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S-series fires?

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46K views 62 replies 42 participants last post by  lillmulls  
#1 ·
Been hearing rumors of several new S-series combines burning up. Does anyone know about fires in the new combines? It sounds like the exhaust temps get to 1600 degrees F during a regeneration process.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Why is it always rumors or I know someone. There was a story from MO last year(w/ pictures) that the combine burned up during regen & everyone ran w/ it but when Deere brought the combine back to the factory they found that the combine had not gone thru a single regen in it's life. I highly doubt the 1600 degree's & since a combine runs full rpm pretty much all the time, I doubt will see a regen anyway.
 
#4 ·
Why is it always rumors or I know someone. There was a story last year(w/ pictures) that the combine burned up during regen & everyone ran w/ it but when Deere brought the combine back to the factory they found that the combine had not gone thru a single regen in it's life. I highly doubt the 1600 degree's & since a combine runs full rpm pretty much all the time, I doubt will see a regen anyway.
My S670 regened all summer during harvest... they will regen and do.
 
#8 ·
S series burned up this week here but it was his new jd flexdraper where the fire started and they were unable to get it unhooked from machine in time and it went up also. I guess JD told them to not touch anything as they want to tear apart the flexdraper and see what caused it to go up in flames.
 
#18 ·
S series burned up this week here but it was his new jd flexdraper where the fire started and they were unable to get it unhooked from machine in time and it went up also. I guess JD told them to not touch anything as they want to tear apart the flexdraper and see what caused it to go up in flames.
near what town is it i would like to look at it
 
#9 ·
Dieseldog, are you near Williston? If so, their other flex draper started on fire the next day. Both headers have the Crary air bars on them, but no word yet what was causing the problem. I believe they had cut barley with both machines without any issues. The fires occurred while they were cutting lentils, so perhaps it's a flex issue.
 
#12 ·
I have experienced shocks when on the ground about to mount the steps on a combine with a draper with poly skids harvesting peas. It seemed to happen in certain weather conditions and the common thought rightly or wrongly was the belts were creating static electricity and there was no ground due to the poly skids. When the farmer had a man with a water tanker following the combines around the paddock you knew there was a problem and you could see the sparks as you went to touch the steps.
The combines ended up dragging chains which stopped the spot fires but the cause of why things were so bad was never 100% sorted out.
 
#43 ·
Unless you are in sunflowers or lentils and such you shouldn't have to blow the machine off very day...that is load of bull. You guys honestly feel that is acceptable under normal conditions to have to blow off the machine EVERY DAY?

I tried to burn up a 2388 three times in 8 days cutting lentils, fortunately I wasn't trying very hard. We should be more careful about blowing them off daily in lentils at least but blowing them off regularly is never a bad idea.

In the wrong conditions any colour will burn.
 
#16 ·
Tour Brand New S690i Hand several fires in Thema First days. Some connectors caught fire Hand two Times dust near the exhaust caught fire. It set more dust under the side panel on fire.We lost a belt and some hydraulic hoses cus of this.

Fortunately we noticed it pretty fast, so there was no bigger damage.
 
#37 ·
Just looks really sad and scary to see a machine go up like that, any machine will go up, and Deere are not the only combine running "HOT" emmissions these days, all comes down to the guy running it to keep it blown down each day, we have had the "S" machine as a proto for the last 4 years and at present we have a Tier 4 machine with adblue, we have NEVER had any fire issues. Claas have now gone the adblue route with the new 780 with a Merc engine. :(
 
#25 ·
Ridiculous, those pictures are just rumors. I know of a couple of fires with the new drapers, hadn't heard of a combine causing one in our area. I did see a burned 9760 being hauled away the other day. Unfortunately they can all have you calling your insurance agent pretty quickly, there are just a lot of bearings to go out on a machine.
 
#28 ·
Our dealer provided us with an S Series Cleaning bulletin. I tried to post it but the file is too large. We have been blowing our machines off every night and have had no issues. IMO it doesn't matter what color or model your running, if your having dust and chaff building up in areas where there is heat there is going to be fires.

Ask your dealer if you are concerned it basically just pictures of areas arround the machine that will have chaff or dust build up.
 
#31 ·
It kinda looks like a fire extinguisher would have worked better than a camera... That fire looked fairly small at the beginning.

Just an observation, I wasn't there...

Posting pictures of fires in such early stages might not be wise, insurance company sees this they might fight the claim on grounds of the operator not doing enough to put the fire out. Just a thought.
 
#33 ·
It kinda looks like a fire extinguisher would have worked better than a camera... That fire looked fairly small at the beginning.

Just an observation, I wasn't there...
Those were my thoughts as well...but then I would imagine they did try:confused: I don't see how come more of the standing grain and stubble didn't go up:confused:

What does surprise me even more so, is since that combine was marked as #7, I'm guessing this is a fairly large operation and in the middle of some open looking country...that they didn't keep a tractor and disc close by in case of that kind of situation:confused: I don't have enough fingers on one hand to count how many of us within a few mile radius of me here, each fall try to keep one tractor hooked up to something and keep it within a mile or so of the combine for just that kind of situation, then if such a situation arises and its obvious you're gonna loose your combine, but at least even if you have to hoof it on foot a mile, if you can get there with something in not too long of period of time and plow up a firebreak so you don't burn up the whole dam country in the process. Thankfully I haven't had to do it on my own land as yet, but I have neighbors who were sure glad to see someone's disc show up when it did, and it only made it there when it did cause it was close by.