Hydraulic Motors and WD45 ??

How would you use the remote on the lift for the combine if you are going to use it for the reel? You could use a diverter valve, but you would have one or the other working. If the only time you need the lift was on the end of the field it might not be a problem. Set your head height, divert to the reel and go through the field. When you get to the end, switch back to the remote and the reel would stop, and raise the head.
 If RPM's don't work out right , you could always reduce the reel speed from the motor by use of a belt and pulleys.


Edited by CTuckerNWIL - 05 Nov 2010 at 8:35am

CTuckerNWIL wrote: How would you use the remote on the lift for the combine if you are going to use it for the reel? You could use a diverter valve, but you would have one or the other working. If the only time you need the lift was on the end of the field it might not be a problem. Set your head height, divert to the reel and go through the field. When you get to the end, switch back to the remote and the reel would stop, and raise the head.  If RPM's don't work out right , you could always reduce the reel speed from the motor by use of a belt and pulleys.

Do you intend to have the reel driven by the motor directly or via a chain or belt?  If you connected a gear reduction to a motor you would increase its torque and decrease its RPMs.  That means that a smaller motor could do the job.

Russ-neia wrote: Several problems with using WD hydraulic system which have been mentioned.  Another would be the need for a radiator to dissipate heat as the tractor was not designed for continuous flow of oil. I suggest you look into the self-contained system mounted on the combine like Kev mentioned.  If you can, go look at a grain header for a Gleaner conventional (and some rotary) combine from the late 70's through early 90's.  They had a chain driven pump, reservoir, and motor all mounted on the header.  Some of these heads are obsolete or trashed, but still have good hydraulic systems.  Best of all, there is an electric control hooked to the pump so you can vary the speed with a rocker switch.   JimIA has about 4 of these heads sitting in the weeds out back.  He could probably help you out.

Edited by TomYaz - 05 Nov 2010 at 10:04am

Either of those motors would come close to working. Yes, you divide inch pounds by 12 to get foot pounds. 50 inch pounds is about how hard you can turn a screwdriver handle. 4 foot pounds.

You can protect a motor from over pressure with a pressure relief valve in parallel with the motor. I'm sure surplus center sells one suitable for that purpose. In their 2007 catalog which is the first one I found this week, look at 9-6597, 9-4127, 9-1556, 9-7375 or 9-4492 or search for relief valve. For that matter, all open center control valves unclude a pressure relief valve.

Not having run a combine, I'm not sure of the reel speed, but I'd think like my mower conditioner you'd want the peripheral speed to be just a hair faster than the ground speed so as to push the crop into the sickle and drop it on the belt top first. ON my PT-10 mower conditioner there's a bar above the sickle and in front of the reel that leans the crop away from the sickle so the reel flips it up to the conditioner rolls cut butt first so it goes through best. And you want that a little bit faster than ground speed to keep from there being a build up of crop over the sickle. You don't want the reel swatting the crop to knock seed off the straw, that's the job of the innards of the combine where that flying seed gets caught.

So you probably harvest at something like 3 mph and the reel is 5 feet in diameter. Makes it 15.7 feet circumference. 3 mph is 15,840 feet per hour, 264 feet per minute, 16.8 RPM. So you probably want about 20 rpm. 50 rpm is good for feeding the birds, not putting crop in the hopper.

Gerald J.

Here's my 2 cents worth.

Ground drive as it came from the factory has some advantage automatiically varying as your ground speed varies. Seems to me that keeping the reel running with very slow forward or no motion just gives the grain reason to drop to the ground when tapped or urged by the reel towards the sickle, but when it can't move.

Gerald J.

Tom - I assume you are looking to be able to independently adjust reel speed.  Does this need to be done from the tractor seat?  If reel speed needs to only be adjusted from the combine, then why not put a modified salisbury clutch(Comet) setup on and run from the draper drive.  This is the clutch type used on minibikes. - AL

CTuckerNWIL wrote: Tom, you could very easily make a variable speed drive for the reel out of the variable sheaves from a Ranch King or MTD lawn mower. Drive off the ground wheel and add the variable sheave in between driver and driven just like on the lawn mower. Run a control rod to within reach of the tractor seat. All you would need to add would be a notched plate to hold position or a friction set up to hold position. Charlie

Steve M C/IL wrote: My 2 cents."Peeing in the wind".I've dreamt up many improvement ideas over the years because it would be "neat" but the reality was always the same.To what end?Don't want to spend any money to do it right but difficult to figure out anything less.Bottom line is,it worked well enough "back in the day".If your not moving,the reel doesn't need to either.Don't misunderstand,I've been where you are but sometimes it just ain't worth it.When my dad went from a 60 to a 90 I thought that continuous reel was cool but I don't know that it made a real difference.When I had my A2 I thought a variable reel would be great!Have it on my F2 and it's just okay.Seldom need to use it. Anyway,take a chill pill and relax.Life is too short to sweat the small stuff.

Steve,