New Gleaner Side Panels Material, and Speech Ideas

Sorry I didn't get in soon enough, Creston-

One thing you may have been able to look up, is the quantity of insurance clames on burned up combines, and compared the numbers.

I believe you'd find that combine harvesters that use more plastic covers, wear surfaces, etc., will appear in the category which is found burned up more often... and here are the two reasons I suspect to be the most at fault:

First: Molded plastic parts can be made into wonderful shapes, but to preserve rigidity, they must be molded with substantially more convoluted shapes- additional planes and edges. These planes and edges provide more places for dust, dirt, and chaff to accumulate, and eventually, ignite... and once burning, the plastics become an aggressive accellerant.

Second: Plastic guideways provide wonderful wear-resistance and reduce plant damage, but serve as excellent dielectric surfaces for creating static electricity. Galvanized steel, while not as 'nice' in this respect, provides an easy discharge path for static, thus, the source of ignition for dust fires is greatly reduced.

I also believe that higher levels of automated intricacy exacerbate rapid burn-ups, for the following reasons:

1) Additional hydraulic lines, once breached, provide a healthy supply of accellerant to an already burning machine.

2) Additional electrical load for automated systems, sensors, and comfort equipment means more wiring harnesses, more connections, and more points for invitations for disaster.

Finally:

The agricultural environment is brutal. Take out all the bitter cold, intense heat, cold, dry, wet, UV and abrasive soil, and the need to run hard for one month without stopping, then sit for eleven waiting, and you still have rodents.

Rodents, finding their way into places they don't realize they shouldn't be, building nests where we can't find them, chewing on everything and anything they can, to keep their teeth from overgrowing.

Chewing into wires, hoses, belts, and plastic...

...but not galvanized steel. Only one force trumps a mouse: Galvanized steel.

THAT was AWESUM Creston! great job! if I were you, i'd send a copy of this to AGCO, they might hire you to do some presentations for them this winter! that should/would give you an edge over the othersand give you some more school/parents points!

Great Job!! I had to "sell" a Gleaner in my sales class in community college last spring. I had even less time than you had and know that I did not do as good of a job.

Great presentation!

That was a very well done presentation. Congratulations to you. You didn’t just read a script but you kept it entertaining. That is not a gift many people are given. I have been watching gleaner road show videos with my 2year old son and to be honest you hit every point as well as the dealer promos. Well done.

Also makes me miss college when I was thin and had hair. And girlfriends.

Good job on the presentation, I am forwarding the link to the IH friend who was looking at the Gleaner this fall.  On a side note, around here when farmers were running beans this fall, the fields that were the "greenest" (volunteer beans) were usually ran by the green machines too.  There was a light green from one set of tire tracks to another, and a fairly heavy stripe of green between the tires (separator or shoe loss).

Sorry forgot to mention on the rotor removal, they must have changed the stepped rotor then if you can pull it out the front.  The older rotor designs were stepped (larger rear diameter than the front) and couldn't go forward.  Sounds like they must have something going on with the rotor though yet if you have to remove that much off it to pull it yet.

Bravo! Bravo! Standing Ovation! Well done!     

Great job. We run a R76 with 35 ft draper. Deere dealer brought a demo s770 this fall. Yes it was very nice and would run about .5-.8 mph faster but seed quality in tank was not impressive at all. I'm not used to having dry pods in tank and when we tried to get them out had more splits. They are heavy pigs! There is still a lot of gleaners around here but the driving 2-3 hours one way for parts gets old. We keep a lot of parts/belts on hand and if not an emergency our dealer will direct ship from KC.

Excellent job Creston. Agco brass needs to see this.

Thanks Jim, Duane, SCJR, John, Mike, and Phil! 
John...I could sell you a S96...the smallest of the S9 combines, and it would be the closest in capacity to your 60, out of all 3 current models. Lol