[littleharoldeh]

Hi there, first time poster here, have read this site tho in the past. Last fall nearing the end of harvest, my JD 9650 STS was rear ended and destroyed by a semi. Now that all done up with insurance I;m in the midst of shopping and a new contender showed ump the CLAAS.
We farm up in East Central Saskatchewan. only farm about 1600 acres. Wheat, Canola, Barley and Oats. Was originally thinking a class 7 combine. Either 9770 STS, Case 7010/7120. Now one of our friends ended up buying a 570R. He ended up telling the Claas Dealer in Regina that we are gonna be looking for a combine now these guys have been all over us lol. However I do see some interesting things with a Lexion. However I am trying to browse this forum as much as I can and do some research about them. They are trying to sell us a 2009 580R with about 800 Sep/1000 Eng. To me I think its over kill for our farm as we have a 25 ft swather and 30 ft swather. However I;m looking for some honest opinions here as for any disadvantages, weaknesses, common problems etc. From what I found so far was rotor bearings. Other then that some people complained about turning, the monitor and the windshield wiper haha. But please if anyone whats to give me some honest tips I;d appreciate. Everything breaks and believe me after us have gleaners most of our farm life we're used to that but would kinda like to find something better. The JD I had was excellent and wish it would have been around longer but thats the way it goes. Thanks and hope to hear some thoughts from you guys.

 

[Darcy]

Make sure the combine has had a post harvest inspection done.
Make sure the rotor bearing have been updated. 2k in parts plus labour for that.
The turn raduis isn't exactly a big deal, you will get use to it.
The biggest difference you will first notice is the fuel savings and being able to start earlier and quit later in tough conditions.
A 580r maybe over kill for you IMO. But you might not find a 570r in the same condition.

 

[mbfarmer]

The worst part of the 500 series machines is the electric rotor covers.

 

[seedcleaner]

The worst part of the 500 series machines is the electric rotor covers.

Our 2011 740 has electric rotor covers. I thought they would be good to have, as we used coverplates on our axial flows for threshing the wheat better. The fact is, the rotor plates on the Lexion really don't improve threshing, but instead are used to fine tune/limit separation and reduce chaffer overload. Coverplates for a Lexion to increase threshing is done under the APS and cylinder.

The electric coverplates work, but seem to build up with chaff in the linkage, which keeps it from working as it should.

If you are a happy Deere owner, it might be a bad choice to try anything different. There will be good and bad trade offs. It just depends on what your priorities are.

I think you will have a hard time finding a machine that trumps a Claas in grain savings, fuel savings, durable build quality, and factory track design, and windshield wiper design.

 

[rodd]

570 is more than enough for you. 25-30' swath, get ready to run at 6+ mph. That machine will run 5.5 with 36'. 580 is same machine with another 50 HP, so there won't be a lot of difference. There are more 580's than 570's around so just look for the right deal. They are 4000-5000 ac/year machines and will last you many years.

 

[Don Boles]

I think you will have a hard time finding a machine that trumps a Claas in grain savings, fuel savings, durable build quality, and factory track design, and windshield wiper design.

On a scale of 1 to 10 for your disciplines SC
Grain savings 10
Fuel savings 8
Durability 7
Factory track (700 series) 11
Windshield wiper 11, especially since the 4 spigot top mounted washer! (12 if they'd allow reverse rotation as well.:54

 

[peacefarmer]

I have a 2200 acre farm and a 570R. I don't think its overkill (I wish I had two of them)as the harvest can never get off quick enough for my liking. The Lexion seemed very complicated at first but it's worth it to have the adjustability.

 

[seedcleaner]

I have a 2200 acre farm and a 570R. I don't think its overkill (I wish I had two of them)as the harvest can never get off quick enough for my liking. The Lexion seemed very complicated at first but it's worth it to have the adjustability.

The lexion is a whole lot of simplicity. Put it on top of one another and it appears complicated. Not perfect at all, but very thought out for design and repair.

 

[Mick jackson]

we are running three 740s we really like em the regenerating system on the cat engine is giving us quite a bit of grief go with the 500 series you wont have the emission stuff to deal with claas rep told me the guys with electric rotor covers need to exercise them at least once a day if not more that should keep em from binding also the chopper blades last longer on them older machines

 

[gumbomb]

There is no such thing as over capacity when the rain clouds are coming. That's the benefit of a smaller farm, plus if nothing else u can quit earlier at night. We run 3.6 acres per combine hp.

 

[Don Boles]

We run 3.6 acres per combine hp.

Huh, never seen it expressed that way before, interesting.

 

[peterbilt]

Yes interestig way to look at it. I guess we have been 5.5 acres per HP. I agree you can never be over "combined" get as big of one or as many smaller ones as you can afford and keep operating. Hard to put a value on getting it done faster until after the fact. Never ran a Class but by and large you can't find hardly anyone that switches out of them once they are in and figured out. I think most guys concerns are resale and dealer support which is improving I think. And in this case lower resale (area dependant I guess) could be in your favour to get a larger machine than a competitors model for the same dollars. Could be I'm dreaming but always seems a used Lex surprises me on its price

 

[SouthernSK]

On resale it seems like Lexions are holding their value better as time goes on. There must be more demand for the used ones.

 

[Bar D]

We combine 4000 acres with a 670 and everything is swathed which gets us a few more hours in a day, we did it with a 470R years ago so you will have lots of capacity

 

[LutzSK]

Bar D, are you comfortable running the 670 over that many acres?

You said you had an R before, are you happy with having a walker now? Would you say losses are more of an issue under tough (early/late) conditions with the walker machine over the hybrid?

Is the C9, I think it is, a nice fit for the machine, 35' or 40' swaths?

Sorry for the run down of questions. The walker machines seem interesting because they appear quite a bit cheaper than the rotaries. I think I have read on here that they are comparable to a 9770.

Thank you

 

[SouthernSK]

How many acres you can do with one machine depends so much on the area, man power, drying capcity, and the crops grown. If you grow crops that can sit out in the rain and still grade well then you will be able to streach your machine a lot further. If you grow durum, lentils or other crops that loose grade and value fast after each rain then you better have lots of combine capacity to get it off in a short window. Some of these crops loose value so quick that a untimley rain can cost you $50,000 or more over night.

 

[Bar D]

I'am not overly comfortable with doing that many acres but we've always finished and don't ever have tough grain to deal with, we'll be going to a second combine in 2016 got an uncle retiring and we'll be going up to 5000 acres. We have a lot of cattle so we wanted to get more/better straw so we switched to the conventional the only time we really miss a rotary is in Barley other than that our losses are still low. The 670 has lots of power, never really have a power issue we pick up 36' swaths with it. Deere brought out a S680 two years ago and run beside us the class kept up to it all day no problems

 

[Transaxial]

I have a 2200 acre farm and a 570R. I don't think its overkill (I wish I had two of them)as the harvest can never get off quick enough for my liking. The Lexion seemed very complicated at first but it's worth it to have the adjustability.

Well said! I switched to my first Lexion 11 years ago and have been overall pretty happy with the capacity, excellent threshing quality and reliability of the 480R and 590R. They have a lot of moving parts. Like any machine, you need to do your off season inspections and servicing every year and you will catch little things before they turn into big downtime issues. I have had very little downtime on either of these machines in harvest. We farm in central Alberta, in a pretty good black soil zone and usually harvest 50-70 bu canola and 80-130 bu wheat and barley, all with a lot of mog. Not saying the other colors do not work, but I have been very happy with my machines over a lot of years. Friend A drove my 480 10 years ago and was so impressed he switched to a 460 walker, then 580R which he really likes. He came from N7 and TR98. Friend B who is a close neighbor of friend A, drove As 580R and traded his R72 on a new 570R. Friend B has been very happy with this machine and feels it is a nice improvement over his R72. A and B work together quite often when crop staging makes it beneficial to get a field off quick. They find that since both machines are narrow body and very similar other than engine power, that the 570R is very good value and in good dry conditions it is very similar in performance to the 580R. As would be expected, the C13 in the 580R gives that machine the excess power for climbing hills, mud, unloading on the go and threshing tough crops without power shortage. The C9 just runs closer to power limit more of the time. They both harvest around 2000 acres of high yielding crops and are very happy converts. It seems that in this area that the Lexion family is growing. Along with the dealer network which now rivals any other brand in this area. Resale value seems to be improving relative to other brands as machine numbers and dealer availability improve. Lexion seems to be making significant gains in acceptance as a desirable combine in this small grains area. Good luck with your choices!

 

[littleharoldeh]

Thanks for all the replies, Very much appreciated. I guess the only reason I said a 580 might be overkill for our operation is cause of having 25ft and 30ft swaths. I just dunno the 580 would stay loaded enough on such swaths. That machine is probably meant for 35+ft swaths so that was my only concern. Unfortunately the dealer doesn't have any 570RS and there are no listing privately that I have found. Kinda rare birds around here as its mainly a Deere and Case zone. Talked to the salesman and according to him this combine has the bearings update. They did a 250 point inspection and have it up to spec and are offering a 75 hr warranty which is decent for a 09 combine. So other then that from what I seem to hear is about these eltric rotor covers or whatever. Also my brother did some research and mentioned something gear boxes but Im not sure what he exactly said. So from what I keep hearing a Lexion is a nice machine. As for now I'm probably stuck between this Lexion or 7010/7120. Defiantly save money buying a case as theres some decent deals. Anyways, thanks again everyone for your thoughts on this. Or if anyone else has any common issues or things to really check please post.

 

[SouthernSK]

A lexion does not have to run full to keep the losses low. In our experience the less you load it the less loss you will have. Low grain loss is a big strength of the combine. If you have a lot of straw you will appreciate the extra power.