We've got a pair of 2388s here in Iowa that only see corn and soybeans, about 50% of each. I know we don't have them "dialed in" quite the best, so I'm looking for suggestions on what to change. One is a 1999 model the other is a 2002. Both have the specialty rotor, large wire concaves, and keystock grates.
Corn:
2208 corn heads, 160-210 bu/ac, 15-25% moisture, 3-4.5 MPH.
In the past we either don't pull any wires on the concaves, or only pull every other wire on the front concave only. I understand that we should probably pull every other wire on the front two concaves, but should we do the third as well, or what determines that?
Early on this past season, we had a bad time with rotor losses. It seems we kept getting corn kernels going out the back of the machine, despite changes in the rotor speed, traveling speed, and concave setting. It was after this that we pulled every other wire on the front concave, which did help the problem some. We did have a lot of leaves going through the machine, which I think was carrying kernels out the back. Would more/less speed have helped here?
I'm also told that we should make sure we have 8 straight bars on the rotor (that it comes with 4 stock). I'm not sure what exactly I have right now.
Soybeans:
1020 25' flex headers, 40-70 bu/ac, 9-14% moisture, 3-4.5 MPH. Rarely any green-stem beans.
We won't be spending the money to get an AFX rotor, so is there anything we should look at doing on the current specialty rotor, such as spikes or different bars?
We don't run concave covers, but I'm starting to thing we should. As I understand this, I can pull every other wire on the entire front concave and just leave it that way. When switching to soybeans, I would cover up the first concave to get more threshing of the pods.
Thanks in advance for any input,
Lance
