[mac]

Hey guys, I'm new to the forum, but have found some good info on here.

Anyway, my younger brother and I have taken over the farm this year after having it rented out for the past few years. When we rented it out we sold our combine, so we need something for the fall. We've always run JD conventionals and know very little about the STS machines. I have heard about guys complaining about dirty samples and a few other problems. I like the looks of the Lexions too. Just wondering what machine you guys would recomend for someone buying there first combine. Pros/cons and what to look out for. (ie I've heard about the grain tank cracking out and the cleaning shoe giving troubles on the older STS's??) Thanks in advance.

 

[tracked]

Do you need that large of a machine? And I feel that anyone who has run both machines will tell you that the lexion is a better built combine, except the color blind folks. I think you guys just got a new dealer up there, didnt you, for the cats?

 

[mac]

We are harvesting around 2000 acres this year and hope to expand a bit in the near future. We are both working full time jobs so we need the harvest to come in quick and trouble free. The 560R doesn't look to be much bigger than a 9670 JD. I'm not too sure on the dealer. I tried calling that new Alberta Harvest Centre today, other than that I only know of the Kramer dealerships in Sask.

I looked at an 02 9750 last week with 985 sep hrs on it. Didn't dig too deep though. What are the problem areas I should be looking for on this combine? I noticed a bent slat on the feeder chain, makes me think it may have seen a rock.

Also the Lexion salesman told me that yo don't need to worry about replacing feeder chains, etc until about 2000hrs on his machines. I know on a JD after about 1500 hrs you are getting close to having to replace some of these. Can any of you guys out there back that claim? Thanks again.

 

[Jason Hildebrand]

You might be right, until the lexion breaks down and needs parts (all combines break down) then JD kicks its a$$ in the dealer department. I have tried both and found the deere to be more user friendly and would do the same cleaning and separating job that the cat would. Cats are bigger combines but you have to pay for that too. One thing that I can't figure out about the Cats is that stupid wiper motor right in my line of vision, whoever thought of that needs their head kicked in.

 

[Jason Hildebrand]

All the Lexion salesmen I have ever talked to seemed pretty shady, they seem to think their product is alot better than it is. Once you talk to the real owners then you get the truth. If your in a rocky area like me we had an STS feeder-chain go out at 600hrs.

 

[greentech]

The Lexions are definitely decent machines but that is a small part of the picture. Also being from Manitoba I have to agree that the dealer network is unacceptable. A big breakdown during harvest could be disasterous due to the lack of parts and service support. On the other hand if you break down mid-afternoon with a Deere you can have virtually any part for it the next morning by 10am, but usually you can get what you need from any one of a handfull of dealers a short drive away.

As far as feeder chains go, their life depends on so many different things. I've got 9750's I work on with close to 2000 hrs on original feeder chains still in decent shape. Tension needs to be checked regularly as well as drum height. Rocks wreak havoc on chains. If run with bent slats life will be shortened significantly. An ex-Cat owner pointed out to me today that his old 480 would bend slats far worse than his 9760 if he took in a rock because the Cat does not have a solid drum to stop the slat from bending in too far. The deere slats can only bend in about 3/4 inch until they contact the drum.

Another thing he mentioned was that it was very hard for him to trade his Cat. There was only one Deere dealer in the whole province that would even consider taking it on trade. And the amount of money he lost over the 4 years of owning it (purchase price vs. trade in) was far more than any of the Deeres he had ever owned. He said it was an expensive lesson but he's back to green for good.

 

[mac]

Alright, my brother and I bit the bullet and bought an 02 9750 on the weekend with 987 sep. hrs. A pretty big investment for two young guys just starting out, especially considering all of my previous experince was with conventional combines. I didn't have the tool to check how much life was left in the elements, but htey looked to have a little left in them. What should I be looking at with that many hours on it to get it up to snuff for the upcoming harvest? I know this is stuff that I should have looked at a little closer before buying, but it seemed to be in good shape and well taken care of compared to the majority of used stuff we've looked at, so we jumped on it. I've done alot of reading on here, and there seem to be some varying opinions. But from the sounds of it looks like we might be looking at replacing the threshing elements?? Should also note the mahcine has done mostly cereals and canola with some peas. The front drum on the feeder chain is beat up a bit, and the chain has some bent slats, but nothing has damaged the rotor so far as I can tell.

 

[connor]

We've got an 02 9650. Start looking at replacing flighting if it hasn't been done already. Check the bin floor for wear as well as the clean grain elevator top to bottom for wear and looseness. If those haven't been patched numerous times already plan on having to work on those. Also watch the gear box for the unloading auger and triple check the belts and the pulleys, especially the alignment. These things among countless other things to watch out for, you just bought one of the cheapest and most wear-prone combines out there. And another key thing, keep it clean as STS's seem to be very fire-prone.

As for CAT salesmen thinking that their products are better then they are, then watch out for Deere salesmen, they're just as bad if not worse. They may sell but Deere's aren't worth the green paint they're covered in. And you pay for a Deere just as much as a CAT.

 

[Tom Turner]

Connor, why do you keep that machine, buy a Claas then. If that machine is costing so much money then put that to a Claas.

 

[mac]

Wow, conors reply doesn't make me feel very good about the investment I just made. We bought JD b/c we have always run JD and have had nothing but great luck with them. Ran JD conventionals for years without so much as anything but regular maintainence. Any of the neighbors with other colors seem to have been broke down far more than we were in the past.

 

[sixmill]

I think youve probably bought a good machine mac, i bought a 9760(950hrs) this season & did 3000 acres without laying a spanner on it. The 50 series did have a few electrical problems & the shakers frames do fall apart. I think the johnnies are one of the more relieable machines around & we can get most parts off the shelf or overnight, which is more than i can say for some of the other coloured machines on our farm.

 

[tbone95]

I think you probably bought a good machine too, Mac. If you've run combines before, and believe this to be in good shape and well taken care of, it probably is. Don't know why someone would go "on attack" like that when you're just asking for some pointers. You probably will do fine, you may have terrible luck, and that can happen with any purchase of any color.

 

[mac]

Yeah I hope everything works out. Like I said in an earlier post I should have checked everything out a little more closely. I read that thread about what to look out for on the 50 series, and picked up some good info, but I should have checked things out a little closer maybe. I drove to look at the machine 3 different times and althought not perfect it is in good shape. There is a 2004 9660 at a dealer with about 300 less hours on it that I probably could have bought for about 30k more. Maybe that would have been a better route to go. I'll post some pics of the new to us machine when I get a chance.

 

[connor]

That wasn't really an attack. It was asked what to watch out for on these machines and I simply listed some areas to watch for based on problems that we as well as some of our neighbors have had with these machines, and this one happens to be the same year as ours with similar hours.

Fingers crossed for right now that she'll hold up decent for one more season and I think I've got my dad talked into trading. Not putting my money in a CAT, good machine but high priced as well. I'll put it into a Gleaner, I guess that paint doesn't cost as much and its a much more reliable machine.

 

[tbone95]

Sorry Connor, maybe a poor choice of words on my part. But "you just bought the cheapest. . ." didn't come across as friendly advice to me. I'll stay out of it from now on.

 

[Jason Hildebrand]

I went through the same transition, we had 4 9600s and they are the most reliable combines I have ever seen, once we did our maintenance in the winter we made it through every season without losing more than several hours and not days. (other than the odd rock in the cylinder) We bought a STS kinda blindly (color blind eh? laugh it up haters) and hoping if we treated it the same way we would get the same reliability, we found they were pretty good but the 9600s are hard to live up to. You will not regret buying a 9750. Our problems with the STS in general have been feed accelerator belts, chopper drive bearings, clean grain bearing, and feeder house slip clutches. Our dealer offers a "greenlight" program that puts the machine through a 100+ point inspection and it seems to be worth the money to do so in the off season.

 

[connor]

Sorry for the confusion. It may not be the cheapest built technically speaking. But there are a lot of areas on these newer Deere's that are built lighter or thinner than some of the competition. They may have changed these problems with the high wear package, I guess ours doesn't have that, or with the newer 60 and 70 series, not sure haven't been around them really. But we've had huge problems with the bin floor wearing thin and showing holes, as well as the top of the clean grain elevator doing the same thing and they've needed to be patched more than once. Not to mention the flighting wore out fast as heck after we bought it, and it was a new machine. And the clean grain elevator never seems to stay tight, it needs to be adjusted a lot throughout the season.

I remember when my dad had an L2 Gleaner that had these problems, but it was 12+ years old before it they started to come to light. Not after just 2-3 seasons like our STS started doing. And our R-62 and even 1688 Case weren't showing these problems like this before we got rid of them, never had to touch the bin floor or clean grain elevator except for maybe checking the tension on the elevator every now and again.

As for the flighting that may not be Deere's fault necessarily, but maybe it is. My mom works for a flighting company and she hears compaints all the time from farmers with Deere combines about how fast the flighting wears out on them. Seems they put cheap flighting in them from the beginning. Now Agco, and even New Holland who is 25 miles away, orders a majority of their flighting from the company my mom works for and they're not hearing compaints about it in Gleaners or Massey or NH. Maybe Deere should look into a better company with higher quality flighting.

Once again this isn't an attack against Deere. I just want to shed some light on some potential problems that may be encountered with these machines.

 

[casefarmer]

Was your L2 gleaner running a 8 row corn head 6mph or 12 row

or a 36ft draper?

 

[connor]

It was running an 8 row cornhead and 20 ft flex head. Kinda funny because we still have the same heads that we had on that L2 on our 9650. And the L2 is considerably smaller than the 9650. We're running a few more acres per year through the Deere, but not that much more especially considering the size advantage the Deere has over the L2. Might be covering 600 more acres per year. Thats pretty good for that L2 to hold up over that many acres per year considering how old it was by the time my dad got rid of it. The Deere hasn't covered near as many acres as the L2 did before wearing out in those areas. The L2 lastednearly 10 years longer than the STS before having to patch those things. Even if the L2 wasn't covering as much per year it still would've lasted longer than this Deere. In retrospect I think those combines back then, as far as those older Gleaners go, were built better than todays combines. I don't think our R-62 or 1688 would've lasted quite that long before having to be patched up. But they still lasted a lot longer than our Deere has.

 

[mac]

What do you look for to see if the flighting is worn? Is there some minimum clearance that you need?? We never once even worried about the flighting on the old JD's and we would run them for 10 years.