You heard the “BANG” and “clunkety-clunk-clunk-clunk” of a rock or broken fence post going through your combine. Or maybe you smelled and extinguished a smoldering fire before flames developed. There wasn’t significant visible damage, you were able to keep going, and you made plans to check for collateral damage after the season.
At a minimum, notify your insurance company as soon as possible that damage occurred, even if repairs aren’t made at that time. Some insurance companies now require damage reports within 30 days of when the event occurred.
“Farmers traditionally parked their combine after harvest and did maintenance and repairs the following winter or summer,” says Hans Boehm, Boehm Insurance, Boone, Iowa. “Most companies now require detailed claims be filed within at least 180 days of when the damage occurred, and I’ve heard of some that have even shorter claim periods.”
It’s essential that every aspect of repairs be itemized on post-harvest damage estimates.
Rock damage can range from an obviously bent cross auger on a small grain platform to broken straw chopper knives at the rear of the machine. Hidden collateral damage might include damage to concaves, rotor elements, upper sieves and discharge beaters. Be sure to check for damage to drive belts that might have slipped while the machine was “digesting” the foreign material. Burned or smeared belt edges and “fried” slip clutches should be noted on insurance claims.
Small, smoldering combine fires often create hidden damage that manifests itself months after the embers were extinguished. Large wiring harnesses the size of a man’s wrist that can cost thousands of dollars notoriously fill with fine, powdery dust around the myriad wires inside them. Slow-moving embers can crawl via dust-filled harnesses for yards from the initial point of combustion without actually igniting into flame. They’re just hot enough to melt wiring insulation so moisture from pressure washing after harvest slowly corrodes wiring and creates weird electrical problems the following harvest.
Carefully examine all wiring harnesses in the vicinity of small fires. Heat-puckered corrugated plastic harness sheathing needs to be opened and examined for hidden damage, and included on insurance claims.
While insurance might pay to replace high-tech computer screens and processors in fires that reach a combine’s cab, there is no compensation for lost data.
“If I was a farmer and my combine was on fire, I’d be carrying monitors and computers as I was on my way down the ladder,” Boehm says. “We can replace mechanical things, but not data stored in computers in the cab.”
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