Combine running costs

[samsung]

Just doing a renewal exercise for a combine.
I have a JD T660i HM cutting 700 acres a year, its done 10 years, so aprox 7000 acres.
Its been dealer maintained with winter service and harvest support, which has been excellent.
It has cost £2.86/acre, which i find expensive.
What figure do others expect for a 10 year window, and indeed for a longer period ?

 

[Flat 10]

So £2000 a year in spares and maintenance for 700 acres? Seems reasonable to me. I hear many lexion service care packages are 5 figures so on 2500acres thats £4acre? I may be way out but it doesn't seem unbelievable. I guess labour, diesel and insurance are much the same between combines of different makes so depends on your depreciation figure as to how much the overall cost has been.

 

[oil barron]

£2k a year for a big combine that’s dealer winter serviced sounds pretty good. Problem is you are only putting 700 acres a year through it. If you were winter servicing on 1400acres a year it would be a lot less per acre.

belts age as much with time as hours running. They probably do oil changes based on age aswell.

 

[teslacoils]

I was always pleased at under £4 an acre for 2500ac over six years, bearing in mind it wouldn't be a new machine to us. That would be for servicing and repairs through the season and winter service.

 

[Lincsman]

Well mine is 5 harvests old from new, doing 750 acres/year, I do the maintenance, which over all that time has been 2 engine oil+filter changes, quite a few grease ups, take out a link on the straw elevator chain, adjust other chains each year and the odd belt adjustment. Biggest expense has been 3 header auger tines, about 10 knife sections (which came with the header, so free) and about 8 lifters.
Nearly forgot.. a beacon and 2 side light bulbs

Not worked out the cost/acre, but not worrying about it.

PS. also washed it 4 times.

Previous combines have been similar, ( i keep them to about 7 years) so its me or the make.

 

[Flat 10]

Well mine is 5 harvests old from new, doing 750 acres/year, I do the maintenance, which over all that time has been 2 engine oil+filter changes, quite a few grease ups, take out a link on the straw elevator chain, adjust other chains each year and the odd belt adjustment. Biggest expense has been 3 header auger tines, about 10 knife sections (which came with the header, so free) and about 8 lifters.
Nearly forgot.. a beacon and 2 side light bulbs

Not worked out the cost/acre, but not worrying about it.

PS. also washed it 4 times.

Previous combines have been similar, ( i keep them to about 7 years) so its me or the make.

Colour?

 

[Lincsman]

Colour?

Always yellow, 7th in a row now.

 

[samsung]

Lincsman, we used to do all our own stuff on the combine. but i took on nealy 50% more work, so my personal decission was to get a winter service done every year for its 10 year plan, to hopefully keep it rolling in season. On the whole this has worked appart from one breakdown close to the end of the season.
It sounds like you've had excellent reliability from little input.
What make is it ?
Are you harvesting wheat and rape or a more varied mix ?

 

[farmerm]

£2.86/ac my contractor is clearly ripping me off then

 

[tweedale terrier]

If you haven’t has any major issues and the service and support has been as good as you say then I recon it’s money well spent, especially as it’s a combine harvester.

 

[samsung]

Mmmm. To clarify £2.86/acre repairs and maintenance

 

[Matt-P]

Sounds cheap to me!

 

[Lincsman]

Lincsman, we used to do all our own stuff on the combine. but i took on nealy 50% more work, so my personal decission was to get a winter service done every year for its 10 year plan, to hopefully keep it rolling in season. On the whole this has worked appart from one breakdown close to the end of the season.
It sounds like you've had excellent reliability from little input.
What make is it ?
Are you harvesting wheat and rape or a more varied mix ?

Wheat, rape and barley, in the past with older models some belts would have been changed by a dealer mechanic without doubt, but i can take the risk of losing half a day, (its only happened once with a drum belt) but otherwise they have lasted another season ok... but thats not an option when you are being paid to make sure it never stops.

All New hollands, from 1530 though various TX's, must say the latest CX is a doddle to look after and has cost least to maintain.

 

[BRBX]

STS over 5 years was £2.06/AC spares and repairs , deprecation was the killer at £7.40/AC averaging 1350 acre/year

 

[Brisel]

Just doing a renewal exercise for a combine.
I have a JD T660i HM cutting 700 acres a year, its done 10 years, so aprox 7000 acres.
Its been dealer maintained with winter service and harvest support, which has been excellent.
It has cost £2.86/acre, which i find expensive.
What figure do others expect for a 10 year window, and indeed for a longer period ?

That doesn't sound too bad. As above, Claas Maxicare will be over £5/acre depending on the level of cover. What extra do you spend on consumable parts like knives, fingers, chopper blades, oils etc? Define harvest support please - does it cover major component failure through causes other than neglect/abuse/accident?

 

[Steevo]

So £20k over 10 years....I'd say that's very reasonable indeed. A winter service alone would be at least £2k I'd expect if keeping everything up together - I've often spent at least double that some years, admittedly on a used combine. As for support in the middle of harvest - £500 doesn't get you much of a repair at dealers rates.

 

[fudge]

Completely agree with the above. For a secondhand machine we budget £5/ac on a similar area, and usually spend less. I would regard £3/ac as a good year! That’s with a claas dealer doing everything. Compared to buying a new combine it’s a bargain.