Do you wash your combine

[Devil's advocate]

My staff constantly pester me to wash the combine, at the begining of the season.

I refuse it gets blown down with air line & thats it. So we have a scruffy combine but wipe away the dust, the paint work is like new.

Chains all soaked with chain spray before storage, grease bearing, paint oil onto any shiny metal & diseal tank filled

I should slacken belts & chains, sorry I don't.

What do you do?

 

[robs1]

Blow it down, make sure there is no grain or chaff left anywhere in it, oil and run all chains, oil all shiny bits, dont fill it with fuel though, wash it off before using next year on a hot sunny day.
Same with the baler although not done it yet, washed off both mowers this time as last few fields had lots of mole hills in

 

[David.]

Blow out everything with leafblower in last field
Blow out properly when more time with airline and wash panels with lorry brush on a nice drying windy day.
Oil shiny bits, grease up, and run up at least once a month all winter to keep belts and pulleys fresh.
Not keen on having 600 litres if fuel tied up all winter...

 

[Zippy768]

I have done both in the past. The trouble I find with only blowing it down before storing, is that when doing all the maintenance pre-harvest one is working on a dirty machine.

Also it depends how much time the combine has spent out in the field once harvest has finished. Once dirt, chaff and grains get wet - it doesn't blow off very well

 

[DrWazzock]

Just blow the chaff and dust off. Hoover out all possible. Never wet it. It soaks into seams and gaps and causes mayhem. Our machine looks dirty but is in good order corrosion wise.

 

[Devil's advocate]

So diseal, always told to keep tank full to stop damp air condensing in the tank & causing corrosion in the tank. So water & muck in fuel.
?

On the other hand modern diseal has a bio diseal content which can go mouldy?

 

[Devil's advocate]

I have done both in the past. The trouble I find with only blowing it down before storing, is that when doing all the maintenance pre-harvest one is working on a dirty machine.

Also it depends how much time the combine has spent out in the field once harvest has finished. Once dirt, chaff and grains get wet - it doesn't blow off very well

I'm spoilt any slight shower, back in the shed.

 

[Matt77]

Blow it down very well at end of season, very rarely does it get wet through the season, header off every night and parked in the shed, gets a bloody good steam clean just before barley ready, good grease up to push out any water and left to run a while, still get comments on how good it looks, 11th season now.

 

[DanniAgro]

So diseal, always told to keep tank full to stop damp air condensing in the tank & causing corrosion in the tank. So water & muck in fuel.
?

On the other hand modern diseal has a bio diseal content which can go mouldy?

That's what I was taught - keep the tank topped up to stop condensation causing water droplets that corrode the tank, which is what I do. You'd better use an additive to control the effects of biodiesel, and top it up despite what others say.

 

[Cowcorn]

Just blow the chaff and dust off. Hoover out all possible. Never wet it. It soaks into seams and gaps and causes mayhem. Our machine looks dirty but is in good order corrosion wise.

Thats all i do as well, Keep away from it with a power washer .
My father used to always say " never shed the combine on a wet day " .

 

[Tomr10]

Although not a combine stopped pressure washing the baler as water was a pain to get rid of

 

[l'ordinary bonville]

Mine gets wet during the season as left outside. Have to wash it to properly get rid of all the chaff etc

 

[Farmer Roy]

Only use high volume construction / road type air compressors here, daily, to blow them down. They do an amazing job, just the sheer volume of air you have available
A lot better than water for combines & pickers

 

[Devil's advocate]

Mine gets wet during the season as left outside. Have to wash it to properly get rid of all the chaff etc

Understandable.

Presume you have large area too, so wear combine out before it gets chance to rust.

 

[Devil's advocate]

Thats all i do as well, Keep away from it with a power washer .
My father used to always say " never shed the combine on a wet day " .

Beggar when you get caught with a shower, on the way home from the last field.

 

[7610 super q]

One buys a new combine every year doesn't one ?

 

[Steevo]

One buys a new combine every year doesn't one ?

You wait a whole year...?!

 

[snarling bee]

Hoover and blow after harvest. Wash in July before the next one. NEVER wash pre winter.

 

[Muddyroads]

Used to run 2 New Holland’s on one estate I worked on. They both got polished at the beginning of the season which made a big difference to the amount of dust that used to stick to them.

 

[traineefarmer]

Never wash a combine. Or a baler. Most can barely cope with water on the outside, let alone on their delicate insides.