As a former farm equipment industry service manager, I’ve had the chance to observe many strategies for combine storage over the years and have seen the results first-hand.
I feel the following tips can make a combine perform better when it’s taken out of storage next summer and can also prolong the life of the equipment.
- Take apart all variable speed drives, which could include the cylinder, fan and variable speed traction drives.
The space between the sliding hub and the shaft tends to have old grease that could get sticky in storage. If dirt got in there and hangs up for just a second under load, the belt will snap and may tear to pieces. That’s one reason why farmers often lose belts at the start of harvest.
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Have a look at the cylinder shaft where this hub slides on. If you have been running the cylinder speed at the same position, you will probably find a “step” on the shaft. If you have had belt problems, that could be it.
Just to show how sensitive this is, Massey Ferguson had a belt problem in the variator. The problem wasn’t solved until it moved to a matched set of shaft and hub so there was no binding or hanging up of these parts.
Old grease mixed with dirt does the same thing, so clean this thoroughly and put in fresh grease.
- Producers used to ask me about washing the combine.
I would say they could, but not with a pressure washer. I have seen a pressure washer take the paint off a tractor. It was perfectly good paint with no evidence of rust underneath.
A pressure washer will also get moisture into the bearings by lifting the seal.
- Bearing manufacturers say that most premature bearing failures happen during the first hour in the next season of use.
The owner will use a combine all harvest, which could be 200 or more hours. Then he starts combining next fall and right away the bearings fail. When taking it apart he finds half the bearing is good but the other half is corroded, probably the top half.
How could it be defective, considering it ran most of last harvest? If you think about it, something happened during storage.
The manufacturer says that during operation, the grease in the bearing becomes hot enough that it runs to the bottom of the bearing when the combine is stopped, leaving the top unprotected. During storage the unprotected half corrodes.
The cure is to turn the combine over about 10 times during storage preparation to get the cold grease to coat the top half of the bearing.
- Fill up your fuel tank before you store the combine.
There is always condensation in a container that is vented to the atmosphere. A study done in England by Cummins found that empty fuel tanks would gather their own volume of water in a single year.
Prairie conditions are different than those in England, but even one gallon going through a fuel system is too much. Filling up the fuel tank before storing the combine might save grief at the start of next harvest.
- Run the combine up to operating temperature before driving it into the shed and then put fresh oil into it.
All used oil contains water, which mixes with the sulfur to make metal-eating sulfuric acid. An engine stored over winter will often have little furrows in the engine bearings. That’s acid corrosion. Fresh oil won’t do that.
- It might be a good idea to put blocks under all four axle points to take the pressure off the tires.
I have very seldom seen worn out tires on a combine but lots of cracked sidewalls.
- We used to have special instructions on adding a chemical into the fuel that would protect the fuel system during storage. It was in our operator’s manual, but diesel fuel repair people say it is not necessary.
You can have problems with fuel that is stored too long, but that can be restored with diesel fuel conditioner.
Henry Guenter, now retired, is a former service manager for Massey Ferguson.
