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difference in john deere grain head reels

J

Jim Pollock

Member
I just bought this John Deere 55eb with the quick tach feeder housing. It has a newer grain head but it still has the wooden slats on the reel and the slats have teeth rivoted to the wood. These slats also move while the reel is rotating to pull the teeth in as they go past the cross auger.

I have also seen reels that have wooden slats but they have no teeth and the slats have different holes to kind of change the angle of attack of the slats.

Whats the purpose of the different kinds of reels?
 

You have a Hume reel. It's good for raking down crops onto the cutterbar and then into the platform.

A bat reel is good for knocking standing grain into the platform. It won't allow the straw to wrap as much as a hum reel can. It won't rake in down crop.
 
Finger reel is way better for soybeans. Hume is a brand name for the original design of a finger reel.
 
Thanks for the reply. As you can tell, I'm not real knowledgeable on combines. I used to help a farmer about 35 years ago and he had a 45 John Deere but I believe it just had a normal reel. I never ran the combine. Mostly just hauled wagons of grain to keep him going.

My son planted soybeans this spring so we are going to try taking the beans off with this 55eb. I have the book for it but does anyone have any pointers on setting it for beans? It had the grain head on when I bought it so it might already be set but I don't really know what they combined last with it.
 
The bat real dates to the old horse drawn grain binders or over a hundred years old styling and they did not yet have the knowlage to design something like the finger pickup Hume real. It came about because of grain that went down flat on the ground and if you could cut it at all with the bat real you had to cut one way into the way the grain was laying. With the pickup real it will if set correctly pickup all the down grain that you would never get with the bat real. On good standing wheat the bat is better but how often do you have complete fields like that? The pickup guards were developed to help with that and they did but only if going crosswise of the way the crop was laying. The finger real does not have that limitation but they still if crop is too flat cannot pickup the crop. I had 6" of snow hit a bean crop once and made it flat. Snow went away fast and crop was ready but the finger real just would not pick it up being too flat to ground (rows that had been cultivated and laying between the cultivator ridges) I put on those pickup guards spaced about 6" to each side of row with the finger pickup real and got up all the crop. This was with a 45 with standard head. Same as that on a 55 only 10' wide instead of 12-13' for the 55. We did take the bat real off one 45 and put a junk yard real on it to help pickup the down twisted crops. If you are only running good standing wheat and only cutting the heads off then the bat real is the best so different conditions dictate different setup. The same difference in hay crops with just a bar mower or a haybine, the bar will just slide over the down hay but the haybine will pick it up.
 
Jim, just something else to think about. The EB stands for edible bean that demanded cleaner crop than most crops so the unloading auger housing is perferated to seperate dirt and weed seeds out on the ground while unloading, small grain crops you bolted a cover over those perferations.. Then some had more perferated sheet metal in the seperator but that had to be changed out for the small grain crops like wheat. On most unless you were only running beans or corn those were never put back in because of the work. I had a 62 & 63 round back, a 65 square back 45 and a 69 45 EB all with 10' grain heads and had the 210 & 234 corn heads, the 234 corn head would not mount on the 3 earlier machines as the wheel tread was not wide enough. the 313 head 3 row was used on the 45EB due to the wider wheel track and the bigger engine.
 
Thanks for the great replies. The farmer i used to help had a 45 and if i remember right, it just had a bat reel and it also the huge guards evry foot or so to pick up the down crop. I remember doing a little beans with it but not much.
 
We also just bought a 45eb with the hume reel. Its been setting outside for a long time. My son is takin g it to the combine derby. I am keeping the reel since it is in really good shape considering it sitting outside. I suppose some of the parts would work on the 55 even though the 55 head is wider
 
Does it have the perferated screen on both or one of the augers taking the clean grain or tailinga to the elevators? If it has likely set for beans as those are not used for wheat. I don't have any idea where you are at so have no idea what crops are grown there to guess better on how it is set. Does it have the cover on the perferations in the unloading auger?
 
If you have the Operator manual for it, start with those settings for your crop. I carry a coffee can on a stick in the combine...I jump out with the combine running and catch a sample off of the chaffer, to see what is going out the back. I get down on the ground and clear the straw away, then blow on the ground to remove the chaff, to see how many kernels of grain are on the field. I also stop forward motion, shut down the machine without letting it run long enough for the straw to clear the walkers, and open the side access doors on the thresher and grab straw off the walkers to see if all of the heads are threshed.

When doing small grain that is swathed, I look under the windrow ahead of the combine to see how many heads are on the ground, I also do the same under and beside the machine, checking for header loss. Same with soybeans, as well as checking for beans behind the header, alongside the combine. Add all that together to determine total loss. Keep monitoring all that throughout the day, and adjust cyl speed and other settings as needed. You get only one chance to plant a crop each year, and one to harvest.
 
I was checking this combine out a little closer last night and I found a few problems. The bottom of the tailings elevator is really thin and has a few small holes in in. I think I can have strip of steel sheared and slip inside and weld it. Another problem is the cover under the anger that feeds the tailings elevator is rusted out. Are there any company's that make new panels for these old machines. If not I'm sure a sheet metal shop could make it.
 
You will have to make it, For my 45's I had to 15 years ago rely on parts yards that they are now too old for the parts yards to have. And I am in western Ohio close to junction of I75 and US33
 
The grain tank seems fine. I bought this combine in kenton ohio. The guy has another one he wants 550.00 for. It's kind of a parts machine but looked all there if anybody wants it.
 
You must not be too far from me. Kenton is only about 30 mile northeast of me at Wapakoneta. Just take SR 67 up.
 
Your wheel tread was a simple problem. You just change your wheels from side to side to get the correct setting. All 45 were shipped with the wheels in the narrow position. I had to do this to two different 45's that never had corn heads before to use 234 and 235 heads. Tom
 
That does not work due to the offset of the wheels, Reversing them made things way to wide. Doing that put the tires too close to the row next to what you were working on. Deere had a kit to put in to properly set them but at that time finding a used set was impossible.
 
Is he parting it out or selling the whole machine? I'm getting ready to drag dads 55 out of the barn and need some parts.
 
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