Our combine was made in the year 2000. But if ya'll thought we bought it when it was brand new, you're dead wrong. We bought it in 2004. And it was el-expensivo even then!
Last year, B-rad started having trouble with it during harvest. After careful deliberation, they came to the conclusion that the rotor was going bad. Now, I'm not sure what all the rotor does, I just know that B-rad said to call this post "open heart surgery" because the rotor is the heart of the machine. (Have I mentioned I love it when he plays along? He even took all these pics for the blog! I didn't even know they were doing this last night! Be still my heart! -no pun intended...)
Ok-back to the farm lesson. After the corn (or beans) are fed into the head, the rotor snatches them up. It is the entire length of the combine & it is what 'shells' the seed. For example: the corn gets plucked off the stalk. The rotor is what removes the husk from the corn. Then it strips the seed off the cob. The seed is then sorted into the 'tank' & the rest is called 'trash'. The rotor feeds all the trash out the back of the combine & spits it out back into the atmosphere. 
So last year the combine wasn't running as aggressively as it should. They were losing some of the seed because the rotor wasn't doing its job properly. And the seed is the gold, people! That's what we sell to get cold, hard cash!
They nursed the rotor as best they could last year to get harvest completed. But they knew they were going to have an un-pleasant (& expensive) job ahead of them. 
And last night, they removed the rotor out of the combine.
This bad boy is around 21' long. I'm sure it weighs a ton, too.
Doesn't the combine look lost without its guts? Sigh...
They loaded it on a semi trailer & will have to take it to the heart surgeon in Boonville, IN. The doctors there will rebuild it, then they will have to go pick it back up. That part of the repair will cost around $8000-$10,000. You might be thinking, "Holy moly! $10, 000 to fix it?!" Uhm, yea that sucks...but a new machine would cost in the $150-$200,000 range...
So last year the combine wasn't running as aggressively as it should. They were losing some of the seed because the rotor wasn't doing its job properly. And the seed is the gold, people! That's what we sell to get cold, hard cash! They nursed the rotor as best they could last year to get harvest completed. But they knew they were going to have an un-pleasant (& expensive) job ahead of them. And last night, they removed the rotor out of the combine.
This bad boy is around 21' long. I'm sure it weighs a ton, too.
Doesn't the combine look lost without its guts? Sigh...
They loaded it on a semi trailer & will have to take it to the heart surgeon in Boonville, IN. The doctors there will rebuild it, then they will have to go pick it back up. That part of the repair will cost around $8000-$10,000. You might be thinking, "Holy moly! $10, 000 to fix it?!" Uhm, yea that sucks...but a new machine would cost in the $150-$200,000 range...Also-please check back periodically for comments. I'm sure B-rad will have lots of corrections to make to what I've said. But really, what do I know about the combine?! Lets be honest, this is really MY dog & pony show - he's just along for the ride. Besides-I type better than he does. And I'm funnier...
2 comments:
that is great that he took pictures for you!! what a man!!!! good job b-rad!!
Thanks Alicia. To be truthful I kind of just wanted to play with my iPhone's camera. :-) Although I said to myself she would love to blog about this. Also I got no credit for the title but that was my idea to. Technically the engine is the heart of the combine, but without the Rotor the engine and machine are worthless. So that's why I said open heart surgery.
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