Combines Soybean Practices

Matt, In our area, Central Kansas, rowed beans seem to do a little better most years. I have a row head and a flex head and I do not use the row head for soybeans unless I absolutly have to, and that is usually in ridge till beans. If there are beans down in the furrow the flex header will not get them out and the row head gets most of them. As for maintenance on the row head, when you start working on one you can easly spend $500.00 to $800.00 per row. In short go ahead and plant your beans in rows, but keep your flex header. K.A.

I agree with Unit. We have raised 52 bu. beans in 36" rows. And I like to be able to watch for rocks easier when cutting. Although I would like to go to 30's eventually.

Hi Matt.. I have pushed a row head since 1977. Maintenence is something that is required to keep them in the field, that means you must keep chains tight and lubed every day. All rotary knife bearings must be greased every ten hours, not just every day. The gathering belts also must be kept tight and lubed every day too. Now the good part: The belts will last longer than anyone thinks, just get a set of torsion tighteners and quit adjusting them. If you can't get them tight anymore with them, take a link out. Put spring tighteners on the rotary knife drive chains and cut a small hole in the fender just above the knife itself and you can put chainsaw bar oil on them in the morning. Now they will hardly wear at all. Don't forget to grease the row pivots every morning too, so they will flex easily. If you don't, they get dirty and won't take grease then the row unit won't flex. Kind of a bad thing. Fabricate a spring tightener for the n60 chain drives on each side and now these can stay tight too, don't forget to oil them in the moring too. I bought a 454A last winter for 600 bucks total. It has new belts, knives, bearings, and bevel drive gears. I have never spent anything near what Unit 2 says it does to repair. Just look around, all these guys have gone nuts over drilled beans and gotten rid of their row heads. it won't cost much of anything to keep these things moving if you use your head. Once you have all the spring tighteners on all the chains, this morning routine takes about an hour for the whole combine_head. No big deal. I have pictures of all these mods if you want... Also, a larger drive gear can be bought over the counter from deere to speed up the belts so you can run just as fast as you want, original gearing is about 4.5 mph on a deere. Good luck..

I don't know about Matt, but I sure would like to see those pics Greenstrat. I spent last saturday freeing up a 653A that sat in a guys grove for the last 4 years or so. It already has the lovejoy gathering chain tighteners and the cutter chain tighteners on 5 of the 6 rows. (don't ask me why he never put the last set on. He did throw in two extra lovejoy tensioner units with the deal) Amazingly, we got it loosened up and had it running withing a few hours. All of the pivots but two even took grease. He also had converted the slider shoes to planter marker discs for the snoots to roll on. I'm not exactly sure how those are going to work out, but he said they were great. I've got all the shoes that go on in place just in case they don't work out. Overall, we only paid $1100 for the head and even if we have to spend $1000 on the head (which I seriously doubt we will have to) I think it should work great. Although it doesn't look like the beans will be 4' tall this year like they were last year. I really prefer running drilled beans with a good flex head, but it appears the row beans yield about the same as the drilled ones most of the time. The worst part about drilled beans is that we seem to pick up a lot more rocks on the cutter bar. Thats my .02 worth on the drilled vs. row beans question. Oh.. also in the deal was an extra gathering chain. But we figured out it must be for a non-A head because the links are a lot smaller. If anyone needs one of these let me know, it's brand new. Anyway, I would love to see those pics of your mods Greenstrat. My email is alster@frontiernet.net Thanks in advance!

on the way...

I would love to see the pics also. We may need to get a row head one of these days. Is there a model or year that is bestIJ How much would you guess an 8 row would cost in decent shapeIJ Thanks

Hi Farm Kid.. 8 rows seem to be the only one with any interest at sales so, might want to check with Machinery Pete, he has the info you really should check on for prices. If I wanted an 8 row, I would find two four or six row units and glue it together to make an eight row. probably save some major bucks, but I like to play with a torch and welder. Any of the A series is ok. Big difference over the original series is the greaseable pivots which will not get worn out and loose. This too could be fixed at home with some 4" pipe for the new pivot material, or whatever diameter would work ok. Older belts won't interchange with new.