[lanwickum]

I went for years with virtually no break downs during harvest. Plugged 6 times, once had to pull the feeder house. Moisture sensor didn't work. Today a wheel broke on combine, front inner dual. When removing the wheel the air regulator fell apart on my service truck, just fell apart in 4 pieces. Crane quit working on service truck, solenoid coil went bad. 3 flat tires on trucks. cab blower motor quit in one truck. Hyd leak on an old 7720 combine then that burnt up the hyd pump when it ran out of oil. Had pickup backed into. Blew tire on pickup when going to get truck tire repaired. Then the spare wouldn't come down. 2 weeks and only have 550 acres of peas cut. Have a lease combine coming Sunday. New wheel might be here Monday. I really hope things smooth out by then. Will try to get the 7720 going again tomorrow to finish 100 acres of peas. Also need to haul out more barley to make room. May give me some time to play catch up.

 

[Fena farms]

Sounds like a day in the oil patch

 

[lynas]

Hang in there, lanwickum!
I`ve had a few of those days myself!
Have a couple of stiff Bourbon`s and you`ll feel better!
Couldn`t resist!

 

[X80]

Is it not normal to have everything turn to sh*t? I thought that was farming.....I will start preparing for harvest next week and I don't combine until January...I want this one to go as smooth as possible on my shoe string budget..

Follow Lynas advice or I fing single malt scotch pretty good...and when poor red wine and lemonade, that gets you happy quickly and cheaply....

Good luck for harvest

Ant...

 

[Stephan]

Yeh...lots of broken-down stuff when you need it to run.

Break-downs can be minimized..but not entirely prevented. Pre-harvest inspection maintenance and repair have carried me through many harvests with minimal fuss...

That said...with the wheat crop what it was here in the southern plains..lots of farmers just greased the combines..gassed the trucks and headed for the field. Nobody it seems put much effort into pre-harvest maintenance...broken trucks and combines all over the place!!

I wasn't even going to run my combine this year...but broke it out of storage and serviced it out to cut wheat for neighbors. Cut a couple thousand acres with about 2 hours of down-time for the combine...no down-time for my old truck. However I had serviced out and inspected the machines last year before putting them away. Also the crop was modest and didn't make the machines work hard...

 

[quappelle]

My neighbour used to say "Mother said there'd be days like this, but she didn't say there'd be so many of them."

 

[whtbaron]

The real problem is that you went to many years without breaking anything. You gotta try harder boy! As noted above, I also spend a large portion of my summer going through the equipment in preventive maintenance, and that has reduced my down time greatly. The years we went through wet harvests were the worst... lots of wheel bearings and driveline issues. Not sure I'll be ready for harvest this year either, looks like it could be here in a couple weeks.

 

[tbone95]

Trying to put up hay is miserable enough with the weather.

Broken down round baler, hay mower, and 2 tractors. The hay mower breakdown is a marvel of physics to me. Gear box with 1 1/4" inch shafts. 2 output shafts, 1 straight through, 1 90* no reductions. On the 90* output, there is a sprocket about 4 inches in diameter. A 5/16" key backs out of the keyway just far enough that it is still driving the sprocket, but the head of the key strikes something. What breaks? The freakin' 1 1/4" output shaft!!! Inside the gearbox!

 

[Andrew_D]

Trying to put up hay is miserable enough with the weather.

Broken down round baler, hay mower, and 2 tractors. The hay mower breakdown is a marvel of physics to me. Gear box with 1 1/4" inch shafts. 2 output shafts, 1 straight through, 1 90* no reductions. On the 90* output, there is a sprocket about 4 inches in diameter. A 5/16" key backs out of the keyway just far enough that it is still driving the sprocket, but the head of the key strikes something. What breaks? The freakin' 1 1/4" output shaft!!! Inside the gearbox!

The 1 1/4" shaft broke before the offending piece of 5/16" key? Are you sure that the shaft didn't show signs of previous cracking?

Andrew

 

[tbone95]

The 1 1/4" shaft broke before the offending piece of 5/16" key? Are you sure that the shaft didn't show signs of previous cracking?

Andrew

I know, right? Sure it's possible there was cracking. . .but as near as I can tell, it was a quick clean break. Freakin' weird I tell ya'.

 

[lanwickum]

I was mechanic by trade and brought everything into the shop during the winter. This year I changed my plans all around, twice. That ended up not getting the good look over I normally do. It is showing at the moment. Got the 7720 going again and it is cutting peas. I am now waiting for 9650 unloading auger upper bevel gears to cool in the freezer so I drop new bearings on them. Repairing stuff now I should have done this winter. I don't need more break downs. Tomorrow I will have my old crew from last year and a 7230 showing up.

I had to pull the pendelton and crown out to put it the gears. Doesn't sound like bad advice. I was fighting a new feeder house floor before harvest on the 9650. Crown and coke break did the trick. Got right in after that. Sometimes you need to step back and slow down for a bit.