Combine Clinic Videos: Feeders & Combine Service

Birkey's combine clinics focus on keeping your Case IH combines in peak operating condition. While we won't be hosting in-person or virtual clinics this fall, we want 2021 to be your best harvest yet. We're sharing the full series of 2020 virtual combine clinic videos, whether they're a perfect refresher from last year or a brand new experience for you. The first video in the series is all about Feeders & Combine Service. 

Feeders & Combine Service

The feeding is the most important part of your combine performance. Your feeding actually starts at the head, but the more uniform crop mat you get into the combine and uniform feeding across the entire feeder house will affect the flow of material and how it performs in the rest of the system.

Platform & Corn Head Setup 

Take time and make sure your platform or corn head is set up right. And the correct steps are taken to make sure the proper feeding is happening. A couple things I want to cover is on the mid-range and Flagship Series combines. In the mid-range series combines, your width is slightly different. They both take the same header adapter, so you need to make sure your opening is set right on the headers.

Feeder Chain Checks 

You’ll also need to inspect the feeder chain for cracks or breaks on the slats. You need to check the front feeder drum bearings on both sides of the feeder house. Make sure the bearings are good and it’s a check for your stretch on your feeder chain. When the feeder chains properly adjusted to your tension, which I’ll show in a second, if you rotate your feeder chain over, so the slat is straight out from the front of the feeder face and the feeder faces level.

Make sure your feeder chain distance is fairly even; sometimes, a feeder chain will stretch more on one side or the other. And then, you start to see a fair amount of stretch.

Then what can happen is, it will jump the teeth on the sprocket, which will cause you downtime, getting a chain back on or replacing the chain in-season. You also want to rotate the chain over so the slat is right in front of the face, and when you do, you want to make sure you got the right number of a half lengths in the feeder chain.

You really want the chain to be about an inch from the front face cover. Because if you picture on the platform in between the auger and the feeder chain, this is why your auger fingers serve to push this through.

If you don’t have the right number of half lengths in your feeder chain, this will be affected on the header angle where it is set. If you don’t have the right number of things in, you may have a bunch of material here. They’ll bunch up before and then pull it in and clumps and this will affect the performance of your rotor and separation.

Your feeder angle will affect the number of links in the chain. Over here, on this side of the feederhouse are on both sides.

Bolt, Hydraulic, & Draper Head Adjustments 

There is a series of bolts you can adjust, both at the top and the bottom, which determines your header angle. Your header angle needs to be set for the corresponding heads. A lot of your platforms or whatever has a 10-degrees tilt forward, but it does depend on the type of the platform.

Some of the newer combines have the option of a hydraulic adjust on your feeder face, which is a is a really nice option, especially if you’ve got corn heads or a platform requiring better performance at a certain angle. If the angles aren’t the same for the corn head and the platform, after you get your header angle set to where it needs to be, this is the time to verify your length of your feeder chain.

The draper heads have adjustable feeder angles on them, so it’s not quite as critical. Most of the people on the drapers will run the headers tipped back farther. The feeder face itself tip back farther, and then do the rest of the adjustments, with the angle on the head. While we’re over on this side here, while you’re still checking your feeder chain. You need to inspect the top sprocket for cups in where the chain rides, and make sure there’s not deep cuts in there in the teeth, which will cause the chain to hang on, or to jump over or crawl over the sprocket on this side of the combine.

Belts, Oil Level, & Slip Clutch 

Check the tension on your header belt and make sure the gap is according to your book, on your space or adjustment here on the mid-range combines. You also need to put a socket on your feeder header drive shaft, rotate it over backwards. 

If you rotate the pulley backwards, you need to make sure the belt is tracking true left to right. If the belt is leaning one way or the other, then there is an adjustment on this bolt. If you turn the bolt angle, it’ll change the camber on the pulley for your tracking of the belt. The belt will normally track true, going forward at all times, this one actually has a hydraulic reverser, which there’s a gear box shifting the reverser.

You need to check your oil level in the gearbox and make sure it’s up to the correct level on the sight glass down below. You also need to check the condition of your feeder slip clutch which is on your big pulley, and then because this has a hydraulic reverser on it.

Also, two dog springs prevent a slip clutch from slipping while the hydraulic reverser is running, but when you’re in a normal position, it allows it to slip, so you’ll need to check the condition of your slip clutch, which is one of the things Birkey’s technicians will look at during the CMI—they’ll inspect the condition of your slip clutch and your belt tracking.

A lot of things covered in this series are things Birkey’s will inspect during customized maintenance inspections (CMI).

Also, you need to check your tension on your header drive belt and make sure while it’s running and it’s in the correct location of the window. You’ll also need to check your idler belts and idler pulleys and your belt conditions for cracks, brokens, etc. on the feederhouse.

Also, on the feederhouse, if you come over to the other side, there is a rock trap. On the rock trap, you need to check the condition of this drive chain because it takes a lot of abuse. Make sure it’s properly adjusted.

We always inspect the condition of your bearings during CMIs. So if you’re looking at your combine yourself, make sure there’s not excessive play in the bearings or the bearings are getting dry or loose and needs to be replaced before season. On the feederhouse rock trap beater itself, there’s adjustable bars on every beater, adjustable for the aggressiveness of your rock trap beater. If you’re having feeding conditions or issues, this is something you’ll need to look at while completing your inspections. Also, underneath the feederhouse, a door flops down and there’s a seal underneath. If the feeder floor gets bent or bowed, it will cause grain to leak out in between the seal. So, it’s definitely something a person needs to inspect. You need to inspect it with a feeder down and the feeder up and make sure the seal is sealing it off. Otherwise, you could run into condition if the hinge wasn’t flowing right, you could be leaking grain when you pick up on every end while you turn. Also, while underneath there, you need to check the condition of your bearings on your auger bed drive underneath there.

While you’re under the feederhouse, make sure the anti-swivel bolts are in place and none of them are missing, or if you got cotter pins on it, this is holding your header drive pins in. You need to make sure those are in place and in the correct position.  

We’ve had some cases where we’ve had to go in there and lube the cylinder pins where it rotates. If you run into a condition where you are hearing popping sounds while raising and lowering the head, chances are the bushing in the back pivot pin need to be lubed.

Watch this full video and more at birkeysclinics.com.

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