Now most are wrapping up cutting for this year many are looking on how their combines have performed over the season. Many will be happy, a few will have niggles or just nightmares and I just thought a quick word or two on their own experiences.
I was using a late 90's TX34, only a 15' header and a pretty basic model and only had just under 200 acres to cut so not a particularly onerous job. Winter Beans, Winter Wheat and Spring Barley. No big yields, the stuff was dying off during that hot spell June/July and then kept moisture high when it came to cutting.
The combine performed well, book settings went out of the window a bit, higher drum speeds in the beans to try to stop the wrapping of the ropey straw causing drum blockages mainly with the secondary rotary seperator.
Only "breakdowns" were the drive belt for the shaker shoe and the rotary seperator belt, had spares allready so little downtime. A bearing collapsed on the front right of the intake elevator, self aligning got within the hour off the shelf at a local bearing dealer.
The wrapping of the beans in the drum did cause a couple of major blockages and some of the larger lumps did get picked up by the stripper rotor behind the drum and bash the bottom of the grain tank which in turn cracked a couple of spot welds at the bubble up auger around the inspection hatch which then kept popping open. Drilled through the welds and put some bolts in cured that.
All in all fairly hassle free and will be kept for next year
I was using a late 90's TX34, only a 15' header and a pretty basic model and only had just under 200 acres to cut so not a particularly onerous job. Winter Beans, Winter Wheat and Spring Barley. No big yields, the stuff was dying off during that hot spell June/July and then kept moisture high when it came to cutting.
The combine performed well, book settings went out of the window a bit, higher drum speeds in the beans to try to stop the wrapping of the ropey straw causing drum blockages mainly with the secondary rotary seperator.
Only "breakdowns" were the drive belt for the shaker shoe and the rotary seperator belt, had spares allready so little downtime. A bearing collapsed on the front right of the intake elevator, self aligning got within the hour off the shelf at a local bearing dealer.
The wrapping of the beans in the drum did cause a couple of major blockages and some of the larger lumps did get picked up by the stripper rotor behind the drum and bash the bottom of the grain tank which in turn cracked a couple of spot welds at the bubble up auger around the inspection hatch which then kept popping open. Drilled through the welds and put some bolts in cured that.
All in all fairly hassle free and will be kept for next year