Just can't seem to win!

Today the bagger finally got here so Dad & I are able to get going again on the corn. I hooked back on to the chopper, swapped tires on our wagon because the flat was fixed now, and went chopping. I was chopping the least 2 rows of one small field I started last week, when I smelled hydraulic oil, but didn't see anything.

Another few minutes, and I lost all hydraulics on the 1855. A hose blew right off the pump, under the platform on the left side. Was a short hose that just looped around to another fitting, and I had some time yet to get a new one made up.

I fixed that,finished the 2 rows, and came back to the farm. I greased the chopper again, looked it over etc... before going down the road to the next field.

After supper I chopped 3 more loads, and when I tried to unload the 2nd wagon (Gehl 920), the bottom beater came out when I went to see what was going on. I happened to be right by the discharge side so I actually caught the beater before it went up the conveyor on the bagger (that could've been REALLY bad) and not only is the beater junk, but it snapped the shaft coming our of the gear box as well. We'll call up Gruetts in the morning and see what they have available to rent I guess. If it were just the beater, we have 1 more extra one in the shed that I made up out of a Meyers beater. But the whole dam thing broke to no luck there I guess...

Donovan from Wisconsin

Ah, the fun and challenges of farming....

I just wish I knew why Gehl made suck terrible beaters, and then stuck with the design all the way till the very end??? That was the last Gehl beater in that wagon. The top one was replaced before we bought it with what I think is from an H&S, and I replaced the middle one this summer doing bedding of all things...

Our 970 has had the bottom one replaced 2x (last one was a modified Meyers beater) and the middle one once or twice. Waiting for it to go again.

Donovan from Wisconsin

You are so right about Gehl beaters. We replace about 1 every other year. We currently are watching the top two on our 940 box. The bottom one is new. They're not cheap either! Don

We'll never, ever, ever put in another OEM beater. They just aren't a good design. There's a local shop that builds chopper boxes, Gruetts, that I think I could have them make one of theirs fit a Gehl with a few mods. The Meyers I did are a direct bolt in swap. Either way there's something better out there. I know there are other shops that copy the gehl but make it out of pipe, not sheet metal.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Don, when yer working on a show string that's what happens.

Rick

Funny how the world works. I know of two very usable boxes that
went for scrap because the owners were only interested in the
running gears. My preference if I were looking today in this order
would be JD 716A, JD 216, Badger 950, 1050, and then the red
Badger New Hollands followed by the Gehl 970.

thats why we went to a richardton and a dump truck, used to fill the bunkers with new holland manure spreaders with the fb 300 attachments but the dump truck makes that seem ancient.

I'm just glad to be done! Seemed like every day it was something. Second day a gathering belt dropped off the chopper somehow. It went right through the chopper and ended up in the wagon in little bitty pieces. I had another head here ready to go,but it wasn't exactly the better of the two. Had trouble with chains and the scrapers that keep the knives free of debris. The next day a wheel bearing went out in the front of the 2-135. Friday I blew a $165 tire on a wagon. Next day,a gathering belt dropped off the head that I'd put on and that one got cut in half. So since I had to take one off one head to put it on the other,I fixed the good head again. Chopped all day last Sunday without a problem. Monday morning I chopped one load. Had a stalk wrapped on the bottom feed roll when I shut it down. I reached in and pulled it off and found an 8 inch piece of the roll gone. The whole thing's made up of 2 inch wide channels welded together to make a round roll with ridges. Every seam was coming apart,so I spent the rest of the morning welding all those seams back together and fabricating a patch for the piece that was missing.

Can't believe that I ever even got done at all.

I use a rear dump box manufactured by a small outfit here in Michigan. Unfortunately you can't buy a new one anymore. They've closed up. the last 15 acres that I chopped right here close to home,I never unhooked it from the chopper. I ran a hose from the tractor back to the wagon,hauled them up to the house with the tractor,chopper and all,pulled on to the pad in front of the bunker and dumped.

I got a 940 gehl sitting in the weeds.it has a good gearbox for the beaters. I already robbed the bottom beater for another wagon. If the gearbox would work for ya let me know

(quoted from post at 23:14:57 10/19/13) I got a 940 gehl sitting in the weeds.it has a good gearbox for the beaters. I already robbed the bottom beater for another wagon. If the gearbox would work for ya let me know

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I was wondering if you still got that gear box. I was thinking about tearing ours apart and making a new shaft for it, but now I'm thinking it may be easier to just swap with another box. Right now it's buried out in the snow, but I'm going in for a surgery in a month and I'll be restricted for 6 weeks. After that it'll be planting and then time to chop 1st crop, if not trying to do both at the same time like usual.

Either way, I gotta figure something out sooner than later.

Donovan from Wisconsin