R65-Questions on cdf setup and discharge

[u-bet]

I have removed the cdf rotor out of a 2003 R65(i put the stock cdf rotor in 4 years ago) Have been pleased with it all and all. I harvest wheat, milo, corn, and a few beans. The only problem I have had is in green milo that doesn't have good head extension and I have to cut a considerable amount of green material with dry grain. At that point if I run over 3 mph I get rotor loss.(Not terrible but would like it to do better)
I should add that I have steep pitch helicals over thresher and standard pitch over seperater.

So I'm in the process of: 1-putting in all forward bars on thresher side and placing 1/2 inch shims under them. 2-cutting down bars and staggering 2 bolt on sep. side and putting 1/2 inch shims under ever other row. There are two reverse bars at far end (4 bolt) which will be cut into one bar and not shimmed. The remaining 4 bolt forward bars will be 1 row of 1 bar and 3 rows of 2 bars 1/2 inch shimmed. 3-extending helicals into discharge area and replacing the hump on discharge with the newer flat style.

My questions about this setup are: 1-where the 4 bolt bars are cut into 2 bars and 1 bar does this cause issues balancing as 2 bars are directly across from 1 bar.(should I becareful to keep weight of the bars cut to 2 and then the bars cut to 1 equal in weight?) 2-has anybody tried shimming every other row on sep. side and what where their results. 3-I have a impeller not a chopper and wonder if the flat style discharge will cause any problems with impeller style setup?

Thanks for any help!

[pioneer]

I had excessive loss in wheat and took the rotor knives off. This helped tremendously if you haven't tried it already.

[u-bet]

Pioneer,

The cdf seems to have always done a pretty good job in holding wheat even with knives in, however I could never do as good as job cleaning as the 8 bar. Had a few white caps and a little more trash. I'm thinking after looking how the cdf was set up (1 reverse bar in first row over concaves-next to gearbox, 2 reverse bars in second row over concave and 2 reverse bars by discharge plus 3 knives in all 3 rows) that this very well could be overloading the sieves with mog. Also I noticed that the first steep pitched helical over the thrasher lacked a good 4 in. from reaching the gearbox wall.

So what I have done is slid the helical up 1 hole which got it within less than an in. of the gearbox wall. Then I extended the helicals into discharge (according to nddan's posts) and I'm in the process of replacing the hump discharge floor under impeller with the flat style and putting in the 3x4 triangle the ndddan recommends.

Rotor I have removed all reverse bars and went to 2 bolt staggered on separater side.(decided to try without reverse bars but have enough 2 bolt reverse bars to put 1 in each row if need be. I decided to shim all bars to 1/2 in. throughout. Thinking that 1/2 in. shim would help get rid of white caps as the 8 bar had no trouble.(Concaves are good and I run filler bars) I left 1 knife in each row- staggered to the rear, thought these might still help tear up the leaves in green milo so the grain can get out of cage. Hoping the staggered bars will aid in milo as well not sure? Sure sounds like it will help in corn with cob breakage!

I'm a little nervous about making all these changes at once as I'm pleased with the job it was doing just trying to get it to do the best it can.

Thanks for the reply! Any other suggestions are welcome.

[u-bet]

A couple of days ago I finally got the new flat style discharge put in. However under the impeller the clearance between the paddles and discharge floor(where knives would be if it had a chopper) is very close. I didn't measure it but I can't even get my fingers in the gap. I was told by dealer that the new style would work with impeller but it appears to me that this could cause serious problems with corn cobs getting wedged and/or damaging the impeller itself. Sure doesn't look good to me!

Has anybody tried this and does it cause any problems in corn or any other crop for that matter?

[nddan]

I think you will have a completely new animal with setup you are going with compared to how it was set up. It was a little hard to follow your plan with four bolt bars but to answer your question on balance you want to have equal length bars accross from each other. Otherwise you will need to balance accordingly. I don't know how the guys balance rotors down your way but we check all ours if we have made changes. We have stub shaft made up for coupling side. We remove the coupling and bolt on the stub so we can static balance them on a pair of bearings.

Sounds like your machine got the steep helical kit that the machines starting coming stock with. I didn't move that first helical on ours but added a short helical next to gearbox to cover that first fourish inches. I didn't want to loose the helical over the top left side of feeder opening.

I am just as worried about your discharge beater clearance to floor as you are. I can relate this to years ago with the old N's. There were some guys removing choppers and putting in fabricated beaters. The beaters had to close of clearance to floor thus continuous plugging. The plugging came from the wedging you are worried about. We don't have any discharge beater setups around hear so I can't check to see what clearance the factory had. Can you see the wear pattern on side wall to see where your old floor sat? I think you want a minimum of an inch and more like an inch and a half. I also know you want knotched side of blade outward. It can make an amazing difference on how the material is pulled or keep away from backing up into rotor.

I've never went with the 1/2" shims under bars but sure do like you plans and preparation for your new setup. I think the main reason for reduced diameter CDF was to reduce broken cobs. I think this worked but with the steep helicals preventing a second pass over concave and flowing cobs better without the reverse bars you will see same if not better results. Also believe you will have much better results separating the milo when taking in alot of green. Good luck

[u-bet]

Ok, it appears that the new style discharge is about 1 1/4 in closer than the old style, which would have had close to 2 in. of clearance. So I have removed the new style and will just replace with the old style, however I will turn the impeller paddles around so the notched side is out instead of the smooth.

Dan one other thing I noticed while looking in above the chaffer was that it appears that the paint is wore off 2/3 of the way to the rear on the left side and only barely 1/4 of the way on the right side. I can't see anything wrong with the fan or duct work. Is this normal? Maybe all the reverse bars on the thresher side were over loading the right side?

One other question- what is the reason for lowering the front of the sieve as low as can be?

Thanks for the replies!

[nddan]

I would sure imagine with your previous setup you would of had quite a load on right side. Be interesting if you gave it some fresh paint what it would look like after another season.

A couple observations on location of front of sieve. With the long shoe they came with in 1996 the clearance between front of chaffer and sieve got quite close together. This would force more air under sieve than short shoes had. I had a guy move front all the way up for Canola and he said that was better than down. I would assume for corn you may be better with it down allowing MAX air to chaffer (especially high yielding and wet). I could be completely wrong. Fun to hear from someone who has played around with this. I'd say 90 plus percent are still located in factory position and never having any problem.

[NowGleaner7]

Dan,
I run my sieve wide open (corn only) in my Gleaner combine as cob has not been an issue since the cdf rotor and mods (R65). The chaffer is usually close to book setting or slightly more. I try to get the corn to the clean elevator ASAP. I never tolerate returns in corn! All I have done with the S67 is remove the reverse bars for forward bars. I have not decided if I am going to try anything different for this year. I was waiting for you make any final recommends Dan "