern states, I'm guessing that it was in the SE of SA under a centre pivot on that limestone based country. CloseIJ Be interesting to trial a Bison in rice, the standard rotor is okay in long grain but if you have a wad of heavy yielding short grain go through, the cage sure does know about it. Cheers, Bluebeard.

You might try calling the Gleaner folks at Blue Mt. Ag in lewiston ID. They have about as much experience running Gleaners on steep ground as any one.

Hi Bluebeard. Rolf and I met up with Dan and Mary and also the Bison rotor designer, Stanley Gribbin and his son Hedley from South Africa, over at John Ryans place a few kilometres S.W. of Yarrawonga. John is quite possibly the most adventurous and radical modifier of the rotary gleaners around anywhere and I don't mean just Australia!. John and his wife arranged a get together of most of the Gleaner rotary combine modifiers in S.E. Australia which also included a couple of agents who won't let a Gleaner go out of their doors until most of Dan's plus a couple of their own mods are done as well. One guy was from the upper North in S.A. so he had an 800k trip and a couple of us had trips of 4 or 500k to get there. John also arranged an evening for all colours and another day session for Dan and Stanley to pass on info to the locals as well. Very successful and may even be repeated sometime in the future. John's barley crop was flood irrigated as was his canola crop which I think also went extremely well. The Bison equipped R75 just rolled through the canola as smooth as kitty's leg as it did likewise with the close to 7 tonne real green strawed barley crop. They were going to give the Bison a try in Rice the following few days but have not heard how they went. The rotor design does allow lots of room for material to fluff up rather than to be rammed against the cage as per the standard rotor. After seeing it operating in that barley crop, I think that Stanley and Dan really have something in that Bison design. Rolf and I are working on a few ideas for a poor man's version using the standard rotor as a base although a modified version of Dan's sweeps will be darn hard to beat after our experience with the sweep equipped rotor last year [in 2005_6] without going to the full Bison. Bison results are apparently just as good in the other colours. You are dead right with the rest of us as we only got .2t _ Ha or 3 bus_ acre in our wheat, like every body around here and we did not even bother cutting into our lentils. lets hope for better times this year or we are in deep s*nt. Cheers!

How can I get in touch with you, R.O.M. and Rolf. Please use the email address gleask@d2.net.au

ROM, My guess was right out. You were nearly in my backyard, about 150 km away. We had contact with the dealer there in the early '80. Our dealer is 100 km in the other direction. Rice harvest begins late March _ April so it will be a while before a Bison equipt machine can be trialed. I don't know if there would be any rice in the Murray Valley, 0% allocation. Here in the Murrumbidgee Valley, MIA had 18%, then cut back after water budgets decisions were made, to 9% while we were more fortunate in the CIA to maintain our 18%. We sacrificed wheat waterings to grow rice but still ended up with less than a quarter of the area compared to last season. At least that was a good crop, the whole community needed it, the only one since '02 that was not restricted because of water shortages.

Hi Bluebeard. If you want some further info on the mods and the Bison try Chris Wiesner the Agco agent at Walla Walla.

I live in Walla Walla and have not heard that name is he a Agco repIJ Thanks

Onion Farmer, wrong Walla Walla, Try Walla Walla, NSW , Australia

Now thats funny,after I posted I was thinking there might be a Walla Walla in Australia. Thanks