Oh well, at least the day started good

[Robert_in_NY]

I was ready to finally start harvesting my corn today. The weather has been great for over a week allowing the field to dry up some. This particular field has wet spots that always give me problems so I was glad to get a good stretch of weather this late in the year. So I had to empty the dump trailer which was full of demoliton debris. Go to the transfer station at 7am and get told they no longer allow commercial guys to dump on Saturdays. But since I know them and they know I didn't know about the rule change they allow me to dump but can't fill out my slip till Monday. So first bullet dodged. I outfit the dump trailer to haul corn and head to the field. Get the first load harvested with only a few problems with wet spots (was able to get out of them without a tow). Haul the first trailer full in and notice there is a little more chaff then I want in there.

The first load was 4 ton and the moisture was 17.69. Not bad considering the guy unloading at the elevator in front of me was at 36. My turn comes up and the trailer won't dump so I have to shovel out two ton of corn before we got a booster there to charge the battery to dump the rest out. I am just glad corn flows so smoothly. I talked to the owner and ask about dumping another load today and one more tomorrow morning. He agrees as both dumps would be when they are closed so he would have to come over to meet me both times.

So I head back to the field. Make some adjustments to the harvester and can't get the chaff to go away. I turn the fan up to the point I am blowing corn out the back of the harvester and still have chaff in the bin. So I turn the fan back down and just live with the chaff as I need to get this load in so I can load a third load to deliver early Sunday morning. Half way to the elevator (20 miles away) I hear a loud boom followed by a strange noise. Ended up I blew out the right rear tire on my F-250 just as I started down a rather steep long hill. So I have to ride the truck on the blown tire all the way to the bottom till I am on flat ground to change it out. Its the first time I have had to use a spare tire in 10+ years. After fighting to get the tools out of the truck and dealing with a 5 ton trailer hooked to the back of the truck I finally get the truck jacked up and luckily the lug nuts came off easy. However the tire did not want to come off the hub. It took me 40 minutes to change a stupid tire all while the elevator owner is waiting just for me to get there. He was out on his bike earlier and came back just to let me unload. So I finally get there, unload all the corn by hand again as the battery is still dead and head home.

By now its too late for me to load a third load for the morning. The problem with the chaff is the shroud for the fan on the harvester broke loose and was hanging. So now I have to fix that tomorrow, the trailer is on the charger and hopefully it will work next time. I needed new tires fairly soon for that truck but didn't want to spend $900 for a set just yet. So I quit for today. Two loads of corn are in (about 8.25 tons). The second load of corns moisture was 17.4.

I am hoping the fields will dry out a little more tomorrow but there is a slight chance of rain tomorrow. Hopefully it will not come as we have another week of great weather ahead. I have at least two more loads left on these wet fields before I move to my gravel fields.

I really do love this work though. Running across the corn fields eating up the corn is just a lot of fun and relaxing for me. I just wish these little things wouldn't pop up as they take away from the overall day. I will load up tomorrow and haul that load in Monday hopefully.

I will try to get my dad to come out tomorrow and take some pics of the harvester to post here.

 

[Tig]

Interesting day Robert. Even with those "little things" popping up you still had a good day. Can't ask for much more than that.

 

[Cat_Driver]

Too bad you couldn't "farm out " - pun intended, the corn transfer to some local guy so he has to put up with the hassle of transport and you just sit back and fill trailers?

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Too bad you couldn't "farm out " - pun intended, the corn transfer to some local guy so he has to put up with the hassle of transport and you just sit back and fill trailers?

If I had a bigger harvester that I could fill trucks faster I could farm out the transportation. However, I can only harvest about 2 ton an hour with my harvester and fields. So any decent size truck would be sitting a while waiting to be filled. I can't unload into the tall dump trailers either. I am going to see about borrowing my friends dump trailer tomorrow and fill that as well so I can run them both in when I have the time. I just need to get this farm harvested before the rains come back again.

 

[gregsons]

Too bad sliver creek is a little to far (Niagara) and i took it off the road for the winter last friday , but i have a dump truck that would make short work of that haulin problem. i bet this time of year you could get a truck to help you out down there. not much to haul now.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Too bad sliver creek is a little to far (Niagara) and i took it off the road for the winter last friday , but i have a dump truck that would make short work of that haulin problem. i bet this time of year you could get a truck to help you out down there. not much to haul now.

I have a friend who has a fleet of 10 and 12 wheel dump trucks but unless someone can just drop the truck off and leave it for a day I can't fill it fast enough. It would take me 10 hours to harvest 20 tons of corn and I don't want to be a hassle on others. So I make due and hopefully will be able to trade this dump trailer in on a larger one next year.

 

[farmerjim]

thats not too bad of a day, you still got some decent seat time even w/ the breaks. saw a jd 9400 harvester going down the road the other day minus the header, was surprised to see one in my area, but i think the local farms are starting to harvest it w/ a combine now instead of chopping it for forage, to earn some extra $$ these days w/ the ethanol boom and corn fuel for heating. robert, have you thought about any gravity wagons, or is the elevator too far to drag one of those?

 

[gregsons]

I got you now, yeah I wouldnt want to make someone sit around all day either. A wagon would be nice if you could get a fixed tonge other wise that this would be snaking down thw rd for 20 miles

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I used a gravity wagon last year and it would hold 5 ton. But it had no brakes and I was limited to 20-25 mph depending on the roads. I have to take the long way around when pulling the gravity wagon because of the hills the shorter way. The dump trailer allows me to drive around 55mph and take the short way. It holds 4 ton with my modifications so even though I have to make an extra trip I can do each trip in half the time of the gravity wagon.

The tube for the clean grain auger rusted through on me. I had repaired it last year but this time it rusted out where it goes through the frame. It is a mess and the only way I can fix it without tearing the entire machine apart is with duct tape and hope it works. Of course I can't try that now because when I shut it down yesterday it decided to crap out. Now it won't even turn over. I have to test the solenoid and a relay to see which one is causing the problem.

I am about ready to sell this machine. It is a nice machine but needs a ton of work which I have been hesitant to do since it doesn't really work that well for my operation. I hope to find a great deal on a used unit with RWA and a 4 row corn head now that most everyone is selling their harvesters to upgrade to newer, bigger ones like me.

I think it would be fun to restore this 3300 but I would not have the space to do it as it takes up a lot of room.

 

[ToadHill]

Robert: Where in Silver Creek do you find a long steep hill?

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Robert: Where in Silver Creek do you find a long steep hill?

You find the long steep hills either going out of Forestville up Prospect or going out of Sheridan up Center. Remember, Silver Creek is where I live, the elevator is in Cherry Creek.

 

[AKfish]

That's a real nice spare tire you got there Robert...

You dodged a couple of bullets there. Coulda ruined the rim or jumped the rear of the truck around to give you some REAL heartburn with that loaded trailer!!

Some nagging PIA's with your combine, though.

Great news with the moisture content on your corn! Lot's of talk of high 30's back home in the Dakota's. Mold in the ears and quite a bit of the harvest will likely end up as ethanol (hopefully..).

Best of luck with the rest of your fields.

AKfish

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I have been fighting to get the wet fields done before the rain came in yesterday. I did and made it to the elevator at 5:02 Wednesday with a 4.25 ton load at 16.25 moisture. That was the very last of the corn that I am harvesting on the wet fields. The real wet spots I avoided (about an acres worth) and will just leave them stand over the winter for food for the wildlife. Every time I would get stuck it would tear the shroud off my fan and start tossing garbage in the bin. So I gave up trying to make it through any wet areas as I was tearing up the harvester. The mud even ripped open the perforated shield on the clean grain auger leaving a very nice, long trail of corn under the machine. But I was able to repair that and so far all I have had to spend on parts is $11 for a new bail for the fuel filter. I can live with that.

Now as soon as it gets done raining I am going to move to the gravel fields. I expect the moisture to be higher up there but hopefully not too bad like the guys on the other side of the hill away from the lake.

As for the spare, its still on the truck. A new set of tires will cost me $215 each so I am waiting for a check to show up before I spend that much and praying I don't lose any other tires.

 

[The Dougster]

I had a day like that on Wednesday... great temps, wonderful sunshine so I went to the ranch to get a few things done... all was well until about noon when I buried the tractor in mud... A major mess..... Had to call a tow truck that, as it turned out was driven by a kid that was barely old enough to have a drivers license... the first he did when he got there was get his tow truck stuck... We managed to get the tractor out of the mud and then spent the rest of the afternoon using the tractor to get the tow truck out of the mud... Grrrr

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I had a day like that on Wednesday... great temps, wonderful sunshine so I went to the ranch to get a few things done... all was well until about noon when I buried the tractor in mud... A major mess..... Had to call a tow truck that, as it turned out was driven by a kid that was barely old enough to have a drivers license... the first he did when he got there was get his tow truck stuck... We managed to get the tractor out of the mud and then spent the rest of the afternoon using the tractor to get the tow truck out of the mud... Grrrr

Its funny how that works some times. Mud sure is a crappy thing for equipment

 

[Steve C]

Have any of you used "tire slime"? do you recomend it? I have a friend who uses it in almost everything and claims it is great stuff and will fix almost anything.

I have no experience with it. Do you have any idea how much would be need for this application?

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I have never used it and really have no intention to. In the case with my rear truck tire the slime would not have done any good as the entire sidewall blew out.

 

[Kfbeal]

However the tire did not want to come off the hub. It took me 40 minutes to change a stupid tire all while the elevator owner is waiting just for me to get there.

One of our meter readers has a 2009 F-150 and the same thing happened. We had a crew go out to help him and they worked for 2 hours trying to get the wheel off. They finally had to floor-board it and spin it until it finally broke loose. They tried prying it with everything they had with no luck. The truck has less than 6000 miles on it.

I've always worried about breaking the lug nuts loose on a flat, but never really thought about trying to get the wheel off.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

One of our meter readers has a 2009 F-150 and the same thing happened. We had a crew go out to help him and they worked for 2 hours trying to get the wheel off. They finally had to floor-board it and spin it until it finally broke loose. They tried prying it with everything they had with no luck. The truck has less than 6000 miles on it.

I've always worried about breaking the lug nuts loose on a flat, but never really thought about trying to get the wheel off.

Yeah, I was extremely surprised how easily the lug nuts came off. Its a newer design Ford started using when they had problems with the late 90's F-150s. My truck has just over 29k miles on it and the lug nuts were what I feared. But that rim didn't want to come off the hub for anything. It took a lot of work but I did finally get it. The spare was very tight as well and I had to use the lug nuts to pull the rim onto the hub. I was a little nervous so I left the hub cap off till I got to the elevator and could inspect the tire and lug nuts to make sure everything was good. No issues so that was good.

 

[Kfbeal]

What my guy did was when he got the tire repaired, he had the shop remove the other 3 wheels to make sure he could get them off later. Might be an idea for future removals.