[matt708]

Well we jumped our front feeder chains again on Friday. So combine back to workshop pull chains, cogs look to be a bit out of time so off with the feeder house. Check cogs with straight edge, don't look too bad a bit high and low in different spots. We got new front feeder chains last year after jumping the original ones. The cogs were showing a little wear so got new ones there.
Rang a north east Victoria guru, he gave me the run down on cutting the rear of front feeder house to lower the floor.
Basically this is how we did it according to his instructions.
1. Sat feeder house on its end, rear poking to the roof
2. Cut down each side of the floor 27 inches
3. Cut 3 inches off rear of floor (after removing seal bracket)
4. Lever floor down 2". Tack weld mid way down floor where there is a slight crease in the floor.
5. Let the floor up, so it is down 1" of where it was originally located, make filler plates weld into place.(by doing this it drops the floor significantly all the way from the 27" cut right back to rear of feeder.)
6. Weld a sloping plate horizontally, where there is a significant step that material can snag on as it comes up feeder.
7. Grind everything smooth so no straw catches anywhere.
8. Pull middle floor, weld in filler strips so straw cant push up into voids and hesitate.
The plan is to take off the pipes that we had over the tension springs to stop chains jumping off. Tighten belts on feeder drives up very tight.
Not sure on best theory with slats on chains, our original front feeder chains we had every 2nd row of slats off. This one we have taken every 2nd middle slat off and will give that a try.
We got the feeder house bolted back in and we wouldn't want the floor lowered any more as the hinged tray is firm down onto top of Axle when comb is lowered right down.
Now all to do is test it, and hope like mad the chains don't ever jump again.

 

[flatfoot]

matt708 - would like to hear a bit of an update on how this all worked out for you!!

Any pics of all your work??

 

[matt708]

No pictures sorry, we went pretty hard at it to get it operational as quick as possible. It's actually pretty clear and straight forward once the feeder house is of.
I think I can pretty confidently say it works we have fed some bundles of stuff up there since Monday and haven't blocked it as yet. We do get a bit of repeating still which I wonder if it isn't material coming back down on top of chains from the rotor. The feeling here is that the chains protrude too far into the rotor, so the fix for this is to shorten the rear chains approx 1.5", by moving the driving shaft forward.
We did jump the rear ones a link on one side and snapped two links, so we got hold of a new set and put them in. Left all the slats on and can't say I've noticed any difference to the old setup where we had every second row off. Ran the new chains for a few hours checked them and one side was loose on top and tight on bottom and sitting oddly on the cogs so we loosened the slats on that side spun it over by hand and she all came good.

 

[alkyburner]

Just a minor hyper mod

 

[matt708]

Don't know about a hyper mod it should be standard from the factory, cutting and welding a major part of a harvester makes you scratch your head really.
The thing that makes us persist is they are that simple to set up for crops and get a great sample when accelerator rollers and etc are in good shape.

 

[nddan]

We moved about a dozen rear shafts forward the 1.5" with no negatives at all. We have changed up plan to raise it 1/2" at the same time due to it being the tightest spot in feeder after tilting front floor. Won't have results until next fall but will do every job that way in the mean time. Aussie has his raised an inch but get close to bottom of hopper. He will be running shortly with results in canola first. Other crops will be no worries

 

[matt708]

Dan I reckon he is the same bloke, I have got my help from in the last few days.
They got a brand new S78 and the first thing they did before touching any crop was to alter those things, got to shake your head really that the factory just cant get it sorted.

 

[gleaner-r76]

We had lots of issues with the feeder on old N series, My 75, 76 and now 78 have yet to plug the feeder no matter what a 40 ft. head can throw at them. I'm not complaining, but I will keep my fingers crossed that it continues to be problem free. See no need to mod a feeder on the newer machines. I've sent some big wads in and just kreng and it goes through like it's nothing to it.

 

[matt708]

Well you are lucky, we got the double belt drive put on ours start of last season and blocked no worries in canola, barley and wheat. It was a matter of how long you could go before it happened, than the chains jumped as well. I thought it was the opening on the fronts and it probably contributed so i narrowed down the honeybee throat took a couple of retractable fingers off etc. Blocked it once with a heap of straw lucky that didnt jump chains than 2 days later it spat the chains without blocking. So hence the title

 

[nddan]

Yep same bloke Matt. He got going and zero feeder plugging and running full power with 40 foot windrow coming in. He is extremely happy with the performance of S78 in this high yielding irrigated Canola. He has plugged the Aussie built pickup head a few times. I'm not sure exactly what that head looks like but I have him checking a few things on it. Sounds like it is built with some Gleaner components. I'm having him check to see auger is turning 150 RPM and I'm having him cut front feed drum blocks to allow bigger gulp. He will need to cut side plates to allow drum to go higher but very simple procedure. He is going to get me some more specifics on bushels per hour ect soon

 

[matt708]

Sounds the goods. I think we will probably go with the bison rotor from him next year as well. Our machine has to do a lot of acres by its self so might as well be as good as it can be.

 

[Snipe]

Sounds the goods. I think we will probably go with the bison rotor from him next year as well. Our machine has to do a lot of acres by its self so might as well be as good as it can be.

They still make Bison rotors? I kind of forgotten about them. Do you have any information or pictures of them. I just looked at there web page and nothing has changed on it for years.

 

[matt708]

Far as i know they must be, as they make one to suit the S77.

 

[Snipe]

Matt were you happy with feeder house modification? I have mine apart and ready to start cutting. Just wondering if you were to do it again would you do it the same way.

 

[flatfoot]

Might be interesting - last issue of "Gleaner" they stated

"In the next issue of the Gleaner Newsletter"
"New performance improvements to feeder house for increased capacity in canola for Western Canada"

 

[Snipe]

When filling in the spaces on middle floor should I leave a space at the bottom for dust and straw to drain?

 

[matt708]

Yep i would do it the same. I did wonder about the dust and chaff thing but in the end i didnt worry about it. If you leave a gap there somewhere there is the potential for straw to catch.
I would be very interested to hear the latest performance improvements flatfoot.
After the mod i havnt even looked like using the reverser, and we did feed some reasonably bulky stuff up there, especially one crop of canola it was yielding at best 1 t/ha but still fairly bulky direct heading in the night so feeding real well it was a wall of material threatening to stall out the draper belts at 8 mph and it was going in and through.
Anyway out of interest Snipe what makes you want to cut and shut yours?
Not sure how much you have done on the bottom floor, but make sure preferably before you take it out of the feeder house that you try and weld some stays to keep it square, so the pins will line up with the holes upon re-assembly.
How do i know well we just pulled ours out cut the filler strips welded them in and that pulled the pins out of line and when trying to slide it all back together it wouldnt line up so we had to enlarge holes with a gas torch etc. Another thing to do here would be to cut the pins a different length to enable it to line up one hole at a time.
And dont go anymore than 1" lower otherwise the feeder will hit tight onto axle when it is at its lowest point.
Cheers and all the best.

 

[Snipe]

Thanks Matt I need floor lowered as it struggled in canola my old 72 with lowered floor would have kicked its ass using same pickup head. I will keep an eye on pins when I weld in fillers also.
flatfoot maybe I am doing this for nothing, is it possible agco will do a change up on these machines?

 

[flatfoot]

re - Gleaner feeder house improvements - there will be lots of people know before I do!
But as soon as I see something, and if nothing has been posted yet, I will!

 

[PA24-250]

The Gleaner fix they are referring to in the newsletter is not a floor lowering. They will cut .5" I believe it was off the square tube at the rear of the front feeder. They then angle the runners or wear pads whatever they are called up. There is a guy not far from us that had this done to his machine by the gleaner design guys and he cant say enough good things about it. He can now over load the back end long before the front feeder plugs. Only downside it is a modification the owner is footing the bill for.