combine fires

Is the combine new to you or are you familiar with it? That really helps.

I take two things with me to the field - my leaf blower and an infrared heat gun. While the combine is unloading each time I look for piled chaff somewhere dangerous. It isn't often a problem but some days if there is a different wind it will cause a buildup in an unusual spot. Feel it to see if it is hot. If it isn't out comes the leaf blower. Keep in mind that wherever you blow it off you will need 10 times the herbicide as that chaff is FULL of weed seed. Don't do it in your waterway you bale!

Bearings (especially in the straw chopper) get hit with the gun a couple times a day just to make sure none is out of range. I've had a bearing back there start a wheat field fire. That's a helpless feeling.

I like to use the air compressor and a four foot wand to blow the machine clean every morning. It takes a good hour and a half. I do skip if the day before wasn't a full one. It is the direction of the wind that causes lots of buildup in typical spots.

Post back what combine we are taking about. I'm used to JD 9500 or the old Masseys long before that. Fire scares the daylight a out of me with two things - the combine and the round baler. Those two machines cannot be blown clean too often IMO.
 
Notjustair covered all the bases well. Cleanliness comes first. A hot bearing is just a mere hot bearing if it can't catch something on fire.

Another suggestion is to carry water in any kind of container you feel will work. Most but not all combine fires can be put out with water. If a hydraulic hose is rubbed through and leaking oil on the fire, water will make it splatter around. A chemical extinguisher is the way to go in that situation. 2 1/2 gallon jugs works well. A garden pump sprayer filled with water with 2 1/2 gallon jugs as backup works. A five gallon water extinguisher that you can pump up with air works too. I've been involved with 20 combines through the years I was on the harvest and we never lost one to fire. We had a few burned hoses and some scorched paint before we got the fires out, but we did get the flames knocked in the head, most of the time with plain water. Doesn't hurt to carry a sand shovel too. I will say, when we had a fire we had young crew members come running from all directions with extinguishers and shovels so we essentially had our own fire dept. Jim
 
How about a smaller set of bolt cutters wich are stored within arms reach of the battery? That should be a pretty quick way to sever the hot cable if the fire is electrical.
 
Different machines have different 'hot spots' to watch for, will depend on your machine.

Keep it clean and blown off so there aren't piles of dust and straw especially near the engine and other hot areas, watch bearings so they don't go bad and heat up.

Paul
 
I don't have a lot to add, because my experience with combine fires is zero, with combines in general pretty light. I was a fireman for a bunch of years...keep your extinguisher up to date. Mine has em front and rear, which got me wondering why, so I started asking around. Then I started looking at the machine. Pretty clean I thought. Then I opened up the back where the gears are for the chaff spreaders. It was packed with dry fluffy material. I use the four foot wand on my compressor also. I figure like others, what ain't there can't burn.
 
most fires in this are when doing beans. Lots of farmers around this area have a piece of chain grounded to the machine that drags on the ground. Something to do with keeping it "grounded" Not sure if this is a myth of fact. They say it is static that builds in the machine when doing beans.
 

I still get a sunflower magazine in the mail a few times a year because we use to grow a lot of sunflowers. They had a picture of a few farmers combines that put "chimneys" on there combines where the air intake for the radiator is. They had the air intake around four or five feet above the combine. The theory behind this is that it is blowing clean air with no dust or chaff through the radiator and over the engine. The theory with sunflowers and other crops is the fine dust blown over the hot manifold and turbochargers ignites and then lands on other areas of the combine which starts the fire. The farmers who built the "chimneys" for there combines swear by them, even if it looks odd.
 
What Rustyacres suggest below should help. In a combine there is a lot of very dry dust which 1)has an electrical charge associated with it and 2)Is highly flammable, sometimes to the point of being explodable. If the tires insulate the combine from the ground, the charge in the dust builds up until it discharges causing a spark, which ignites the dust. Dragging the chain along the ground allows the metal to pick up positive or negative charge as needed to help prevent the sparks. My day job is an electrical engineer.
 
Sever either cable and it will break the circuit. I'd go for the ground cable as there is likely only one cable. Hot side could have multiple connections. Most instances I've seen the ground cable would be easier to replace.

Any time I connect or disconnect a battery the ground cable is always last on, first off. That way if wrench slips and hits metal it is already ground so no effect. Take hot side on or off first and wrench its metal with ground connected you have a complete circuit and it makes sparks.
 
Dad always said to drag a chain and our combines always had one . He gave the same reason .would a cable be better than a chain because it have better continuity to the ground?
 
Years ago the story was to drag a chain to keep the dust off the windshield. Again, static electricity.
 
The first thing we ever did when we got a "new" combine from a farm sale was weld a piece of log chain on the steer axle. I had never heard that it would keep the glass cleaner but it was for static. Grandpa was also very worried about lightening. He was convinced that it would be struck if a heat storm came up.
 
My Gleaner K2 has a disconnect switch on the ground cable terminal, but the battery is externally mounted and easy to get to while standing next to the combine, which might not be the case with other makes/models.
 
1. Keep your combine clean! ( I carry an old long handle broom with me, keeps you away from moving parts..)
2. Carry 2 big fire ABC extinguisher with the (hose) this help get behind metal shielding and guards. If fire starts drowned it totally. Use the second for flare ups, this sometimes happens
When digging out the fire. (Back up)
3. Carry your cell phone (if you have service) if your doing custom work, know where you are (location).. Don't let your pride get in the way...if it's out of your control call the fire dept.
4. Drag the chain... What the Hell...even if it's a myth it's cheap insurance. I'm a electrical guy, it makes sense to me.
 

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