Frozen Ground and Combines

Haley

Member
Will boggy ground freeze enough at 15 degrees to hold up a combine? Some of you Northerners, please chime in on this one. I got started back in sorghum yesterday and only like about 40 acres being finished. The field I'm in had several boggy spots that we had to leave out; but I got to thinking perhaps the ground will freeze hard enough until Wednesday to keep the combine from bogging down. It will be 15 degrees for the next two days. Anyone with experience in this, please share your thoughts. Cranking the cobime at 15 degrees may be another problem.
 
In the past week, after a thaw and rain, it started to freeze up again, don't remember the timing. It was in the 20's but somewhat sunny in the afternoon when I went out and checked fields with the pickup. Cut in a little, but not bad. So I went out with the backhoe to push back some trees/brush, etc. It was pretty soft/wet for that! It was going to be clear and cold(teens) that night, so I plugged in the tractor to try plowing in the morning. Chisel would go in the ground, but it was too hard for my machinery.
So, yes, if you can't go the first day, I imagine you can the next.
 
Most likely, yes... but depends on ground cover, water saturation of soil, wind, sun during the day, etc.

Trying it will net the best answer.
 
I think I would try at this point. Is 15 the high or the low? 15 as a high should freeze some fairly wet ground. You can probably get an idea just by walking in a wet part of the field.
Josh
 
It is supposed to get up around 25 for a high tomorrow and then back in low twentys before starting a warm up on Wednesday.Most of the spots are less than a half acre total and all together wont add up to eight acres.I just cant stand to pull out of an unfinished field like this if there is a possibility that I might be able to get it.We just hardly ever see temps this low so this is all new to me.If I can get one cranked tomorrow afternoon I will see what the ground feels like.
 
as stated below depends on cover, if you have a snow cover of 6" or more it can insulate the ground, if not you should be fine here those temps will set it up pretty hard
 
Be watchful when trying to run on marginally frozen ground. We used to have a rider go along first few rounds and watch. Worst I have ever been stuck by far was from falling through the frost when it would not support the load.
 
If you have 2-3 days like that, with little or no ground cover (snow), yuo should be able to go. But Butch is right - getting stuck by breaking through a crust is STUCK.
As cold as it's been here (-29 this morning, -40 something windchills), there is almost no frost, due to all the snow.
 
Be really careful if you are on wet ground. If there is a spot where you have standing water, it will never freeze. You can be running along fine on frozen ground, but if there's any standing water you'll go down like a stone.
 
Hey Fordfarmer how in the world do you guys up there get antifreeze to protect something when temps are that low? Lots of times here I put way more antifreeze in something than we need and it still will only protect to around 0.I cant imagine it getting that cold here.
 
Thanks for all the replys.I will be careful about breaking through the crust.Most of these wet spots are right in the bottom of some washes that are in the lower spots of the field.We have already cut as close in on both sides as we could and the uncut sections are only about 100 foot wide.Maybe it will harden it enough that we can work in from both sides and get it.we will see how it goes.Twenty two degrees here now and falling about three degrees every hour.
 
Agree with Paul, be careful of standing water. Real careful.

Other issue is strong sunshine. Don't really know where you are located, but if the sun shines all day on black ground, all of a sudden it will be gooey and you will sink in in 10 minutes.

But, it should work, start early to beat the sun effect.

I combined a field of corn, few rounds every morning, in conditions like that years ago.

Paul
 
My uncle had some oats left to combine on slightly frozen ground. He borrowed the drive wheels off of a neighbor's 55 combine and put those on his own 55 combine as duals. They carried the combine on top of the ground so he was able to finish the field.
 
Back in the 1960's-1970's I got up early many a morning to shell corn or cut beans on frozen ground..This was first with an E Gleaner,then a 403 IH,and finally a 715 IH..

If the ground was terribly wet it had to get down to 10 above to carry the combines for awhile....Getting to 0 or colder was much better....We always started at dawn..

If the sun came out it usually thawed out enough by 10-11 am,that your day was done...Even a combine as light as an E Gleaner broke thru...

In early Dec 1962 Dad tried to cut some milo for a neighbor with our 72 Massey..He broke thru and the combine stayed there all winter..In late Feb it dried up some so we dug around it and put 3 tractors on it to get it pulled out..
 
like casecollector says, 50-50 mix. As far as starting, your Dorset should fire up at 15F by using the excess fuel button on the injection pump, if your batteries are good. The ones in my NH are 8 years old, and are going to have to be replaced - I have to put the booster on them, plus having the block heater plugged in for a couple hours, when its' below 0. Since you probably don't have a block heater, doing something like putting a heat lamp next to the block can help, too.
 
This conversation may have run it's course. But I don't want to de-rail it. I am interested in hearing a comparison between the E and 403, either here, or another post, or e-mail. I am very familiar with the E, but know nothing about the 403.
 
if the ground has any bottom to it you should be able to stay on top,we cut beans several times running from day light until the ground would start to thaw then quit until the next day,even though the temperatures didn't get as low and as long period of time as they have the past couple days, it was only froze about 3" deep with duals we could go even though we were breaking thru slightly the large pieces of froze dirt would hold us up enough to keep going,were located along the n.c.,s.c.line and doesn't stay cold here for long periods of time like it does up north either
 
The 403 IH was a much bigger combine than an E Gleaner...It would have compared to a C Gleaner..The 403 was 37" wide and could handle up to a 18.5 ft grain head and a 4 row corn head..

A couple of weeks ago I saw a 403 IH sitting by Hiway 43 near abundant,MO...It had a 4 row corn head and looked like it was for sale..
 
The ground will easily freeze at 15 degrees but it may not do it for several days. It takes time for the frost to move down and get thick enough to hold a combine. Also any cover on the ground will make it not freeze as fast. So if the crop is down and covering the ground the ground may not freeze deep enought to hold the combine.

Also you want smooth tires for frozen ground. Rice tires will crack the ground worse than regular treads. You want the load spread out not on points of tire treads. They will ride rough too. Just like on pavement.
 
60 antifreeze, 40 water will easily work to -45. When in doubt, add more straight antifreeze. There are testers in automotive stores here to test the antifreeze with to make sure it is good. It would be worth getting out of the combine and walking into the wet spots with a steel fence post or something similar and trying to jab it into the ground to check for frost. If you can push the rod into the ground, don't try to take your combine in. Here the temps have been as cold as -47 with a wind chill of -61, and it has been froze since the third week of November, but the ground isn't froze because we got a foot of snow before freeze up. There is lots of canola, some beans, and some oats still out here under 2 feet of snow. The oats are done, the canola should be ok and the beans depend on how the snow melts, but are likely done to. Good luck.
 
The 403 was before the 715..Sadly I have no pictures of Dads old 403..Here is a scan of a 403 that was almost a twin to Dads 1963 model..We had a model 40 4 row wide corn head and a 13 ft grain head..Ours had no cab when we got it in 1971 but we put one on it in 1972..

It was so muddy in the Fall harvest of 1974 that we ran Arps Half tracks on it almost all Fall..
212zpjs.jpg
 
Looks like it was pretty conventional- bin top/center, engine up in back. Apparently the 403 was heavy enough to handle the four row? My early E handled a 330 capacity wise, with the yields we had then, but lift/frame was another issue!
 
We would start combining around 1 or 2 in the morning and run until the ground started to thaw.Sometimes that would be 9 and somtimes it would be noon.Don't try and fill tank,dump often.This was in NW Iowa.
 
blaine ,,, I remember that wet fall winter ,, I was a junior in hi school ,,. we had a 203 ihc , that was down on the river doing beans ,, and we also had a good jd 30 for double crop milo up here at dads place,. we would run with the DC or 800 pulling the 430 ,,the last field of milo at dads had a long gentle hill one way ,, that's when we needed the pull ,you know what its like when it thaws on top and froze down under .. LOL,, slik as cat gutz ,.. coming back was fairly uneventful kept the chain slacked.,,except .there is a nice heavy bogg for about 300 feet,,.we had to really tread litely across that ..
 
A couple days at 15 and below 30 high temp especially on open ground will freeze so hard here you couldn"t drive a punch in the ground with a ten lb sledge
 
The Fall 1974 harvest had to rank among one of the muddiest harvests ever..We were so busy fighting the mud that I never bothered to take a single picture..If I had taken pictures you wouldnt believe what we were combining in.

The 403 IH got stuck 10-12 times with the Arps tracks on..My 856 IH set at 190 hp with 24.5x32's on the inside and 18.4x38 duals pulled it out every time..It was the only tractor for miles that could leave the end of the field..

We had the 856 IH on a 100 bu TSC auger wagon..Dad got it stuck so bad one time that there was 3 ft of mud in front of it when he finally couldnt drag it anymore..We like to never got the hitch pin dug out..

We had a loaded 1962 Ford F-600 stuck so bad on a lane to a field that the bed was touching the ground....We had to shovel it off in to the auger wagon..
 
blaine ...did you post a pix of the f-600 buried couple yrs back ? seem to recall that ,when a loaded truk goes in ,there's haletopay,,. we shoulda took pictures too ...ended up hanging the 203 up in the river bottom soybeans,, had to drag it out with icey back water rising,, the 800 case turned the rear axle into a pretzel , but she come on out ,.. ohier and higher river came up 5ft higher ,,this was 6 miles from its banks .got to thinkin about that wet year couple yrs ago when a ball bearing set the soybean field on fire .
 
that's the pix I recall.. blaine . looks like there was no bottom there .. lol. bet you still remember the pain like yesterday , your truck looks like mine , what motor is in the f-700 ? ..my 1975 f-600 came with 330 new ,one day for no reason at all , up jumped the devil and a rod cogloked it ,, put a 391 -4V ,, that really made a truck out of that fella ,.. but it dropped my mileage below 6 mpg
 

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