combine fire

My JD 8820 caught fire and burnt Friday night and looks beyond repair, I am having a hard time finding a replacement for that machine as all used machines available look wore out or are overpriced.

Sure hope you had insurance coverage on it and replacement cost too. Hal

Back in the late 1970s our neighbor burned up two 7720s in one year. Rented a third to finish. Those and Massey were notorious for fires. Got to keep those things real clean.

atleast no one was hurt do you have any pics.

This is why Dad and I carry fire extinguisher in our combines.

Kent

Yikes! Good 8820's are hard to find around here. Just for the record, where did the fire start?

That is a real tough one to deal with, large dairy operation near me lost a JD to fire while in the field last year not sure what the model was, had to be one of their larger late models, they are the biggest operation in this county, my neighbor has what I believe is a 7000 series, with a 6 row cornhead, and recently added drive axle on the back, they had to hire him to finish up the harvest of a few hundred acres, all before he did his own harvest of about 350 acres, and he has no means to dry the corn, so he's got to wait until it's dry enough in the field, when it's ready, you really have to hustle to beat the weather and get it off the field before the birds and other animals like, deer, squirrels take their toll, it turns into a rat race real quick, longer it stays in the field the worse the harvest is, more so in isolated field surrounded by woods which is sad because these fields always produce good crops in most years, having a dryer set up would seem to be a big help, as you would not lose so much, but is probably cost prohibitive to buy one for smaller operations like his. I think the large dairy operation here had the same problem, just could not locate another machine to get back in the field.

Hopefully you will be able to figure out how to get something back in the field asap, your own or hired out, just an awful thing to deal with when in the midst of the fall harvest.

I'm sorry about your loss. We went through that 20years ago with a New Idea Uni. I would just replace it with a 9600 it will be much mroe efficent and I think the heads will interchange on them with the earlier ones at least. The corn head will probably need to have a modification for the drive on the left side something about the reverser hitting the head so it won't fit tight to hook up the drive. It can be solved by moving the bar on the head over a little I did one or two in the field I think I just cut the piece out with a torch then put in a new bar and welded it in. this was 15 years ago so somebody can give better info.

Sorry to hear about your loss. Along with a fire extinguisher I saw a combine outfit that was working at my neighbors that kept a portable leaf blower on the combine and used it to keep it clean.

I read a lot about combine fires. Never owned one. Where does the fire usually start. Same place on most or different places. I understand it is the chaff and fines.

Sorry for your loss.
Did she burn from the front of the back? Did you get it turned into the wind so the entire combine wouldn't burn? Did you have two 2-1/2 gallon class A pressurized water extinguishers on board with AFFF?
The on board leaf blower sounds like a good idea.

Lost a yellow top 8820 in 82 one of the first ones made not a good machine had every update imaginable we had a 1977 7700 that could run rings around it but anyway the big girl was running an 8 row head in heavy corn when the operator radioed in and said he smelled something getting hot we thought maybe it was belts slipping next thing we heard was Oh S***! and radio went dead we raced over there and whole cab area was ablaze operator was sitting on his cooler watching the whole thing said next thing he knew was flames started coming out of the engine panel he just had time to toss his cooler and jump out when we were talking all the cab windows blew out and head dropped. Local farmer bought it from the insurance company fixed it up and it's still running today. Fire Marshall said hydraulic line burst spraying hot fluid on the manifold. Fortunately it was a still early evening and the fire department was close by they did a good job saved the head and just the front part of the machine was destroyed. A combine fire is scary we could never get the operator back in a combine again he just ran the catch buggy and semis.

Sorry to hear! How did that happen??

The fire started inside driver side drive wheel in front of hydro trans and burnt all wires ,belts, and hoses on the left side behind operator's cab while the cab just started to melt inside at the back of the seat. The drive tire only was charred and no engine damage. I run this machine 300 hours last fall and spent only $500 for repairs, as this was a great machine which I had purchased in Nov. 2006 and it was a 1984 pre titan 2.