With discussions of a new cab and features for '15 and beyond, Gleaner engineering needs to prioritize some simple and low cost but NECESSARY upgrades. Just had a S67 shell out chopper bearings with less than 1000 hours. These chopper bearings need to be INCREASED in size along with 6 bolt flanges. Secondly, the panels (P/N's 71368473 & 71369255) on the sides of combine that hold the Acc. roll bearings need to be replaceable like they were in the 5 and 6 series, Another S77 in the area shelled Acc. roll bearings and hammered out muskmelon size holes in the side of the combine. The only fix was to weld a plate in place. Nice fix for a 2 year old combine! Who in engineering would approve such a stupid change? Serviceability and reliability are two of the most important aspects in combine design. I hope someone in Gleaner Engineering is reading this!
Necessary Gleaner updates - more important than cab!
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345 Posts
I'm afraid the bean counters have the upper hand when it comes to these things. If a cheaper bearing will fit that is what is used. The better quality bearings put in the choppers the last two years was quite a fight to get done. Seems if they can save $1.00 on the bearing cost then the lawyers and college boys that never ran a combine call the shots. The sad part is all companies are run this way. It's all about the bottom line of sales. Once it's paid for they don't care if it runs or not. Versatile built such a good tractor years ago that they have decided the only way to make you buy a new one is stop making repair parts!
They could look at it as maybe if they made it super reliable people will come back. Sometimes I think they want it to break so you have to trade up to get the socalled improved version. We just blew a rotor gearbox on a 77 that mainly does corn on the beginning of 3rd yr with it. Totally agree bout having them drive combine yr before getting job, they should have to fix some of these machines for a yr to. We live in a throw away society with nothing longlived anymore. tear apart a tractor cab these days and what a electronic mess on cheap made everything that's marked up 1000 percent. On combines though they keep doing the just bairly enough to do the job. whats wrong with going beyond.
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129 Posts
I'm not familiar with the s series but have notices in the last several years AGCO has gone to import replacement bearings. In the past I felt a lot more confident in replacing the bearings when they were USA made. Bearings are one place cost should not be cut. When bearings go out other high price parts can get damaged. The only thing keeping Gleaner alive is quality. When they loose that they will loose customers. Why drive 3 time as far and pass multiple other brand dealers with good parts supply to get cheap parts for a cheap made machine?
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122 Posts
The rock trap needs fixed. Not sure if since cdf rotor or larger diameter rotor it's only stopped maybe two out of ten rocks.
AHHC. Could work better. Demoed a s680 when they first came out. That was the one thing that stood out to me was the header control worked great.
AHHC. Could work better. Demoed a s680 when they first came out. That was the one thing that stood out to me was the header control worked great.
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193 Posts
I agree whole heartedly on the AHHC on the John Deere. Demoed a s680 with their flex draper. Was so smooth and floated. Easier to adjust. Walked away from demo saying I loved everything from the cab forward.
Amen to that, The dedicated Gleaner core has proven that styling and other frills are not the highest priority - The latest Sx8 series looks very similar to the first N's and still sells in high numbers. We have asked for performance and quality. Let's hope these little things that cause big problems can be addressed! Regarding Deere, they also seem to pick up fewer rocks.
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592 Posts
talk about bearings. got some bearings from new holland dealer. for some applications they used Peer brand bearings, they are a chinese import (skf bought them out a couple of years ago) and other applications they use Fafnir or INA which are the best bearings you can buy. So they use different brands. and oh... forgot. i have seen koyo as well.
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30 Posts
We were told by Kevin Bein himself that going forward from here all bearings on 2015 combines will be Timkin. And when old stock is used up all bearings for all combines will be Timkins
Maybe an admission that there was a problem. Encouraging that changes are being made, still need to work on serviceability issues, like replaceable panels when bearing shells out large hole in side of combine. Patching holes by welding plates in place may have its place on an old M or L, but not on a '13 S series!
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1,355 Posts
Never had any peas bounce off top of cab when I had slow speed elevator kit installed!
I have heard of several cases of the accelerator rolls coming out of time on new S series machines which should never happen. I think the combines should come better checked over and set up from the factory and not left all up to the dealers to take care of. We tired out a new S77 a few years ago and dealer didn't have time to set anything up on the combine. Luckily we half way knew what to do and who to call for a little bit of help, but even then the electronic adjustable sieves wouldn't work from the cab. So I would say quality control leaving the factory would help.
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