Combines Rocktrap issues

We ran a 9650 STS with a Shelbourne stripper on it this year, and were really pleased with the results. In good conditions (dry, standing, high yielding rice),it was taking 800 to over 1000 cwt. per hour through the machine. Of course I didn't have many acres of perfect conditions this year, but I was still pleased. And our quality was excellent with the rotor. We ran the rotor speed at about 500 and set the concaves at 25. This reduced the slugging in green conditions. We did have some backfeeding in the feeder house towards the end of the season, however, and I never did figure out what was causing it. Personally, I think the new Shelbourne design is more prone to slugging and plugging. Rice and weeds tend to build up on the spill boards, especially when you have to drop the header to pick up the down stuff, and then it will slug when you pick the header up. Greg

You are always a class act. I appreciate your honesty.

If you realy want to be cheap why not go back to gleaners. They will get the job done. lOl. The comment about sts being more expensive. I just priced 9660 walker and 9660 sts on JD web site and the sts was only 2000 more if I speced them the same way. So why would not buy a higher capacity combine if you are going to trade them every year. The sts's I have been around are bullet proof.

My experiences couldn't be more opposite. Bought a new 2188 in '97 and had nothing but trouble for 3 years. Replaced the PTO clutches several times a year. Rotor belt sometimes wouldn't last a week. In down rice, it could slug several times a day. Replaced rotor, cage, cone, many cocaves, many many rotor belts, entire PTO clutch assembly. All this in under 900 hrs. We usually put 350 to 400 hrs_year on a combine, but this one wouldn't stay running long enough to do that. Bought one of the first STS "rice" machines in Y2K. Deere gave me a second year full warranty and promised to update the machine after year one to '01 specs if there were any changes. I ran it for three years and had little or no downtime. Never slugged the rotor even once. The rotor belt gave it up during the third season. Piece of cake to change compared to the Case. The machine did have some wear issues, but they were cought early and fixed under warranty. We're running a 9660 with a 930D out front now. Couldn't be happier with the machine. We've played with the concaves and grates quite a bit to increase seperation. Still haven't slugged a rotor since 1999, and we've cut some ugly green lodged rice. We've put a hundred hrs on a leased 670 Challenger and wish our lease was up. Stuck with it for another year I'm afraid. It may do OK in dry crops, but is severly lacking in rice.