Combine Performance

[ado089]

As we are pretty much wrapped up harvest I'm left analysing how the year went. One thing really sticks out, combine performance. It seems rediculous to me that you spend $300k on a class 8 or 9 machine and at the end of the day you only get 10-12 ac/hr performace because in these dry conditions you can't keep canola in the combine, all the while you're burning way more diesel to keep that big motor running. Comments???

[farmaholic]

Yes, the "Beasts" are a thirsty bunch. (??? reduce rotor speed and increase concave clearance{to reduce smashing everything to hell} and maybe a touch more wind to keep everything lifted off the shoe???) On light crops you can't drive fast enough to "fill" these combines, but who would ever admit to growing a light crop? HAHAHAHAHA

[mcfarms]

Because I can.

[jhurkot]

canola threshed much better at night this year. it
seemed like it was above 30 degrees just about
every day.

[fjlip]

Maybe should keep the old 9600, we do 10 acres per hour for 7 gal/hr.
Even at 5% MT, little loss.

S690 did 35' of 50 bu Canola near Kelvington at 6.5 mph, acceptable loss.
Never asked the gal/ hr but it was 23 acres per hour.

[norton17]

Laughable... we ran 5.5, 6 mph on 45 bus canola with our 9870's on 35 ft

were 9600's going that fast b/c it sure looked like the neighbors were going 3.5ish???


if you cant afford/justify having one of the newer, bigger combines thats fine, but to bash them as compared to their older models is laughable

we run 9870's and 1 9600, cant even use the 9600 in a 35ft canola swath anymore

[crusher]

9600 in a 45 bushel canola crop, 35 foot swath. Wouldn't want to be the operator. Better hope the reverser works.

[fjlip]

Not our 35', we pickup 29' actual cut at 2.8 mph. Had some 47 bu 7345, easy to combine, swathed properly with just the odd pile.
Reverser a few times, during harvest.
Neighbor has 35' swaths, using CTS, looks like 2 mph.

[ado089]

Norton are you done swinging your dick around. I'm not bashing them because I'm envious, I'm raising the issue because I have two and am not happy with them.

Either you didn't bother to get out and look behind you or you were fourtunate enough to get a little rain during harvest to keep the canola from turning into a 12" mat of powder on the sieve. I ran a 8120 and a 9770 both had trouble pushing a 30 ft swath through faster than 4mph. Neighbors with 9870's were running 3.5mph on a 40 ft swath but decided that throwing over 2.5bu/ac (~6%) was acceptable.

For those that have wind over 700 on canola and think it's doing a good job because the sensor reading goes down are mistaken, for the most part the seeds are blowing right over the sensor, though there is the odd time it does work.

[crusher]

We spent close to a day setting our 9760 and managed to get it down to about 1% loss, couldn't get it any better.

[mcfarms]

ado
what model machines and what settings are you trying?

[ado089]

I was in the 8120 AFX so those are the settings I worked with the most. Rotor 650 in the morning down to 480 as it dried out, concave 10 early day, 5 late day, 630-660 seemed to be the sweet spot for wind, chaffer 10-14, sieve 8-10. Nothing over 4.5mph, mostly 3.8-4.2, on a 30ft medium-heavy swath without excessive loss, 2% dockage (chaff), verry slope sensitive. Moisture under 6%. Similar settings on the Deere but like I said I wasn't running it so I don't know the little tweeks that made it tick.

[mcfarms]

Not familiar anymore on cases as were green these days , but on the deere the rotor was way to fast if you were running that way, we've put the beater discharge paddles on ours and are running at 270-280 rpms and doing a very nice job in irrigated canola .
Maybe others could offer advice on the red machine, ( combine forum)

[ado089]

I found slowing the rotor down too much resulted inconsistent of material flow over the cleaning system. You could watch both the yield and shoe loss almost pulsate in waves. What concave clearance were you running with the slow rotor setting?

[mcfarms]

30-31 , but did you also slow down the front end feeder chain and the feed accelerator? That really makes a difference on feeding and cracking in these dry conditions.