Combine daily maintenance

[archieboase]

After a season driving a Lexion 740 on relief (hour a day), I’ll be doing my first full season combining on a Lexion 600 or 780 this year.

For the combine drivers out there, what should be on my daily maintenance check sheet? Any general tips and advice on operating in general?

Many thanks, Archie.

 

[Fish]

Read the manual, all the info is there.

 

[Mac10]

Not Lexion specific but grease, chain tensions, blow out rads and all important cab filter, check oil/coolant, retractable finger guides, knife sections.

Only operating advice would be only change one setting at a time, see how it goes, then change another, rather than changing multiple settings at once.

 

[Fish]

+ listen to the machine not the radio, a good driver can pick-up a fault early before it becomes a major problem just by learning the vibrations and sounds the machine makes.

 

[Derky]

Spend an hour blowing off everything you can in case there is a fire.

 

[Heathland]

Check the fire extinguisher and the escape route is always clear!
Stay safe..

 

[Grouse]

Fill it with fuel

 

[marshallfarm]

Clean the windows and mirrors. Sometimes it easier to do them as you finish at night before the dew has made the dust stick. I use a big shed and fence paintbrush.

 

[principal skinner]

Make sure the main drive pulley on the engine is cleaned out every day without fail.

Clean windows at night when you finish

Grease but don’t over grease

Rad will probably go days without being touched, especially the 780

Empty the stone trap daily at least more in laid crops/peas

Pull the preparation trays out and clean in OSR daily, makes a big difference to the sample

 

[Clive]

blow it down well and empty stone trap last thing at night and clean windows and mirrors (so you don't get dirty the next day before a day in the cab )


keep knife in good condition and set up well

Fuel it and drive it ! there is very little to greese really

 

[PSQ]

RTFM from start to finish, paying particular attention to the pictured locations of EVERY bearing requiring grease. Sods law says theres one hidden away thats never seen grease since the day it left the factory.

And make sure you know where the foam extinguishers are (plural), and the nearest mains hosepipe. Not having a pop at Claas here, been through this with 2 other makes over the years.

It's good practice to run through emergency scenarios with your colleagues / boss, as in the heat of the moment people sometimes do the opposite of what would normally be regarded as 'common sense'. They will laugh at you and take the pi$$, right up to the point someone smells smoke...

 

[Clive]

In season the most important days for a combine are the ones when its not working

Preparation is everything for peak performance

 

[Zebbedee]

On a Claas rotary as said clean out the inside of main drive pulley on end of engine it is like fan blades inside there, also on rh side at rear of Combine is your vari speed pulleys for rotor speed grease both these pulleys daily one grease nipple on hydraulic one and six on the spring one grease all six,,,,,,,(sometimes easier to grease with pulley speed right off) and if you smell burning stop and look for something hot straight away, on top of ground speed gearbox is a favourite place especially after a road run or on steep ground blow out regularly.

 

[Gone Shooting]

Cheap asda broom for windows and inside cab each evening - blow off at night and you can service and grease without getting covered in dust and sit in it all day - start at a steady pace and push on as confidence grows and steady turning on headlands and keep the spout in ! we have all hit trees or poles at least once

 

[Schuby]

Most important blow off areas are top of gearbox, and main drive pulley, as said above.
Keep windows and glass clean, knife sections in good order. Great combines capable of serious output.

 

[warksfarmer]

After a season driving a Lexion 740 on relief (hour a day), I’ll be doing my first full season combining on a Lexion 600 or 780 this year.

For the combine drivers out there, what should be on my daily maintenance check sheet? Any general tips and advice on operating in general?

Many thanks, Archie.

We go over and above with our hired lexion 770tt. The fitters from the dealer whenever they visit say it’s the cleanest and most looked after machine they’ve ever seen. It’s now coming into its 6th season and really does look almost new. It’s also been the most reliable machine I’ve ever used with the only real issue been the adblue system but this has now been sorted. Think it’s now got about 1500 engine hours on it and generally time to change but the dealer offered us two more years hire. We wouldn’t have done it had it been a troublesome machine.

Everyday it’s fully blown down for about 30 mins including filter which Claas day isn’t required. We grease the 10 hour points daily then all the others as required which from memory are 50, 100 and 150 hour intervals.

Belt tensioners are checked daily and the knife is repaired as required but generally it’ll have a new complete one every 500 ish acres. Stone trap every day and both diesel and adblue are topped up daily.

Generally there’s two of us doing this so it’s not a big job.

If you want a simple machine to drive with very little maintenance required go and drive an axial flow as there is very little to them.

As for driving it, whatever you do don’t block it! Which is easily done if you try and break world speed records! We run ours quite tight as I’m a stipiler for losses. I hate green lines so we aren’t anywhere near the top of the claas combine league table.

We have a main driver who’s turned out to be excellent. 5 yrs ago he hadn’t driven a combine but today he’s quite the operator sending excellent samples back. I’m the backup driver so there’s only the two of us that have anything to do with it which I think helps as to many people and jobs get forgotten.

Most of all enjoy it as it’s a good job for a few weeks a year!

 

[archieboase]

Thank you all! [emoji1360]

 

[Pilatus]

I have been told by Claas workshop foreman to make sure one greases rotor grease nipples(600 or 780) EVRYDAY despite what it says in operators manual and give them at least twelve good pumps.He also said make sure one greases the opposite end where the rotor gear boxes join the rotor shafts but only a couple of pumps those two nipples are hard to find and in load of dust!!!!

 

[JCFC]

We go over and above with our hired lexion 770tt. The fitters from the dealer whenever they visit say it’s the cleanest and most looked after machine they’ve ever seen. It’s now coming into its 6th season and really does look almost new. It’s also been the most reliable machine I’ve ever used with the only real issue been the adblue system but this has now been sorted. Think it’s now got about 1500 engine hours on it and generally time to change but the dealer offered us two more years hire. We wouldn’t have done it had it been a troublesome machine.

Everyday it’s fully blown down for about 30 mins including filter which Claas day isn’t required. We grease the 10 hour points daily then all the others as required which from memory are 50, 100 and 150 hour intervals.

Belt tensioners are checked daily and the knife is repaired as required but generally it’ll have a new complete one every 500 ish acres. Stone trap every day and both diesel and adblue are topped up daily.

Generally there’s two of us doing this so it’s not a big job.

If you want a simple machine to drive with very little maintenance required go and drive an axial flow as there is very little to them.

As for driving it, whatever you do don’t block it! Which is easily done if you try and break world speed records! We run ours quite tight as I’m a stipiler for losses. I hate green lines so we aren’t anywhere near the top of the claas combine league table.

We have a main driver who’s turned out to be excellent. 5 yrs ago he hadn’t driven a combine but today he’s quite the operator sending excellent samples back. I’m the backup driver so there’s only the two of us that have anything to do with it which I think helps as to many people and jobs get forgotten.

Most of all enjoy it as it’s a good job for a few weeks a year!

Never heard of changing a knife every 500 acres, is it cost beneficial to do this? Cutting what sort of crops? Tia

 

[Bramble]

Watch out for electric lines!!!!