Crops and combines have changed dramatically in the past 20 years. Higher yields and new designs have shifted wear points, necessitating more frequent checks for known issues and potential new problems.
- Feederhouse Floor. Everything that goes into a combine slides across its feederhouse floor, and those surfaces eventually thin and develop holes. Some manufacturers added thick wear plates under the feederhouse drum, but holes can form where crop material transitions from the wear plate to the thinner feederhouse floor.
- Shaker Frame. Concerns about the weight of combines have led manufacturers to use lightweight components in shaker frames. Complete inspection of shaker frames requires removal of sieves and crawling deep within the machine. Look for hairline cracks in welded corners or where shaker arms attach to the frame.
- Conveyor Chains. Feederhouse conveyor chains used to have angle iron slats that bent from rocks or residue. Newer feederhouse chain crossbars are hardened cast metal and don’t give. Rocks or wads of residue cause conveyor chains to jump a tooth on one of the upper sprockets, run cockeyed and cause damage to the chain and sprockets if uncorrected.
- Grain Elevator. Transition areas at the top and bottom of clean grain elevators are prone to wear on hidden sheet metal surfaces. Remove inspection doors and inspect worn grain deflectors and side sheets at the top of elevators with a flashlight. Inspect the top and bottom of the sheet metal divider separating the upward-moving chain paddles from the downward-moving ones.
- Sieves. Residue from high corn populations increases erosive wear and thins sieve louvers. While sieves are removed for sieve frame inspection, check the thin, wire-like shafts the louvers rotate on. They can wear thin where they pivot in the sieve frame as the louvers rotate open or closed.
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