Another great combining day!

Well...mostly. If I sound surprised, you will have to understand my situation. I have done hay for maybe two years short of eternity. Or maybe it just feels like that long. Grain on the other hand...three years. My first year, 2014, I planted just one of my fields. I had picked up the IH 1660 combine at auction and drove it 60 miles home...a story unto itself because I had no idea that a lot of combines do not have working brakes. Anyway, I ran my first small 10 acre field of corn. While unloading the last of it, the combine spun a bearing. Jump ahead a year and many thousands of dollars later and I have almost the whole place planted in corn. Still using the same corn head which, to be kind, had "seen better years". Every single day of operation I had to stop at least once and repair something. So this fall I really did some pre season work on it. Clutches with the springs installed wrong were a big issue. Drive lines welded into their couplers...to name a couple things. So I am pretty darn shocked to be three days into 2016 combining and NOTHING has gone wrong...knock on wood. Except....

Before I pull onto the field I like to engage the corn head and, using a plastic bottle with a really long spout, drizzle used motor oil on the driven sprocket at the end of the row units. It spreads out and lubes the chains and really keeps things running nice. I got it in my head that my wife could operate the corn head from the cab while I did this. Long story short, she did not know the toggle had to be lifted and pushed forward so she tried to force it and broke the toggle switch off. When I realized what had happened I am afraid I let loose a few inappropriate words and said something regarding her inability to figure out how a toggle switch worked. These were words I would come to regret many times during the course of the day. She forgave me within the hour but it is amazing how often the topic came up later. Her birthday is Saturday. I think I better make sure it is a good one!

I'm done for a couple days, y'all have a great Thanksgiving!

I've enjoyed your stories, I recall the difficulties getting the beast home.

Be careful with working around the corn head, yea yea I am careful too, but we need to be reminded. I don't like anyone around the combine, thry could kick it into forward or raise or lower the header by accident, anything that would cause a lot of pain and damage..... Just thry typical friendly reminder.

And yea, you better make that up. Both of us have been down that path, oops I was frustrated and didn't mean that........

It has been raining and sleeting all all day long here, miserable weather temps from 32 to 35 degrees, grey wet and cold. So I'm in about the same grey mood as the weather.

Paul

Paul

Dave, An alternative is the chain and cable lube in a rattle can. It is some really sticky stuff. Just spray on the chain as it travels over the sprocket. Gets into all the chain parts. I don't own a combine but I won't go baling mocowing, raking, planting without it.

Dave, there is not a man on this site that has not at one time snapped at his wife for such things, and really regretted quickly, especially as soon as we realize that they are trying to help, being man enough to admit it is the important thing...lol

Marilyn told me years ago she wouldn't help me sort hogs till I clean up my language. Her strategy worked.

Well,it was froze up pretty good. I picked four and a half loads. Things started thawing out mid afternoon. I started going down and pulled out off the rows. BANG! The right side of the picker went down hard right in the mud. The bolts that hold the spindle to the picker frame broke off and the wheel fell off. It twisted up a bunch of sheet metal and dropped the whole thing about a foot in the mud. Real nice. Rain and snow on the way for tomorrow.

(quoted from post at 16:24:19 11/22/16) Dave, An alternative is the chain and cable lube in a rattle can. It is some really sticky stuff. Just spray on the chain as it travels over the sprocket. Gets into all the chain parts. I don't own a combine but I won't go baling mocowing, raking, planting without it.

Click to expand...

2X aerosol chain lube. Comes out watery thin, penetrates, sets up and sticks, lasts long.

Having a new one ain't no picnic either. One caught fire they got it out right away and it was still running to where they could get the head off and in the shop but over 30 thousand you know all them fancy computers and the wires to the sensors plus it was made in France parts were a little hard to get. To almost new combines on the unloading auger splines sheared on one had to dump a full tank . The second had 20 more hours before it did the same thing. It got to the point they take along a spare combine.

give her a big hug ,,and tell her your sorry..,,give her a hug from all of us on Y/T while your at it!

Jury rig it and get it into the shop. You're gonna have a couple of days to tinker with it.....

Well said!!!

I appreciate the reminder. I think the corn head is pretty terrifying actually. I don't normally let anyone operate the fool combine because of the cost of repairs. Now that the engine is rebuilt I do pretty much everything else myself. Getting pretty good at combines. They are a different sort of machine than tractors.

That weather is coming our way. I have the same problem grey days in the fall. Low light or some such issue. These last two days sure have been nice, though.

Thanks, I will look into that. I never really thought about it, but I guess there had to be a product. In 2014 those chains were getting pretty warm. That was when I started with the oil...but I have other uses for my old oil.

This is not the first time I have stepped into the same steaming pile. Hasn't happened in a while but it just came out before I could stop. I mean, REALLY? A TOGGLE SWITCH??? A $100 effing toggle switch??? Oh boy, there I go again.

I was lucky, I found a used one for $38 plus shipping. Think I will go out there alone one day and replace the old one. Yeah...that would be best.

Those fields sure are dogging you this year, Randy! I feel for you. This looks like some real crummy weather we are about to get. Elevator is open Friday, but I won't be out there. Both girls home from school and I am taking them to a movie. Saturday is a birthday and I'm not going to ask her to ride shotgun on her birthday. Hoping things will dry out/freeze up and I can hit it first of the week or thereabouts.

I found some on the internet. Looks good. Chains get hot if you don't put something on em. Sprockets wear too and the teeth get hooked, start grabbing the chains. I'm gonna try this stuff see how it goes.

Well...yeah...already done that. Currently we have finished dinner and I am hiding in my office pretending to be working. You could probably tell that from all the responses...LOL! Thinking of finding a movie she likes and making some popcorn. She isn't giving me a bad time but if I put on the movie the subject isn't likely to come up again.

I tell ya, if I make it thru a couple more days without a breakdown I will have done better than the BTO across the road. He had that fancy new green combine parked mid field for a couple of days while they worked on it. This guy does 800 acres and has a fortune in equipment. Doesn't seem like he could afford all that stuff on 800 acres.

The bolts are broken off in it. They're threaded in. I've got another one down back for parts,but I don't know if I can get the bolts out without breaking them or not. I'll try. Getting it jacked up in the mud to get it back together might be another thing.

I think I better hop in the pickup and come over and help you out.

He can't. Loans. I farm 1000 acres and the combine is a 1995 9500 Deere. She's been on this farm since she was a year old. There's only one tractor here newer than 1980 and it's nice to drive but I'd be lying if I said I didn't expect something to spontaneously bust on it every time I turn the key. It's been a good tractor but those sensors are just begging for replacement.

Folks here are just as used to seeing me pull up with a load of beans in the 1958 GMC as the 1997 Freightshaker semi. It's all in shape to drive across the country tomorrow, but not a stitch of it's remotely new. It makes it easier to ride out grain prices, that's for sure.

I learned not to ask the wife to help sort hogs. It's not instinctual to her. And she screams when one comes near her. Not a good combination.

Men take up farming and owning combines because the like working on things. If you can keep a used combine going, every thing else is easy.

I like to read your posts. Like you I have turned my farms into crops because making hay was to hard and their is no reliable market for your crop. I have been at it for a few years and have had several combines. My latest is a John Deere that I bought 3 years ago because it had rear wheel assist which comes in handy when we have to much rain during harvest time.

Like you I put a lot of money into repairs the first year that I owned it but after that I have not had any serious problems. I would advise you to look for a better corn head now after the harvest is nearly over for the year. I do not know if you have a flex head for your machine but I believe that you will need one as you should plant soybeans for a better crop rotation. Now is the best time to look for one of those.

I read where you indicated that the drought caused the corn yield to be low and I have had the same experience this year. It looks like I will only break even this time but in most years I make a little money and I enjoy my farming so I will continue to plod along. I do not farm for a living but it keeps me out of the bars.

My wife is my helper and I sometimes say things that I regret but she can take care of herself and gives it right back to me. Keep farming your land and may you and your wife keep enjoying being together. Happy farming.

We're getting rain and sleet right now,but if you want to come on over,I'll sit in the cab and tell you what to do. lol

Yes lots of loans plus lots of Govt Subsidy Checks several times a year!! Cmore

Thanks! Much appreciated! The corn head is almost new now. I have replaced or repaired more than 50% of it by now. I know it so well that I can diagnose it from the cab. Usually repair it in less than an hour. I have a flex head also, all checked out and working. I take it to the field in the next few weeks for the first time. My third head is an 810 rigid head with a Sund pickup. Nice for oats.

Sounds like you and I do things pretty much the same! I like it more and more every year as I get things working right and moving smoothly. It's a good life.