motram5455- Would the combine you're talking of have burned up in the Valentine NE area? I'm almost sure I seen the combine you're talking about (on a friends camera phone) becauset the harvester in questions was cutting for the people I worked for (they have so much work else where they usually don't get home to cut their own). There was nothing left of that combine, and thankful 21st century did have another year old combine leftover that they could run.
Quote:according to the guys there they seem to think it was intentional. looks that way to me too.
Yes , those guys seem to believe guilty until proven innocent. It's funny most of those guys have never seen the type of crop harvested and it's particular fire dangers when there has been no rain on it to wash the dust off the plant and low humidity. I have had a fire start after just an hour and a half in Chick Peas in those sorts of conditions on a Gleaner R72 on the underneath of the floor of the engine bay in the dust that this crop produces. (Rain before harvest will wash this dust off) The 72 was totally blown down that morning and yes I was lucky that we got water onto it before any damage had been done. I have seen a few combines (I'm a contract harvester) belonging to others catch on fire in Chick Peas working in the same field as me and these machines were all cleaned down daily.
You have to remember that we harvest these sorts of crops when it can be 105+ in the shade and very low humidity. How often in North America is harvesting halted by law when the fire officers believe that risk of harvest fires is too great on that day.It can happen in Middle/Southern Australia.
Most harvest contract harvesters run large air compressors as we need to clean the machines well between states and so machines are often clean in the morning before starting to harvest, I have photos of machines that have been working for weeks that look very clean. I know of one harvest crew that if the moisture is too high in the morning they will issue rags to the crew to wipe down all the paintwork.
It might have been an electrical fault as well, I don't about you guys but I value my life too much to fight a fire that has taken hold in the engine bay while standing on/next to a plastic fuel tank of diesel.
I don't know the story on this machine but I would prefer to give it the benefit of doubt until proven otherwise. With the poor harvest this year insurance companies will be checking claims carefully
Quote:do you know what the average yield for most farmers over there was this year?
According to my contracting sources ( I did not do this year's run due to a work injury) it was a case of a lot of country was not sown in the northern part of the country and in the southern areas a lot of sown crop died. Where there was isolated rainfalls yields in wheat ranged from 10 to 20 bushel range, some did a little better. West Australian crops have done a little better.
A fair amount of grain sorghum has been planted around home as we received some good falls of rain last month but hot winds and heat waves are greeting the emerging crops
Another year to forget
ausfarmer we in Ontario complain of the amount of rainfall that we have had this year. Over 2 feet since August 1st but I do remember the dry years. When rain falls on a timely basis it is definitely a lot easier on the stress level during the growing season. I feel for you farmers 'down under'. There are some soys and corn that have not been harvested as of today and with the wind that we received yesterday the remaining corn fields are in poor shape as the winter snow is fast approaching.
I agree with you one hundred percent that there is no way that that was an intentional fire. One of the arguments that it was, was that the combine was turned down wind to the cab. In my mind the driver would only see the smoke when driving with the wind. The coolers came out of the tractor with the buggy or truck (not in harms way) in an attempt to add some ice water to stop the fire. I did once have such an experience. The people on the other end of the two way radio just said get out of harms way when told that the fire ext. had no effect. There was two of us and we managed to put out the fire on top of a gas burning engine with dirt. This was not a combine that started burning near a plastic fuel tank. I say forget the fire suppression equipment on a possible future machine and include an early temperature warning system at all bearings and major electrical connections on these combines.
That poor John Deere 9650STS! I just hate to see any brand of combine go up in flames! I am glad the guy got out alright and was not hurt. I doubt that the fire was intentional, from what ausfarmer is saying about the harvest conditions down there. Take Care Jason B
A have a friend that is a custom harvester had a JD 9760STS burn up, he said it only took 20 mins. from the time they saw the smoke. When it got to the fuel tank it didn't take long. He had to get one of his year old combines from the John Deere dealer that he traded with to keep harvesting this summer.
That sucks what happened? I don't like Deeres , but I feel sorry for whoever it is. I never like watching that much money go up in smoke. I just couldn't imagine sitting there watching that and not being able to do a thing. That is why I have 2 extinguishers on mine. However its probably better gone completely, then to have a half burned up one that will never be right again
Quote:That sucks what happened? I don't like Deeres , but I feel sorry for whoever it is. I never like watching that much money go up in smoke. I just couldn't imagine sitting there watching that and not being able to do a thing. That is why I have 2 extinguishers on mine. However its probably better gone completely, then to have a half burned up one that will never be right again
I can't imagine that! To me, losing a combine, would be like the loss of a pet or even a close friend! Yes, on those extinguishers, but I do wholeheartedly concur with you, that if by the time you have exited the cab, and found a raging separator fire.....it's too late!
Yes, it's tough love, but if you've ever had to live with a permanently "crippled" machine and all it's miseries, you'd understand just how much more humane it would have been to let a big fire run its course. I just hope the poor bine in that pic, was shut off when the fire was discovered, though.
this is all to scary, tonight one of my guys hollers at me on the radio that he needs the compressor to blow the rad. out, the engine is running hot. well the milo that weve been in lately is still leafy green, and no debris much at all floating in the air. so hollered back for him to check the rotary screen. he gets off and checks and and discovers that the a/c compressor had locked down and the belt was on fire.. very tense for a few moments till we got it nuffed out
i have lost one combine in chickpeas, and dam near a second... the crop at harvest gives off a fine film of dust... and it will cover the machine in this, over time ambers will fall off the exhaust and in right conditions will ignite, i actuall started a feild on fire from these ambers
this last year we had a deere 9750 almost burn down with the same symtoms, except ambers fell above the spreader... certain crops are much worse than others
That reminds me to take chick peas off my menu and stop buying them to help feed wildlife. I don't want to contribute to any demand for a crop that's dangerous to combines, do I?
There's plenty of other combinable legumes and will no doubt fetch you farmers a decent price.
Just kidding of course, but really, I do hope in the near future, either more combine-friendly crops can be substituted, while stil bringing optimum prices for those who grow them.
I worked for a harvester a few years ago cutting sunflowers in Onida, SD. There were a lot of combine fires. The fire department put out 4 in one day. We never had a fire, but we blew our machines off TWICE a day.
The only fire I saw was when a bearing went out on the left side of a JD 9600 under the side cover and started a fire in the stubble. Luckily they got it out a few feet short of the wheat. I was at the bins when that happened.
I worked for a harvester back in '97 and this could be a BS story. He told us he knew of a crew that pulled in to cut 300 acres of certified seed wheat. It was 50-60 bushel wheat, the best the farmer ever had. They had brand new machines (won't say the brand, don't want folks getting off topic and starting a color war.) When they were cutting a place out to park their equipment, they started a fire and the wind took it and got all 300 acres. The only reason it didn't get his house was because the farmer ran up and disked around it. Has anyone else heard this story? It sounds like a rural urban legend to me.
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