[kevinwcmo]

thinking about buying a 1688 with a 1083 and 25' 1020. the machine has sereral hrs on it. the guy kept it up but after last years harvest it is need of a auger or two and a little sheet metal here and there. what upgrades do you all find to be worth the money and what is smoke and mirrors. ran all green previous so not much rotor experience, just what i have read. crops in the 150bu corn, 40bu beans, and 70bu wheat, maybe a little milo every once in a while. thanks for all the help.

kevin

 

[kevinwcmo]

forgot to mention it has a specialty rotor, and also a rock trap.

 

[gpmci102]

I would look at one of those kits to make the front of the rotor like the AFX rotor. When I got the 2388 it had the real AFX rotor and I think it was a huge improvement. If you have a specialty rotor already the cheaper kit is supposed to get you close in performance and your old "elephant ears" are probably wore out anyway.

The front 1/3 or so of the rotor bars should be replaced if they are wore.
New bars in the front make a big difference in performance. I like round bar concaves in front for corn. Very low loss and the corn kernels look beautiful. Take some wires out of rear concaves to reduce rotor loss.

I put the full length finger on the auger of 1020 head. This really improved the feeding in tough conditions. The crop does not bunch on head platform and then go into combine as a big plugging slug. The hydraulic reverser really is better on the 2388 but this is pretty expensive to add to the 1688. The electric ones would not always unplug the feeder for me and I would be out there digging it out. With the hyd. reverser's and full finger auger I did not have to get out at all last year.

I added the unloading auger speed up kit. The 2388 unloads like a Deere now. You can add this to your 1688 and you get all new gears, bearings, and chains. If these parts already are worn on your machine you may look at the speed up kit it may be cheaper than buying the individual old parts. Hope you have a bin extension on the 1688. The standard bin fills up to fast with the 8 row head.

I put the roller that goes under the feeder chain in the front. My 2388 had hole in the feeder from the factory to install it. I don't know why this is not a factory standard. It gets rid of that clang clang bang sound that goes back to the 1460 days. I think you can drill holes and add it. It helps to reduce feeder chain wear to.

You probably have the Cummins engine and the 1688 had a big radiator so you could turn up the engine power if needed.

Does your 1020 have poly pads on the bottom? I put some on my head and think it is worth the money.

The external sieve adjusting levers are a must have if you don't already have them. The door in the side with light is also nice especially if you are a big guy like me. Getting in back to see without removing spreaders was to tight a fit for me. The straw chopper external adjusting lever is good for the same reason.

There is more stuff but this is getting kind of long. Get one of the Case combine upgrade books. There are many things on your machine that you can upgrade to the features of the newer machines. I think Case has always been one of the best companies to have kits that let you upgrade. Take a look if you find something interesting ask on the forum if it is worth the money. I could use something that keeps the junk off the combines back axle ( problem since 1460).

Good luck and watch out for metal fatigue on any high hour combine. I remember my dad spinning a high hour 915 around at the field end and the rear axle flying off.

 

[afxguy]

CIH has a book numbered PM-3687. It is the Product Support Kit book. It has almost everything in it that the mid-range combines can use for upgrades/replacements. Everything from Field Tracker completing kits, to rotors, to concave modules, to feeder reverser kits. It also has a lot of parts for the headers. This is not a parts manual or a repair manual, it's a book of things that have been changed and can be used on previous model combines.
If you or your dealer don't have a copy, he should get one.