MacDon on a 590R
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What type of Macdon header are you talking about?
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I have read of this on here. Also a Claas employee mentioned running the side belts slower to not crowd the center. (my fd70 side belts running fast still don't seem fast enough. By the time the material gets close to the center, the reel is hitting it because it is so deep.)
I did add maybe two fingers per side from a factory FD70 drum but didn't modify the flighting. When I shut the feeder off under load the best I can, the feederhouse appears to be running level side to side through the right inspection hole.
I did add maybe two fingers per side from a factory FD70 drum but didn't modify the flighting. When I shut the feeder off under load the best I can, the feederhouse appears to be running level side to side through the right inspection hole.
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Let us know if you try it this year and how it works.
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As I thought about this more I was wondering if feeding more material at the edge of the feederhouse might cause more chain jumping issues.
Never jumped a chain yet, only 2 years experience though. Tried a Lexion head to start and the first thing Tech did was to remove extra flighting on auger so it did not extend so far.
Kind of hard to take a plasma cutter to a nearly new MD. Will check MacDon service and stripper bars as suggested.
Kind of hard to take a plasma cutter to a nearly new MD. Will check MacDon service and stripper bars as suggested.
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75 Posts
Hi
Yep got a full set of fingers. Have measured the flightings on an Claas front and a Macdon, and the Macdon definately pulls it in more. If you stop the front full you will see that the outside of the feederhouse is not utilised fully.
Have a farmer local to us who has taken some of the flighting off, but also you can fit a larger sprocket which makes the feed auger rotate faster, therefore feeding more material in to the combine
Yep got a full set of fingers. Have measured the flightings on an Claas front and a Macdon, and the Macdon definately pulls it in more. If you stop the front full you will see that the outside of the feederhouse is not utilised fully.
Have a farmer local to us who has taken some of the flighting off, but also you can fit a larger sprocket which makes the feed auger rotate faster, therefore feeding more material in to the combine
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So, I was about to get the 740tt ready for wheat today. I was looking up the rock trap and IIRC, at about 700 engine hours, the APS "caps" are getting rounded, but not on the side of the APS, only the middle ones. I do not believe the returns are the primary cause of the cap wear, as it should do a decent job of spreading the material by the return auger design.
It appears I need to change something to make the header feed more evenly. I have noticed much more impeller wear in the middle as compared to the sides, as well as build-up of material above the impeller. On the other hand, at times I do a "power shut-down" and the chaffer load is spread very evenly side to side, a nice benefit to the Claas design IMO.
I guess I have a few options to modify the 40' FD70 to feed more evenly.
add more fingers to the side of the auger
remove some of the middle fingers
cut a few inches off the flighting in the middle, or cut it down to the tube
a combination of the above options
This is an issue a rotor machine really wouldn't be dealing with. Having said that, this should be fixable and doing so at the header will only help the combine work even better.
It appears I need to change something to make the header feed more evenly. I have noticed much more impeller wear in the middle as compared to the sides, as well as build-up of material above the impeller. On the other hand, at times I do a "power shut-down" and the chaffer load is spread very evenly side to side, a nice benefit to the Claas design IMO.
I guess I have a few options to modify the 40' FD70 to feed more evenly.
add more fingers to the side of the auger
remove some of the middle fingers
cut a few inches off the flighting in the middle, or cut it down to the tube
a combination of the above options
This is an issue a rotor machine really wouldn't be dealing with. Having said that, this should be fixable and doing so at the header will only help the combine work even better.
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I guess maybe that is why some of you have more trouble seperating the crop material at the impeller than others...more material in the centre means more to separate
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I traded four random middle fingers and put two of them on each side of the feed auger. I put them inside the flighting where the paint is worn off from crop flow. I didn't think they would do much good hidden behind flighting. The next thing to do would be remove some inner flighting if this doesnt do the trick.
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Seedcleaner I think you are on the right track by cutting back some of the flighting so it does not push the crop so far to the center. I have also cut out the square pieces in the outer bottom corners of the feeder house to get more space for big canola swaths. I was concerned about crop wrapping on the ends of the front drum but no problems so far. There is a lot of crop material that flows or wears on those outer corners of the drum but if there is a difference, the advantage of increased flow offsets the downside. Some guys on this forum are having trouble with chains jumping a tooth on one sprocket . I have not. I wondered about cutting a 45 degree diagonal off those plates or a curved pattern
instead of taking it right out like I did.
How are your crops this year? Hope you have a good harvest!!!
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I never have feeder chain trouble.
Crops are doing great, blessed with rain lately, although it didn't help the wheat as it received too much rain as it ripened. Wheat seems to be in the 75 bpa range. Could have been better with less rain. It is lodges as I slightly over fertilized it in its early growing stage. I am doing the Phil Needham intensive management style and the yields are better.
Crops are doing great, blessed with rain lately, although it didn't help the wheat as it received too much rain as it ripened. Wheat seems to be in the 75 bpa range. Could have been better with less rain. It is lodges as I slightly over fertilized it in its early growing stage. I am doing the Phil Needham intensive management style and the yields are better.
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Seedcleaner how is harvest going? Did you get to try any changes to make the feeding more even across the whole machine? I looked at both my machines and see the paint is all worn off the ends of the feeder drums. It looks like a fair amount of material is forcing up right on the outer ends of the drums. My wide body machines seem to be feeding fairly even across the whole width of the APS and cylinder . Next week the tech is coming to do the front rotor bearing update on the 590 and I will have a good look at the wear pattern on the impeller. I have a SB wear kit to install and want to look into that flow kit, whether it would be any advantage or not??? I have not had any problems with plugging the impeller or material hanging up in that area so maybe should leave well enough alone!
In the past I have cut flighting right off the center tube , and back to the width of the feeder house. In heavy crop the material will push into the center from both sides and even out across the whole width but it can not fill the outer edges properly if the header auger pushes it too far in the beginning. Better to use acetylene than risk stray current with plasma.
In the past I have cut flighting right off the center tube , and back to the width of the feeder house. In heavy crop the material will push into the center from both sides and even out across the whole width but it can not fill the outer edges properly if the header auger pushes it too far in the beginning. Better to use acetylene than risk stray current with plasma.
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We are done with wheat. It is very hard to do a kill stall to see the actual crop mat as if it were in operation. Going by the APS wear, and actually studying the auger flighting verse the narrow body feederhouse, I think I will narrow up the flighting before soybean harvest. The APS and impeller show more wear in the middle, so I suspect the FD70 is not feeding properly.
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I looked at my FD70 and could not believe how much flighting they have pushing the crop to the middle. If time allows I will try to modify this and either remove some of the inner flighting or cut off at least 1 inch of depth in the last bit of flighting near the center. My pickup head hardly has any flighting compared to the FD70 adapter.
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