Supplemental heat on a combine.

[helmsdale]

Seeing lots of pictures of guys blowing heat up the arse end of combines to thaw out sieves, and plenty of stories of guys pulling sieves clean out of machines to take home and thaw out in the shop.

Honest question. Has anyone ever attempted supplemental heat on the cleaning fan intake?

I was thinking about it today... When its COLD, the snow will blow through, but when you're in that "danger zone" you melt the snow threshing, only to blow cold air over top of it when separating thereby freezing the sieves off.

There are three decent sources of heat on the combine: (1) hydraulics, and (2) engine, and (3) intake air after the turbocharger.

Kill the engine fan which is a parasitic power draw, and cool all three of those with the cleaning fan... Would it be enough of a heat bump to keep the sieves clean?

[SASKFARMER]

The shop. But I think were soon going to call it a year. To much snow.

[seldomseen]

You might be on to something but i am not smart enough to figure out how it would work.

When i used to run a pull type they would stay cold and never had much trouble we snow and ice sticking inside.

When i was using my puller i used to think when it would start getting tough at night it was just the dew on the top of the swath. If i could build shrouds off the tractor so the blast of hot air coming from the tractor fan was directed on to the swath i could probably go a couple hours longer at night.

[farmaholic]

Sounds more like a duct nightmare than a pipe dream.

How much heat would you need to overcome the temperature and volume of the incoming air!

I think you might be better off going when it's real cold than trying to keep seives open with heating the incoming air.

So what happens to clean grain and return cross augers? Grain in the hopper?

I know desperate times take desperate measures but.... can you imagine the amount of water that would be in the swaths with snow in and on them. Standing crop may be better.

Maybe plan for next spring harvest.....or if there isn't too much snow when it gets real cold try then.
Who the hell ever thought you would have to use winter fuel in a combine. Do combine DEF tanks have heaters in them? That crap freezes at temperatures that might be required to attempt harvesting in cold weather.

Good luck SF

[AlbertaFarmer5]

We've been generously blessed with a foot of fresh snow in the past 24 hours ( Happened just as soon as the rain finished melting the last snowfall). So the only supplemental heat that is going to help here is from the yellow ball in the sky, if it ever shows up again.

I've yet to be able to predict under what conditions snow/frost will and won't go through. On the last night/day we were able to combine, I tried at night, but it wasn't quite cold enough, and very frosty, plugged sieves very often. Daylight was better, but canola straw was too wet, and bridged chopper, still needed to clean sieves often. Warmest part of the day worked best, still getting ice chunks in the hopper, but sieves stayed clean for long periods. Then it rained, and sieves plugged immediately. Yet a few days prior, I got snowed out, and was still combining with 2" of warm wet snow on the ground after dark before it finally started to accumulate on grain pan and sieves.

[farmaholic]

Sounds like farmer harvest hell to me. But instead of fire and brimstone it's freezing cold and ice.

[sumdumguy]

-21 degrees- Nov 6 so balmy - Thank God for global warming 🥵

[MBgrower]

how many of you have DEF issues? Even after warming the combine up to running temp that f%cking DEF was still throwing code errors ( ie to cold to build up pressure, etc). the DEF tank has an internal heater, and i would make sure not to have more than 10 gallons in each night so that it would warm up more quickly. Only way to clear the computer errors is to have a service call. Technician said he had steady business. Only solution is to park in a heated shop each night. DEF delete will be installed next year.

[biglentil]

Move the radiator to underneath combine ahead of the cleaning fan would probably work. Though there is alot of cfm and wind required in the shoe the restriction and keeping the rad clean would become the next hurdle.

If you could get a tin banger to duct air from the engine bay to the cleaning fan intake may prove more practical. What that might look like though, yikes.

[Guest]

luckily , this snow combining doesn't happen often . we have done it maybe 4 times in this lifelong battle
wonder why farmers haven't started a class action lawsuit against manufacturers for def downtime ,like trucking industry did ?
we were having problems with rogator , dealer told us to live with it until extended warranty off (that we paid for), then pay ourselves to delete

[furrowtickler]

how many of you have DEF issues? Even after warming the combine up to running temp that f%cking DEF was still throwing code errors ( ie to cold to build up pressure, etc). the DEF tank has an internal heater, and i would make sure not to have more than 10 gallons in each night so that it would warm up more quickly. Only way to clear the computer errors is to have a service call. Technician said he had steady business. Only solution is to park in a heated shop each night. DEF delete will be installed next year.

It’s frustrating to have immensely expensive downtime and very costly repairs to DEF systems and then still be faced with carbon tax on top of all this . And they wonder why most farmers hate the carbon tax for that simple fact alone .
And then on top of it have people who say they farm wag their fingers at those of us using these systems in machinery to prevent pollution but don’t have that tech on their own “farms” or machinery ...
Do as I say not as I do .... lol

[bucket]

Sent my wonderful wife to get DEF one day .....after finishing explaining it to her ...the response was.....that's just stupid....yup...

So we buy fuel and then spend more to burn the fuel at the exhaust...and she was shutdown with codes on the combine one night....

All I was told is that it's stupid....

yes dear I know...

...""""shut up you are stupid for putting up with this shit,,,"""

Yes dear....

There is a fix for this nonsense. ...let our wives have a sit-down with McKenna. ...

[fjlip]

Sent my wonderful wife to get DEF one day .....after finishing explaining it to her ...the response was.....that's just stupid....yup...

So we buy fuel and then spend more to burn the fuel at the exhaust...and she was shutdown with codes on the combine one night....

All I was told is that it's stupid....

yes dear I know...

...""""shut up you are stupid for putting up with this shit,,,"""

Yes dear....

There is a fix for this nonsense. ...let our wives have a sit-down with McKenna. ...

Tell her she is making husbands CRAZY, wrecking marriages! F*CK her tax!

[6V53]

Gleaner with deutz diesel and a plasma cutter should be ready for experiment in less than an hour. Maybe some flex pipe for the exhaust.

[helmsdale]

Move the radiator to underneath combine ahead of the cleaning fan would probably work. Though there is alot of cfm and wind required in the shoe the restriction and keeping the rad clean would become the next hurdle.

If you could get a tin banger to duct air from the engine bay to the cleaning fan intake may prove more practical. What that might look like though, yikes.

That's sort of what I'm thinking...

Place a second set of wide core radiators and something to keep them cleaned off in front of the cleaning fan, and you could even get a bit of a power bump by killing your engine compartment fan.

Not necessarily ducting air coming out of the engine compartment, but physically relocating the cooling system.

As farma said though... everything would be a liquid then and likely end up mixing with the grain and making it tougher rather than expelling it out the back. Hard to know whether water droplets would be small enough to blow out with the chaff, or large enough to drop through the sieves.