PIC: JD 30 combine 4020 in 2nd crop Saybeans

Here is my 1958 7-foot 30 combine and grandpa's 1967 4020. Running double-crop soybeans with the wheat straw near Lafayette, IN. This was about a month ago but I finally got aroung to plugging it into the computer.

The first grain sample (pictured) wasn't too bad at all but it continually got worse after that. I closed the bottom sieve gradually every time I dumped until the tailings clogged up but I kept getting more unthreashed pods. I guess the beans were just getting tougher? Started around 3:30 and finished about 5-6 PM with about 1 hour of light left abd had done roughly 5 acres. New rasp bars, about half of the smaller belts and possibly a few bearings are in order before we run it next time.

Sorry on the limited pictures, I was a 1-man photography & driver crew that day.

Thanks for looking

You mention they got progressively worse as the day went on. Were maybe the fan house screens getting covered? The 30 & the 12A's both did that a lot. I usually knocked chaff off of those screens every time I unloaded.

Many times dropping the adjustable plate at the tailings auger (under the chaffer extension) & adjusting the wind board a bit more towards the back helped blow those open pods out the back.

Ran both the 12A & the 30 for many many years but never with so nice a tractor as a 4020. I was using A's, B's! Was like heaven when I got the overrunning PTO drive coupling!

Thanks for the pictures, great days indeed!

Wheat was always my favorite crop with these old combines. They actually had pretty good capacity and even in good wheat I could many times run in 3rd with the 46 A which is steppin 'em right off. Clean standing wheat can disappear in a hurry!

They were actually only slow covering the field because of the big sweeping turns, the short cutterbars and how many miles you had to drive to cover the fields. Usually the legs (or scour clean if so equipped) are what will slow you down, especially on a 12A.

Bit of advice if you use a 12A.... leave the header supported by the rod & NOT the cylinder until AFTER you have the hitch unfolded! PUT IT ON THE ROD BEFORE you fold it back too! Get this backwards & you may have need to make some new reel slats or spokes! The weight of the header wants to fold 'em up if the header is held up by the cylinder but does not affect the swinging of the hitch if on the support rod!

Have fun!

This is more of what it was lookin' like toward the end.