[ausssiefarmboy]

Who uses these and has made them to suit 4wd tractors and also combines? Wanting to see easy designs and also how much weight is needed to lay canlola and lupin stubble over.? We have had to replace both front tyres on an 05 8010 because of undermining on the ribs hence lots of small leaks.. $9,600 later we are thinking of a easy option to protect tyres

 

[wheely]

Our case dealer offers them as an option, they just weld a length of pipe between the outer edge of the centre and the structure that the wheel is attached to, then weld some flat bar to that and bolt a mat to that using another length of flat bar as a washer. A local tyre shop sells rubber mats in single and dual sizes.

 

[ausssiefarmboy]

How heavy would the mats be? I suppose they only need to push it forward slightly to get the stubble forward so it doesn't Catch on tyre

 

[wheely]

I think ours are about 3/4" thick. They are bolted on vertically so when lowered they are applying some force to the ground.

 

[AgronomyMike]

I saw this on a video recently from a fellow in aussie. I am looking to do the same, Mustard stubble has been very rough on our front tires of our tractor. Mat seems as easy as anything to install and not worry too much about ripping off and running over. Curious to see some pictures of them installed on a 4wd tractor.

 

[wheely]

I think my neighbours used a length of 4" angle iron on their 4WD. Have never worried about our 9250 which has pulled a chaser every year since new, it's done 10200hrs and is still only on its second set of tyres.

 

[chompy]

My know some guys that made up a set for a new 7230? case this year, and it worked really well. They bolted a length of pipe under the feederhouse, welded some loops to it in the right places, and attached conveyor belting to the loops with 'the right size and ammount' of cable ties as a safety release. At the bottom of the belt, they bolted on a couple old thresher bars to add some weight to help lay the canola stubble over.

With their machine there was no other easy way to mount it, so it had to go up and down with the feederhouse. In operation at typical harvesting height, the belts hang back at 45 degrees, and the weighted bottom of the belt runs just clear of the tyre. No trouble with the flaps jamming in rocks/lumps etc.

It worked really well, and just about everyone who saw it in action has plans to make a set of their own next year. Only problem was when they hooked an old water pipe, and discovered their safety mechanism was a bit too heavy duty - it bent the mounting bar, before it ripped the cable ties off!

 

[ausssiefarmboy]

would love to see pictures of this as it sounds like a great idea

 

[chompy]

I'll see if I can get some for you.

 

[chompy]

Talking to them today, they have no pictures, and the setup was taken off after harvest, so no pics

As well as the pipe incident, they also had the bottom edge of the thresher bar hook on the square edge of a rock, which pulled it out of the ground, jammed the flap under the wheel, bent the mount bar and then ripped off the flap.

A few lessons they learned :-
1. The concave bars (bolted back to back through the bottom of the rubber flap) were a good idea for preventing wear on the flap, and adding weight to lay over the stubble, but they proved to be the achilles heel for hooking onto objects. They are thinking of mounting them a bit higher up on the flap, and just letting the rubber wear.

2. A handfull of cable ties take a lot more force to break than you might think! Start with less and add more as required. Fixing a wire from the centreline of the machine to the inside of the flap should stop it getting lost while you are working out how many is right.

3. After the second incident, they mounted them on the rear of the comb. On their machine they are not able to mount them any further forward on the feederhouse, and they felt it was just too close to the wheels. They don't do as good a job while mounted on the comb, as a certain amount of stubble will spring back up behind the flap, but it still does a good job. Mounting the bottom edge of the flap closer to the wheel lays down the stubble, and the tyre irons it flat before it can spring up.

Closer = better performance in shorter stubbles, but more chance of a rip-off. Everyone will find their own distance by experience

Hope that's some help. I'll quiz them a bit more over Christmas.

 

[ausssiefarmboy]

Cheers mate.. Seems like a lot of trial and error to see what actually works for each person. But I think we need to do something for combine and sprayer tractor and chaserbin tractors as the radial tyres are to soft to stand up to canola and lupin stubble

 

[caseihaxialflow]