F2 Settings

    Hello,
          I started combining soybeans this weekend and the F2 is putting beans out of the back of the combine. Some of the beans this year are really small due to the lack of rain back in the summer. I tried slowing down the fan from 6-7 to around 5 , but the grain tank was filling up with trash. I have the cylinder set at 550 RPM and the screens are around 1/2 inch. Since the beans are small, should I close the bottom screen down more and try the reduced fan setting?

    Thanks for any thoughts.

First thing to check is engine rpm. It has to be where it belongs and on the high side is better. Your bottom screen is too wide especially for tiny beans. Top screen may be too wide letting trash through to bottom. Unless they are unusually light,6-7 shouldn't be blowing them out. Are you driving fast enough to keep machine full? Little chaff on the chaffer will let them blow. How did you determine they are coming out the back? Did you stop and shut down machine and back up and survey the ground for beans shattered at sickle. Are they thicker behind the shoe or just everywhere? Book settings will get you a decent sample and capacity. My F2 is real happy in 60bu beans at 3.5mph cutting 6-30's. Your cylinder speed sounds good. That's where I cut my 9% beans and almost no splits. Cylinder clearance at 5/16 measured at the bar. Mine has wide spaced bars.

Try squeezing cylinder clearance to minimum (1/16”-1/8”?). Maybe speed up cylinder speed 16” drive pulley/belt instead of 20”?
Then, Open air all the way, open chaffer 5/8”(top screen), close sieve 1/8”(lower screen).
Harvest 25’, stop forward motion but let machine clean out. Then shut everything off.
Step out, walk around, observe header loss, check for chopper threshing by looking for soybeans on ground inside adjacent standing crop behind machine, check ground area immediately behind for overage.
Now, THIS IS CRUTIAL.. with a keen ear, SLOWLY- slightly open the Lower screen (sieve) UNTIL you hear soybeans seeds DROP. Now it’s sieve is correct. Most un-threshed pods laying on sieve should pass off sieve to returns & seed will improve(clean-up) graintank grain.
Make any other adjustments needed based on other observations to continue dialing in your gleaner.
Watch your gleaner’s tailings return elevator window cause it tells THE STORY. If it shows too much clean seed, open up the sieve some. If it shows Lots of unthreshed pods, try adding another concave if cylinder/concave has been squeezed to max. If it shows grain splits, then cylinder/concave is too tight or too many concaves??

Edited by AC7060IL - 26 Oct 2020 at 7:34am

Not too often I got to agree with Steve but yep

You got the experts telling you close the concave down, give it a try.

I think among other things, you are driving too fast !!  3 MPH on most F-2's is fast enough for the cleaning shoe. Is your tailing elevator running clean beans thru it, because it shouldn't be ???  You don't say if this is a gasser or diesel.  Neither of them run 2700 RPM wide open. Diesel is about 2500 and gassers are 2900.

Are the beans your seeing "whole beans" or remanents from the chopper ? 2 range/5-6 on the handle for ground speed??, we run a gear drive F2 with a 15' header in 1'st gear "maybe" 3/4 fast on the VS, granted that is the ONLY function on the digital tach that doesn't work, but I'm guessing 3 MPH tops  . I'm surprised you haven't plugged anything upfront at that ground speed .

I forgot to mention that this machine has the modified cylinder bars and I feel like that's a big reason I can run in 2nd gear.

Lower cylinder to 1/4" like others have said. Hi cylinder clearance wears top crown off cylinder bars, causes material to follow cylinder around causing over thrashing and cracked grain. Also takes HP and lowers capacity . If beans are dry, one concave on door, skip one and one in #3.            MACK

Sounds like your high idle is too high. Get a digital tach reader from NAPA and confirm rpm.

My pump spec sheet for an F2 shows hi idle is 2475-2500, and full rated load is 2300. I put lots of hours in running combines, and I never pushed them hard enough to pull down to rated rpm, ever. Not sure why you're seeing a huge difference between hi idle no load and loaded rpm going through the field. I'm with Dr, and think you're pushing too much through it for one thing.

Lonn wrote: tractorman21 wrote:     Thanks for the replies.    Engine is running 2,300 to 2,400 RPM under a load. I have it set to 2,700 RPM no load.    The beans are definitely coming out of the back. When I am picking, I can see where the beans have been blown into the beans next to where I have picked.    Is it possible, that the beans aren't being correctly threshed and are going out through the chopper and being blown on the ground?    After thinking about it, when I slowed the fan down, the grain tank filled with whole pea pods.    I bought this machine from a farmer and he has it set up with the # 1 concave bar removed and the cylinder set at 3/8" clearance.    Would I be better off to put the concave bar back in and set the cylinder closer to 1/2" like the book says? I can always adjust the cylinder down if needed, but I am already at 3/8" and I think going down to 5/16" is going to be a little tight.    AS far as the ground speed, it's a Hydro Machine, I am running in 2nd gear and on the Hydro lever I am running between 5-6. The machine picks really well and for the most part does a good job.     Bring the cylinder down to 1/4 inch. Check the clearance by measuring. I zero out the cylinder, check to make sure both sides tick so it is level, set the side gauges to zero and then bring it up to 1/4 inch. Do that first and see what happens. You should do a stall check where you shut off the combine when it is at full throttle and well into the beans. Turn off the engine while combining full of crop, shut off separator and restart the engine to let the engine cool. Go look at what's on the cleaning sieves and what's on the walkers. I'm betting the walkers have unthreshed pods because the cylinder is set too wide, and or not enough concave bars.

My stall method is to chop the throttle and stomp the brakes and kick the sep clutch out just before the engine stalls. Works for me.
Engage separator like normal and open to full throttle and let it clean out before continuing....the cylinder is not plugged.

Edited by SteveM C/IL - 28 Oct 2020 at 8:51am