R66 Combine Problems

The renter of my farm in SW Minnesota traded off a 7 year old R65 (I think) for a R66 for this season's harvest.  They had been quite happy with the R65.  They are now looking at trading the R66 for a Deere.  First, they had cooling problems with the R66 due to bean straw/chaff getting through the rotary screen.  They had to stop frequently to clean the radiator.  That eventually got fixed with a field campaign of some kind.

The biggest problem they had was the feeder throat jamming in beans unless they went slow (3 to 3-1/2 mph).  The dealer was out at least once.  The drive pulley's were proper and the limit blocks for the feeder chain were set to allow maximum up travel, but they still couldn't travel like they were used to.

I hate to see "green" on the farm, but the renter covers lots of acres and he wants productive equipment (which I agree with).

Anyone with a R66???  Any thoughts???


Edited by 427435 - 05 Dec 2010 at 10:42am

That's certainly a thought.  However, they had a good spring and had the beans in before June 1.  The fall was also great.  Beans and corn were both dry at harvest------didn't need any LP at all for the corn after the first couple of days of corn harvest.  He said the guys with the Deere combines in the area were moving at close to 5 mph in 50-60 bushel beans. 

He runs around 2000 acres and likes to get things done on time.

We also had our bean in before june 1st but for somereason they didnt rippen right . As for the problem of feeding could be numerouse adjustments but what comes to mind would be a loose feeder chain or unenven header feeding. Its got to be an adjustment. I've heard so much from my dad on that stuff, he wored with Gleaner in the mid 80's when he bought our combine it was a prototype so problems came with the new technology. As for the super 7 it would have the same feeder house but the capacity would go way up. One bad A$! combine like all Gleaners are

It should be every bit as good as his old combine....the new R66 should have had the newer "lowered" floor to help improve capacity in green-stem beans.

Thanks for the suggestions and for the link.  Now I've joined another forum!!

We had an R62 and went to the Deere STS. 

Edited by wi50 - 05 Dec 2010 at 6:03pm

I haven't been around a new grain header in about 10 years. What I do remember (negatively) was when they went to that huge 30 inch diameter cross auger, I ALWAYS made my own "slow-down" drive sprocket on the left side to slow down the peripheral speed of that larger than life auger. Maybe it's fine in wheat, but in green-stem soybeans, slower and evener is BETTER when you're shoving crop in a hole 38 inches wide. Also raising up the auger to 3/4" floor clearance (minimum) and moving the auger forward to the max (add a couple links to the chain) helps tremendously in even feeding, which is paramount to narrow feederhouse performance.

I agree norm, 95% of the farmers need to not worry how fast the other guy is going comparing to their machine.  It is what you leave behind and the grain sample.  My dad runs an R62 with a 30 ft bean head and goes from 3 to 3.5 mph. We have the CDF rotor with the 1/2 inch spacer bars under the cylinder bars to get the original diameter. I have installed the Floor drop kit just as the 2008 combines and one have.  I have also Shimmed our slip clutches.  We have an 8000-30 bean head with the lateral tilt. Also we have a crary air reel.   With this combo going 3.5 miles and hour and spending some time setting the machine it is one excellent combine job.  We can run in grean beans as late as we want at night even.  I will say the Air Reel Makes a very nice even feed.  It is as nice as a draper head for the feed,  It does take more power then the draper but it is well worth the money.  You have to remember an R66 is still a class 6 combine also when running a 30 ft head in green crops.  To each his own on what brand they want to run.  All can break down.  And All are expensive.  I have worked on them all the R series gleaners are SOOO SOO simple to work on and less expensive year to year rebuilding parts and LABOR/Time Then a lot of the competitors.  This is my own experiences.  The A series gleaner combines really eat the crop.  It does have the bigger feeder house on it. It does not perform in the side hills near as well and will not clean the crop quite as well.  They do have a lot of capacity and will run a long time before needing repairs.  When parts do need replaced they are more spendy.  Combining is defiantly a challenge and knowing what brand you want can change from year to year and from crop to crop. Good Topic. 

Andrew 

As stated Andrew these are class 6 combines running 30 foot heads.  I have seen a few deals where customers switch brands, go to a class 7 and talk about the added capacity, well duh!  Sorry for being a bit cynical about it but that statement makes no sense to me.  You go to a larger machine but stay at the same size heads you will have more capacity. 

Gleaner has made the steering spindles a bit stronger  on recent machines and I have complained about them in the past until I was told that they are a bit light as a shear point, in wet conditions they will break off  before the rear axle, after hearing this I thought of seeing a few green and red machines with broken rear axles, but never a Gleaner.(who knows maybe the AGCO guy that told me this was blowing smoke lol)  Also in wet years the local salvage yard always sells out of final drives for green and red combines, but cant give away the Gleaners.  I have yet to see a rotary Gleaner with a broken final drive.  I'm sure larger dealers have but the competitive brands see them at a higher rate.

Andrew can probably answer this one, but they were experimenting with a different sized idler drum on the rear feed chain, would this R66 have the smaller one?  I heard they were going back to the larger one.

427435, tell you renter to talk to the dealer and have the Agco rep out.  Keith is a heck of a guy and he maybe able to shed some light on the subjects as well.

The Gleaner has flaws like any brand but can compete with competitive combines with a smaller class size.  In comparing throughout the brands without a hillside attachment the Gleaner is the best rotary combine for running on the hills.  They are the only one with 360 degree separation, as well as  rolls to delver the crop to the front of the sieves to make sure uses its maximum availability cleaning volume.  I dont know where to stop so I guess for now I will stop here. lol
Like Andrew said, Good Topic.
Next time lets talk All-Crops! lol
Jim

 In severe green stem beans 3-3.5 mph seems like a pretty good clip to me.  We have an 08 R75 running a 25ft head and have rarely had to use the reverser.  Much nicer compared to the unmodified R62 we had before.  Had some bad green stem problems here also but the moisture on the beans was still down to 11% and less.

If this kit is what I am thinking of it is the steep pitch helical bars and a different vain kit then what Agco offers.  It really does make a different combine out of them.  It just depends what type of crop you are running through.  As well as the cdf rotors.  They do help in the green beans.  I really like to keep the rotor diameter the same as the old style rotors.  I do not care if the air real is a band aid or not it is a great option on any brand of machine. You can better it a lot by what was said earlier about changing auger speeds and placements.  The way the crop stands up sometimes at the real and then comes in in bunches cannot be changed sometimes.  The fingers in the 8200 series heads does help to grab the crop.  The air reel just keeps the feed even.  What I really like is the fallowing spring the trash is the same everywhere also.  Even spread everywhere.  They have been trying different things with the drums.  We have been trying different drum sizes as well.  Sometime I think it helps then other times I do not. There is always new ideas coming and going.  Every year is different also.

Andrew 

Hi Guys, The combine, (any color) is only as good as the header and the job it is doing delivering the crop to the feederhouse. As John Kellar (Agco combine eng.) always says "feed in bunches and bunches will go out the back".  At the end of the day the answer is simple, flex hd. with air reel or draper hd. We are on our third set of 30' flex with crary's and have never noticed a power problem.  The bean crop is changing also ,green stem beans are becoming more "normal" and producers have more acres to harvest so everybody wants them out yesterday. The feederhouse size is not the problem, do the mods. or on 2008 or newer tranverse machines they are already done.  Also  most combine custom cutters that have a variety of crops to harvest under tough conditions all run draper heads.,  Mike

Cant speak for the gleaners capacity because we have had New Hollands for years, we dont actually have the problems feeding you guys are talking about or use an air reel, however the first NH combine we had had a huge problem in feeding beens, green stem or otherwise, it turned out that some one had put the feeder house chain in backwards, and the serrated bars were facing the oposite way the factory wanted them , bought a new chain, installed it in the direction NH wanted and feeding was never an issue again,( you cant believe how much difference that made) we have 30ft hd run 5mph in 50bu beans more speed can be optained but thats about all the driver (me) can handle, too much too watch. Jumping a class size in a combine of this size, in my opinion is not going to fix anybodys problem with capacity in the field, none of the larger class combines have different internal parts, combines have a bass ackwards rating system, the machines are classed in HP, and grain tank size not throughput of the machine, so a class 6 to 7 is only more bin, and a turned up engine, and I do not know why the american farmer falls that marketing BS when it comes to combine size.Its like rating a crane on the amount of boom it has rather than its tonnage.

Thanks for the responses.  I called the farmer today, and he did indeed trade it off on a Deere.  Part of the reason is much better service from the Deere dealer.  Thanks again.

He's buying a new one----not sure what model.  It won't be delivered until August, 2011 so it should have whatever are the latest improvements then.  He said the capacity should be a little bigger than the R66.