Walker losses CX860

[Lawless]

Need help!
We are experiencing a lot of straw walker losses while cutting wheat.
What are we doing wrong?
Cutting a good crop - can’t go over 2.5k otherwise it starts throwing it out with the straw - making it very slow going or is this normal?
What drum speed and concave setting should we have -( I am not the operator). Is something worn out? The concave is not blocked and everything is clear. The crop is fit and very dead.

 

[D14]

Need help!
We are experiencing a lot of straw walker losses while cutting wheat.
What are we doing wrong?
Cutting a good crop - can’t go over 2.5k otherwise it starts throwing it out with the straw - making it very slow going or is this normal?
What drum speed and concave setting should we have -( I am not the operator). Is something worn out? The concave is not blocked and everything is clear. The crop is fit and very dead.

Could be a variety thing. Robigus and Mulika are particularly bad for us so we run tight fast concave and accept a slightly less than ideal sample.

 

[matttargett4]

what size header? how much straw?

check rear beater is in top gear and concave closed in raised position.

i have 24ft and in a heavy crop with 3t/ac of straw i can run 3.2-3.5kph, losses would be 5-10 grains under my hand in the row i expect.

i always run the drum quick and keep the concave wide, i find low drum speed increases walker losses.

varieties and fields also make a big difference, in the same grain crop but less straw i can get over 4kph with nearly no losses.

 

[Spencer]

How many hours on Combine? Concave and or rasp bars could be worn.

 

[Phil P]

what size header? how much straw?

check rear beater is in top gear and concave closed in raised position.

i have 24ft and in a heavy crop with 3t/ac of straw i can run 3.2-3.5kph, losses would be 5-10 grains under my hand in the row i expect.

i always run the drum quick and keep the concave wide, i find low drum speed increases walker losses.

varieties and fields also make a big difference, in the same grain crop but less straw i can get over 4kph with nearly no losses.

10 grains under your hand in a 3t crop with a 24ft header is approximately 1.4% losses! To put that into perspective it’s over 4t of grain over 100ac So that’s quite a lot! My customers wouldn’t be to happy at that but everyone has there own idea of acceptable losses I suppose.

 

[Galcam]

I know nothing about combining but to me the uninitiated it sounds like nothing!! Incidentally what do you guys mean when u talk about an acceptable “sample”?

 

[jh.]

Just got a new to us cx this year. You possibly already know but New Holland have a few apps available for settings and loss

 

[Lawless]

24ft head, a lot of straw - good crop.

Probably need to check rasp bars and concave but I think they were all good.
It’s thrashing the grain out no problem, it just seems to be sending quite a bit up onto the straw walkers and then out!
Think the drum speed is set at 720 - is this fast enough?

 

[d williams]

24ft head, a lot of straw - good crop.

Probably need to check rasp bars and concave but I think they were all good.
It’s thrashing the grain out no problem, it just seems to be sending quite a bit up onto the straw walkers and then out!
Think the drum speed is set at 720 - is this fast enough?

Not in a good crop of wheat

 

[Exfarmer]

Have you got the drum too tight and smashing the straw to pulp. If the crop is very fit as you say, i would open the drum up wide and put your foot down.
Most crops in the south are overfit and hardly need touching to thrash out.

 

[Two Tone]

The capacity limiting factor on any straw walker Combine is the straw walkers.
The more the straw, the more limited is the capacity.

Anything you can do to alleviate the MOG (material other than grain) proportion as the what goes into the Combine will increase its performance and reduce losses, as well as fuel and time.

Therefore:
Try to cut a higher stubble,
Reduce the aggressiveness of the drum by firstly keeping the concave distance wider, but the drum speed high enough that get a good separation, yet prevent smashing the straw up so much that grain can’t fall through it on both the walkers and the sieves.

Both green straw and over ripe (dead) straw will cause more of a problem.
As well as anything other than a constant feed of the crop to the drum.

That is where Vari-feed headers start to become a huge advantage by making sure all the straw hits the drum ear first. But obviously in a standing, rather than laid crop. Laid crops will not allow a constant feed or the ears to hit the drum first, unless you can drive into the laid bits head first ( called “throating it”). Which is why the drum will “sing” as you are doing this.

 

[Lawless]

@Two Tone what are the differences between a CX860 and CX8070 - are all the thrashing and separation parts the same?

 

[bert]

Cx 880 here, I think them big crops just take some separating out, with 3ton of straw and 4ton plus of grain ive been down at 2.5k, I have the drum flat out, concave at 25mm, fan 850. Lovely sample with hardly any losses. Can’t seem to get much more output out of it. Well unless you want to start chucking it over the back like the claas drivers do ?

@Spud might be able to add something, how do you have yours set in big crops

 

[Two Tone]

@Two Tone what are the differences between a CX860 and CX8070 - are all the thrashing and separation parts the same?

I'm not absolutely sure. But I would think a lot of it is the same on both.

 

[kc6475]

Cx 820 here, i run drum flat out on wheat and barley, then adjust concave to suit, had it on 25 most of the time in wheat, try and find a balance between cracking grains and not thrashing the ears properly but I run as wide as I can on the concave to stop putting more trash on the sieves because that's where I seem to get my losses, been travelling about 3.2k in 4 ton plus crops.

 

[texelburger]

what size header? how much straw?

check rear beater is in top gear and concave closed in raised position.

i have 24ft and in a heavy crop with 3t/ac of straw i can run 3.2-3.5kph, losses would be 5-10 grains under my hand in the row i expect.

i always run the drum quick and keep the concave wide, i find low drum speed increases walker losses.

varieties and fields also make a big difference, in the same grain crop but less straw i can get over 4kph with nearly no losses.

Agreed,on our straw walker Lexion we moved the drum out from 10 to 17 and increased speed from 750 to 900 which,in combination,increased output by 10 to 15 %

 

[Exfarmer]

Inthink you are running your drums far too hard in rotten straw. It should be coming out as whole as possible which helps the grain fall through.
Try slowing the drum 25% and run as hard as you dare

 

[Lincsman]

Run the drum flat out, and open concave to about 10, watch the loss meter, it will climb as you slow the drum and fall as you speed it up, , damper or more humid air will help as it wont smash straw as much for theses settings.

Full length fish plates on the walkers added 1 km/hr to mine.

 

[Cowabunga]

Presumably the losses are of threshed grain, so there are several possibilities. Too high a drum speed or too tight concave in some kinds of straw will result in a mushy mass of straw over the walkers rather than a light fluffy carpet which lets the grain separate.
It is important that any secondary separator works properly. The beater to start with plus whatever else is fitted.
Often neglected is the curtain hanging from the top, just behind the beater in conventional designs. This should be weighed down so that it slows the flow of straw off the beater and make it land right at the front of the walkers, utilising the walker's full separation capacity. With use and age this curtain can fail, rip, wear, lose ballast, so that walkers lose considerable efficiency.

If the walkers are closed bottom, make sure not only that the slats at the top are clear of blocked trash but also that the internal box of the walkers are clear and that they just don't fill up in work or throw grain out of any inspection hole at their arse end.

On older well worked combines make sure that any bolt-on comb extensions on top of the walker steps are present, correct and able to lift and separate the straw carpet as they should.

 

[Manny]

This year i have had more problems with walker losses than any other with our Cx860. I have tried every setting going from tight and fast to open and slow and may combinations in between. Different varieties need different settings. Most common in the hot and dry was 600 to 650rpm on the drum and 25 to 30mm on concave. Last Sunday when really hot slowing the rotary seperator even helped for a couple of hours but the straw was short and just falling to bits.