Combining peas

[Vintage Steve]

Does anyone have any suggestions how to set up my vintage John Deere 1085 combine to combine peas. I haven't bothered until now as after reading the many threads on this site I didn't think they would make it to harvest! But apparently they have and it's only a week away! Any advice welcome.

 

[redbaron]

Well for many years I was combining peas with a JD 1065 and later a 1177, and I don't feel that I'm a vintage model yet!! Try these settings for a start:
Concave - open fully, then drop down a bit (say 20-25mm) so that in the (unlikely) event of a blockage you can open fully to help wind the drum backwards.
Drum - around 500 rpm. Peas don't take much threshing, but need enough speed to cope with an occasional lump of material/weed
Fan - max speed available. Unlikely to blow peas out!
Top sieve - 50 - 75% open
Bottom sieve - 25% open (adjust as needed - shouldn't really be any peas going through returns)

I often ran with the bottom cover removed from the returns cross auger under the combine, and almost never had peas coming out there.

Usually it is getting the pea crop into the header that can be a problem. A doddle if crop standing with dry soil surface, but a nightmare if lodged and damp soil.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

 

[redbaron]

Oh, just a thought...close the slides on the grain tank bottom auger, or you may find unloading causes a shearbolt to snap. Be prepared to clear hard soil build up: bottom and top of clean grain elevator...concave wires...and perhaps don't fill grain tank right up!

 

[Vintage Steve]

Many thanks for your advice, I will give it a go. I have sprayed them today and 95% of the pods are more than 6" off the floor, so hopefully they shouldn't be too bad. I have a spare header with an 18" knife extension and side knifes which I thought might give a smoother flow. OK maybe not vintage, more classic! We have had it 25 years and still going strong.

 

[redbaron]

I have never needed side knives. It sounds as if you will be raking crop in with careful use of the reel. What area are you in?

 

[Adeptandy]

I have never needed side knives. It sounds as if you will be raking crop in with careful use of the reel. What area are you in?

Would have been handy last year, but definitely not this

 

[redbaron]

How's it going Steve?

 

[Vintage Steve]

How's it going Steve?

We are in East Yorkshire, mainly a vining pea area! Not decided which header to use, but its not a big job to swap them over. As long as the weather holds, we will have a go at them at the weekend.