Combines STS vs Gleaner

[Ed]

Your statement presumes power is the limiting factor in capacity. In my limited experience, power has always been in reserve when some other component of the combine ran out of capacity ie slip clutches, header capacity, drive belts or operator ability. I've only owned Gleaners, so a Deere may indeed run out of HP before other components are at their maximum.

 

[TSTAR]

Somewhat philosophical, truly unemotional, but the actuality is that you really do not know.

 

[Ed]

You are right - I don't know. probably never will. Only 2 John Deeres in this area, assuming the JD dealer is still running one. Seems to be an Axial-Flow neighbourhood. I've only run an l2 and an R50 over the past 15 years. The frequency with which the items other than horsepower restrict harvest capacity - well, I was really startled by the supposition that a Gleaner will outperform a Deere simply because it packs more horsepower. Adding 50 HP to either of my machine would do nothing to increase capacity. Got to compare competitive machines in the field.

 

[SilverTurnedGreen]

My neighbour demo'd a 9650 STS (the smaller of the two Deeres) against his R62. His R62 is basically stock (few if any mod's) and it was his opinion that the two machines were pretty evenly matched in capacity in corn and soys. The only area where the Deere exceeded the Gleaner was in price. There is a solid $40,000 Canadian is cost difference, PlUS the Gleaner has fewer moving parts. He also felt that the Gleaner operated better on sidehills than the Deere, although their are probably kits available to enhance sidehill operation for the Deere. Just one operators opinion, but I know the guy and he's always told it as it was!

 

[John_W]

During combine test and evaluation by PAMI in western Canada the usual result is the the limiting factor for performance of a rotary combine is engine power. For a conventional walker machine excessive walker loss is the limiting factor.

 

[gunner]

You would wish you had more hp when you get in wet and muddy condtions. And in my area, we never have a normal year.

 

[riceman]

A normal yearIJ I thought cutting in the mud was normal!!!

 

[T__langan]

John W is correct - typically with a rotary, hp IS the limiting factor. I suppose there comes a point if you have a lOT of hp that the capacity will be limited by the shoe or clean grain elevator or something to that effect. It has always been my understanding also that Gleaners have an advantage over longitudinal rotors, Deer's included, in that ours separate the entire 360 degrees of the cage, rather than just the lower half. Our rotors can be shorter in length - less crop material in the rotor at any given time = less hp required. Take that and include the fact that we have more hp to begin with, and there will be some green paint eating our dust.

 

[Ed]

Been there; done that! Keep hoping it is a long way off before it returns. The hydrostatic unit was a POS in the l2 and made muddy field operation a challenge. The R50 - well it has been turned up a bit so will spin out before killing the engine.

 

[gunner]

If power isn't the limiting factor, then why does the combine pull down when a big amount of wet stuff goes in. I agree that in a convtinal, that power isn't the limiting factor, but in rotars, it is a big factor, at least I think so. Thats why they put more power in the new R-62's