[Jason Anderson]

Oh, that’s different, while I have a slight right tilt reading (it’s barely visible on the feeder faceplate) cutting is level.
Are you running gauge wheels at same spring compression on both sides?
Demoed a FD1 but only cut on the ground, I do not know yet if you have to set it like an FD75, it doesn’t look any different on an FD1.
When you learn the cure let us know please!

Yes, I have both of the gauge wheels in the highest slot, other than storage. I will let you all know what they get figured out.

 

[Jason Anderson]

If the right side of the Macdon headers is heavier, why does Macdon recommend backing off springs 2 turns on the right side?
Would you not turn the right springs clockwise and tighten 2 turns to help lift the heavier side of the header.

Am I thinking about this wrong?

Yes, that makes sense to me. In the book they say to back it off if you have a double knife drive on the 40 or 45'. But the gauge wheels are much heavier on the right. I would think lightening the right side of the header by tightening the right float springs would make more sense also...

 

[Don Boles]

Backing off the two turns after even float has something to do with operation in flex mode.
Seems a fully equipped 40’ and 45’ tends to slightly “kink” up at the flex joint on the right side hence the back off instructions.

 

[Jason Anderson]

Backing off the two turns after even float has something to do with operation in flex mode.
Seems a fully equipped 40’ and 45’ tends to slightly “kink” up at the flex joint on the right side hence the back off instructions.

Gotcha, thanks for the info!

 

[drylandfarmer]

Some great info on here. Hooked up my FD145's yesterday and took them for a spin, they have the Macdon headsight kit from factory (not sure if it's called headsight from Macdon).
Having issues with the Macdon header height sensor reading at 97 out of 100 (very top of the scale) in auto contour mode in the combine monitor with the header in flex. Setting the Macdon header at about 1.5 on it's scale. This is on a Lexion 780 combine.

Would like that 97 out of 100 in the combine monitor down a bit lower in the scale. It almost seemed like the Macdon header height sensor was not making the combine auto contour react as I was moving the Macdon guage by hand and the reading in the combine would not change from the 97 on the combine readout.

Reading Jeff-I-Cil suggestion of blocking the combine feederhouse faceplate up higher when doing the calibrations seems like a great idea. Will try it this morning.

One of the headers was running at 40% on the feederhouse tilt scale so that will have to be addressed as well.
The other one was around 52%, I can live with that one.

 

[Jeff-C-IL]

Dryland: Moving the indicator in the gauge will not change the reading of the height when the lateral tilt sensor package is installed; they electrically replace the single sensor in that gauge.

 

[drylandfarmer]

Dryland: Moving the indicator in the gauge will not change the reading of the height when the lateral tilt sensor package is installed; they electrically replace the single sensor in that gauge.

OK good to know. Thanks.
When calibrating should the header be locked in rigid mode or flex? Or does it matter?

 

[Jeff-C-IL]

The Float optimizer must be unlocked "in Flex" to calibrate. If you lock the head rigid, the sensors cannot travel to calibrate. IDK if locking the wings would have any effect. The best way is to raise the gauge wheels out of the way, unlock everything, and calibrate on a flat level surface. I think it would also be possible to calibrate with the wings locked and wheels down, it would just require more care and knowing what you are doing.

What you are calibrating is the "travel" in the float optimizer frame. So the better job you do keeping everything level during Cal, and only letting the float optimizer travel in the normal operating range (see blocking comment), the better the control system is going to work in the combine.

The other major problem we see is trying to Cal with the Float springs so tight the head "Floats up" when you raise it. This completely confuses the combine cal function. You must have the head hanging all the way down on the float optimizer when the head is raised all the way to the top. If it floats up or even bounces up pretty good, you are going to have to loosen the springs during CAL (or add weight. Sometimes running the reel clear forward is enough!)

 

[drylandfarmer]

Thanks Jeff-C-IL. Blocking the feederhouse worked great. Have the combine monitor readout at 75 now when reading just under 2 on the Macdon.
Everything working like it should.

 

[Don Boles]

Thanks Jeff-C-IL. Blocking the feederhouse worked great. Have the combine monitor readout at 75 now when reading just under 2 on the Macdon.
Everything working like it should.

You will enjoy what lateral control does in the field.
Never thought there would be much advantage to that but it is the icing on the cake.
Not sure how rolly your fields are but there is no need to have lateral control speed set to to anything but the fastest, +50 on CAC settings.

Also, set record stop height as low as possible and set feeder auto lift 5 higher. That way auto drop rate can be set higher to a smooth ground landing, if lifting unnecessarily high it has the distance to pick up speed and won’t be as smooth.

 

[rod]

I'm sure glad all you blokes will have the FD1... all sorted & calibrated before I get mine in the paddock ................ that's if there's going to be anything to harvest this year! :11:

Shaping up as a complete & utter disaster for most of eastern Australia's cereals & pulse crops. :43:

 

[drylandfarmer]

You will enjoy what lateral control does in the field.
Never thought there would be much advantage to that but it is the icing on the cake.
Not sure how rolly your fields are but there is no need to have lateral control speed set to to anything but the fastest, +50 on CAC settings.

Also, set record stop height as low as possible and set feeder auto lift 5 higher. That way auto drop rate can be set higher to a smooth ground landing, if lifting unnecessarily high it has the distance to pick up speed and won’t be as smooth.

Land is highly variable. From flat to rolly.
Noticed today that it was quite slow to lateral tilt. Completely forgot to increase lateral tilt speed. Still set at 0. Will do that tomorrow.

Stop lift height at lower level is for sure a good idea. Have mine set on the a bit highish side. When doing quick end turns and header is still in the lift mode before stop height, float optimizer sway from the tight turn will get the lateral tilt tilting. It straightens out when you drop header to the ground on the next pass though so no big deal. It's doing what it is designed to do.

Really liking the lateral tilt. Doing peas today in flex mode I rocked through some terraces that I would have normally cut out each side.

When I fine tune it tomorrow it should perform even better.

I'm guessing the lateral tilt will shine even more in rigid mode when cutting wheat.

 

[Don Boles]

Really liking the lateral tilt. Doing peas today in flex mode I rocked through some terraces that I would have normally cut out each side.

I'm guessing the lateral tilt will shine even more in rigid mode when cutting wheat.

Went through a non parallel to cut draw on wheels last fall at full speed where I know I could not have done it nearly as fast nor accurately without auto lateral control, white knuckle harvesting days over!

 

[Jason Anderson]

You will enjoy what lateral control does in the field.
Never thought there would be much advantage to that but it is the icing on the cake.
Not sure how rolly your fields are but there is no need to have lateral control speed set to to anything but the fastest, +50 on CAC settings.

Also, set record stop height as low as possible and set feeder auto lift 5 higher. That way auto drop rate can be set higher to a smooth ground landing, if lifting unnecessarily high it has the distance to pick up speed and won’t be as smooth.

Does anyone have suggestions for monitor settings on a Case 8230? Both rigid and flex?

 

[Jason Anderson]

I may have missed this in thread, but I always run wheels one notch lower on RHS of machine to help compensate.
MacDon always told me it was necessary as well.

Not sure if it would change sensor readings?

So the MacDon harvest support guys came out and what they ended up doing was just running the right side gauge wheels in the 2nd slot and the left side in the first slot from the top (other than storage). If you look at where the slots are, there is much more distance from the storage to the first slot on the left side but not the right side. The right side looks more like what our D65 looked like on both sides.

This did help a little bit, but now I tilt to the left instead of the right, I have to compensate by titling the feederhouse to the right almost 1 degree to make the stubble the same. Its not such a big deal this year because the wheat was fairly tall and we didn't have any sawfly damage to lay the wheat on the ground. I guess if it was down too much I could just run it in flex mode.

 

[buckslayr]

just got FD140, suppose to get it calibrated today, its on a 9870JD, anything I should know ahead of time to have them do?, thanks

 

[buckslayr]

The Float optimizer must be unlocked "in Flex" to calibrate. If you lock the head rigid, the sensors cannot travel to calibrate. IDK if locking the wings would have any effect. The best way is to raise the gauge wheels out of the way, unlock everything, and calibrate on a flat level surface. I think it would also be possible to calibrate with the wings locked and wheels down, it would just require more care and knowing what you are doing.

What you are calibrating is the "travel" in the float optimizer frame. So the better job you do keeping everything level during Cal, and only letting the float optimizer travel in the normal operating range (see blocking comment), the better the control system is going to work in the combine.

The other major problem we see is trying to Cal with the Float springs so tight the head "Floats up" when you raise it. This completely confuses the combine cal function. You must have the head hanging all the way down on the float optimizer when the head is raised all the way to the top. If it floats up or even bounces up pretty good, you are going to have to loosen the springs during CAL (or add weight. Sometimes running the reel clear forward is enough!)

should the blocking feederhouse be done on a JD9870 too?

 

[Jeff-C-IL]

should the blocking feederhouse be done on a JD9870 too?

I believe all combines can benefit from that. Lexions certainly most, but we have had very positive feedback from other makes as well. It makes sense; when you block the feeder you are limiting the sensor calibration to only the motion range you actually want to use, which gives any combine the best chance of proper control within that range.

 

[buckslayr]

thanks for the reply,I blocked it and recalibrated, havent had a chance to try it yet, a few days and I will.

 

[Don Boles]

Did a bunch of reasearch (neighbors would likely think what is that crazy ******* doing running around cutting already harvested fields?!) yesterday but I can now answer what is happening here.
First, the Captain Obvious stuff using Claas terminology:
Feeder faceplate calibrated (0 to 100 scale, 50 centered)
Header calibrated
The feeder faceplate angle reading should average 50.
Mine didn’t all fall, 35 to 40 ish typical.
Lived with it but my inability to have it run properly pissed me off.
It also doesn’t matter very much when running the header off the ground and on the gauge wheels.
However, running right on the ground cutting very short a different story.
If I run more this fall or on the peas next fall I know I’ll need an on ground, light header.
I like to be as kind to the skid shoes as possible plus greatest rock resistance.

Here what what I ended up doing for those conditions and it needs done in order:
Start on level ground
Oh, make sure transport hitch is installed in field position on wings
Wing flex locked out
Reel in normal operating position
Tilt angle on “A”
Combine feeder faceplate fore/aft at normal
Header just off ground
Gauge wheels lifted all the way up
Feeder faceplate centred
Tightened right springs (evenly) until lifting about 10 pounds on right gauge wheels lifts springs off stop. More on this later.
Set left springs to match, I do it by when lifting header up and having header pop off stops at the same time, let it down full speed and stop before hitting the ground, header should bounce equally off both stops before settling (Claas 700 series has very fast hydraulics for this procedure) Believe it or not 1/2 of one turn on two springs is enough to observe a difference.
This is a far lighter setting than MacDon specs but they sell skidshoes and guards, I buy them.

Unlock wing flex, hit the field
Adjust wings until lateral tilt averages centered, 50 in a Claas case.
The wings will then average straight left and right on the indicators.

Again, this is on ground setting, float springs would have to be backed off for proper on gauge wheel operation. At least once flex is set it’s set.

This two sensor system has shown us how much better float and flex settings can be achieved than the manual system, if just points out our flawed setting.