Combines rock sump

My R50 came to me with a sump installed. I removed it thinking the rough surface of the material which built up in the sump caused corn ears to bounce around going into the cylinder and causing some extra kernal and cob breakage. I have been able to get kernal breakage down to the level of competitive combines - and well below that of my old l2. Cob breakage did not change much and really is not different from competing rotary machines. Rotary machines just don't spit out whole cobs. I wasn't very diligent about dumping the sump every couple hours and material got so solid I thought not stone would drop into it. Might have benefited from it being in place last fall when a rock went through wrecking the concave and breaking a rasp bar. I don't think there is any noticeable difference in power requirements. My combine chokes on a lot of other problems before power slows it.

I have to disagree with you Ed. It is entirely possible to roll whole cobs out of a Gleaner rotary. We have found, as others on this site have, that the hybrid is the biggest factor affecting cob breakup. We have, on many occasions, been able to roll whole and half cobs out of the rotor with cob bits near zero off the shoe. And the only mods we currently run on our R52 is the feeder shocks, extended cyl. bars to discharge, and all fwd bars. I feel that extending the helical over the feeder opening, helicals into discharge, and Hyper's half-height bars will also help a great deal to reduce breakup in those soft cob varieties. Most of our corn is put into a silo for cattle feed and cob in the sample is not a problem, and in some cases desireable. If we were selling more corn, those other mods would be in long ago, but we still intend to implement them soon to help reduce rotor loss and make small grain harvest go even smoother.

For what its worth, my Hyperized R60 (no separator grate) puts out a clean enough sample that all loads the past 2 years have been No 1. Yes there are some bits of cob in the sample but why should I worry about it if customers say its okay and they arent willing to pay for anything better. Tom in MN

One thing I've learned over the years is you must feed a rotary well to take advantage of there potential capacity. Any problem with any transitions from sickle to cylinder will cut capacity. I recommend fastening hump kit to flat rock door to help eliminate dead area between feed chain and cylinder. Not only does the hump help crop to make a nicer transition into cylinder but it helps door respond to a rock. I know with flat rock door it creats a favorite spot for that gopher mound to settle and soon you will be having feeding problem with a drop of capacity. Rock sump would be similiar to a flat rock door with a mound of dirt on it. Now if you are certain to pick up some rocks I would install sump kit and sacrifice some loss of capacity. The rock sump would have a much better chance of getting the rock than the door opening and ejecting it. Something is very wrong when a 557 chain can jump a cog and that is far to common when the sump kit is installed. Not to scare anyone to much about sump for we put one in a '98 R62 we sold to a guy this fall and he had to call us in each new crop he went into to bost how well the machine works. He was always running against late model competitive machines with similiar HP and coming out on top. I suggest the guys to dump sump twice a day with the hope they will dump it daily. Some of you guys just won't believe this but I got a machine in last fall during wheat harvest that just wouldn't feed and couldn't get anything done. I found the sump full of corn cobs and rocks from the previous harvest. The concave and cylinder looked like it had a direct hit from a asteroid. So you see it makes a difference of operators for some need a light with annoying buzzer to get them to stop and service something where others wouldn't miss a daily opening and closing of rock sump door. Got to go for now.

My 0.02. If you like grinding rocks keep the sump. It plugs with straw,cobs,etc and will not allow the rock to strike the door with enough force to open it and will probably bounce around a cople of times before either breaking up and going through or finding a spot to hide. Cleaning the sump every two hours is a pain and hard to get out. I took mine off (albeit an aftermarket) after straightening the concave twice. The old hoser trick on the header is more effective on rocks-didn't get even one last year. 2lb sledges @ idle speed don't thresh too well though. ;(

I don't know how your sump was made but with factory or aftermarket ones I have seen they are not ment to open when a rock enters. Very few if any rocks will enter sump without a bump from something like the beater would do in some brands and cylinder bar may do in a Gleaner. Once a rock is in sump I see basically no way it could get out unless sump was full of rocks. If door tention was set weak enough it may open when sump was packed tight enough for it still utilizes the latch as if it was closed up in a normal manner. Even though a sump won't catch all the rocks I do believe there is a better chance of it catching or letting more out than having door shut up in a normal manner. Very good point about preventing rock ingestion in the first place. Picking rocks and using a rock roller which presses excisting rocks flush with surface is a very good idea. I know what you mean about ingesting something other than a rock. I had a brand new machine once that had a odd shaped sprocket hidden behind header auger and when it got to the cylinder all h--- broke loose. It was the sprocket used for auto reel speed in the '80s. Needly to say we check machine very closely before ever ingaging clutches anymore.