[provident]

We are about to upgrade from our M2 to a 1992 R52. Can a return to cylinder kit be added to a 1992 R52? We do a variety of small grains and think this would be worth valuable. We are in PA and There are few Return to Cylinder machines out east.
What other mods would be worthwhile for threshing small grains and possibly clover down the road?

 

[glennw]

We had a 92 R52 with return to thresh and it had a chain conveyor similar to the return. It wasn't an auger like the bigger combines. I don't know how hard it is to get a kit to do it though.

 

[tbk]

This was my first year with my R50 in small grains (Soft White Wheat and Oats) and I was worried about not having a return to cylinder. I set the grate to minimum and concave clearance to 1/8". Then put three filler bars in. I had no white caps or unthreshed heads in the grain tank and minimal grain damage. This was 20% moisture, kind of tough wheat. Oats were set the same.

I checked into the return kit with Agco. Would have to buy it part by part, and it was much too expensive. Salvaged off a combine it would run about $1,500. I think I'd still like to have the option especially in small seed crops like clover and I still believe I could get a cleaner sample in small grains.

I had talked to the Agco dealer I bought the combine through about the lack of a return to cylinder and how that would effect performance in wheat and oats. He was adamant about leaving the reverse bars in the rotor as designed. I know this fly's in the face of the prevailing opinion on this site, but maybe he was right. At least it worked pretty well for me.

One of the few things I really miss about my M2 is the ability to look out the right window and see what the tailings are bringing back around. I sure would like that on the R50.

 

[provident]

Thanks for the info from the field tbk. that was the approach i was going to take. i think the filler bars may do more than anything, and the reverse bars on the shorter rotor may slow the crop enough to thresh all. i wont have the chance to try until next year but would like to get as prepared as possible. the thought of changing bars for every crop switch isnt very appealing.
one idea that i had that might be simple is to install a blower (centrifical type used for dust collectors) that would suck out of the tailings L or shoot, and delivery back to the rotor. a decent size one would pass anything that comes to the tailings. use about 4-5 Inch flex duct to do it. all it would take is a hydraulic or electric motor that could be turned on or off as desired. no flapper or duct to switch.
Wonder if you could put a video cam somewhere to watch the tailings? might be tuff to keep working with all the dust.
guess gleaner thot the rotary combines wouldn't need the return to cylinder, but i here all the new ones have the ability to do this.