[mexfarm]

Dad farms in Mexico. Last year purchased good 1688 (120559) and kind of rough 1680 (46308), and shipped to farm. Both machines are being gone through as we speak. He just asked me to send new rasp bar attatchments for rotors.

Would greatly appreciate if ya'll could give me a to "top 5" list of upgrades we could do to these machines to maximize productivity. Secondly, parts availability is an issue, other than filters, and belts, what wear parts should I keep in inventory for these machines.

We're cutting 1400 acres of rice and soybeans. Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[silver72man]

Go with the newer cross flow fan if not already replaced, helps tremendously for cleaning. Also replace the wooden blocks on the front (bottom) side of the distribution augers with the new metal bearing holders. (Case has a kit for that)
Also check the rotor and pto gearboxes for fluid every week don not let those get low. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to have them checked anyway.
If you are in real heavy crops you might look into putting the newer enclosed unloading gearbox on the 1680 if it didn't come with one already, instead of the beveled gears with shear bolts, they always caused us a great deal of trouble.
AFX rotor is a great upgrade to look into as well ( kinda pricey, but well worth it) Specialty rotor does pretty good though.

These are some things we did and we were running in wheat and corn, not ever harvested any soys or rice, but I hope this helps it's all I can think of off hand.
Good luck and God Bless

 

[okpanhandle]

I check those every day. The rotor gearbox on the old 1480 leaked and needed topping off every couple of days. The open unloader gearbox on the 1680 is a pain, but we only had problems with it in corn. If you gently engage the unloader (instead of yanking on the handle) it will make things last longer. We were putting in Grade 8 bolts to replace the shear bolt and still breaking them.

 

[herby04]

Here are a few things that we did that really woke up our 1666.
We added an axcellar kit, and replaced our rock trap beater with a razzor rock beater. Both updates are well worth the money.

http://www.stewartsteel.com/ag/acceler.html
http://razorrockbeaters.com/

This is from a different forum
http://www.combineforums.proboards42.com....read=1167580684

 

[mexfarm]

Thanks all for your responses. It was all very helpful and appreciated.