Combines Static electricity

We run a draper header but have never been shocked before. Static electricity is really annoying when it starts your combine on fire. We were cutting wheat in 100 degree heat. Fine dust collected all over the combine. Static electricity ignited the dust. There was only a few actual flames but the whole combine from the engine room back was smoldering. Burnt up some wire but that was it. Some stubble caught on fire and we ended up calling out the fire department. I spotted the smoke from the combine I was driving. The Case combines in my area are notorious for starting stubble fires. The rotor creates static electricity that starts the dust collecting on the machine on fire.

We had trouble with John Deere's, Cat's, International's, and Gleaner's catching on fire from static electricity while cutting sunflowers with draper heads. We tried dragging chains and everything else we heard. It didn't help anything, but we found that if you got static electricity from petting the cat in the shop, it was going to be a long day.

Yikes!! lucky the sts has a threshing module instead of one of those filthy rotors . Seriously,I have doubts that static electricty is the problem. I know one guy went so far as mounting a coulter on the rear axle of his combine that ran 6 inchs deep,so he was totally grounded and still had dust fires. If you have been around the engine compartment of a combine at night when the air is full of flamible fuzz,you would see this stuff light on the hot exhaust(manifold_turbo_muffler) and drift away. If your lucky they burn out before encountering a dust pocket,if not you have a fire. In my area pulltype pto combines,both conventional and rotor are still popular. I have never had a flax_sunflower fire on a pulltype machine while we seem to have one or two fires on our self propelled combine every year(or every day Our combines are a 1480 self propelled and a 1482 pto pulltype machine. Identical combines except that the pulltype machine has the hot engine exhaust 25 ft up front on the tractor,while the 1480 has the engine exhaust just a few feet above the dirty end of the combine. The guy down the road has the same experience with his 7720 sp and 7721 pulltype. The closest thing I have found as a fix for low humisity dust fires is to carry a gas engine leaf blower on the combine and clean off the dust often.

Very possible depending upon what crop you are harvesting. First solution is to install a drag chain from the combine frame to the ground to help discharge static electricity. If you still have problem try wiring a lught bulb between the rotor cage and the combine frame. For this you need the highest DC voltage bulb you can find (24vdc preferred) as it will also have the lowest resistance. Have also seen instances of installing a ground wire on the spreader discs.

We have used a drag chain for years. Another side effect is a dramatic reduction in the amount of dust on the windows. The final benefit is that this chain will put on a spectacular show of sparks when you head down the road after forgetting to put it up for transit......

Here's a link an interesting conversation about this subject over on agtalk.

In my area there has been alot of combine fires in the STS models harvesting pulse crops, one guy had 10 fires in 3 combines. what crops were you having fire problems withIJ

I think the final benefit is when somebody flags you down to tell you that you must have broken something because you have a chain dragging in the back. You can just smile and say, "No the chain belongs there."

Boy can I relate to your problem I am currently harvesting sunflowers and on Tuesday it was almost 70 degrees and low humidity and I had smoldering problems. My theory is the static electricty caused by the galvnized sunflower pans cause this when you have these wether conditions. Because the fellow I am harvesting for has an 8010 with a row head and he had no problems at all. I also blow out the battery box on my combine daily because I think the dust build up in the box helps create a connection and then the entire combine becomes a huge conductor. Then where ever you have dust build up a fire could start up. Once again this is just a theory of mine I do drag a chain on my combine as well. Just a small post script an 8010 did burn here in the area last week doing flowers I am not sure what type of head was on the combine

All combines will create a degree of static electricity due to their moving parts and the dust on the grain , humidity when they are harvesting, a whole number of factors. It is so simple and easy to attach a length of chain to the frame the combine and let it drag. Allows the machine to "ground", reduces or eliminates the static build up and also appears to reduce machine bearing failure.