An itty bitty, teeny tiny problem with the combine...

After the 40 days & 40 nights of rain, B-rad was finally able to get back into the field on Sunday.  Everything was well again in the world...until...

Around 7:30 pm I got a call:

B-rad: "The motor on the combine just came apart."

Me:  "HUH?  What do you mean it 'came apart?"

B-rad: "The motor on the combine -  I was driving & it just stopped.  I got out & there are pieces of it laying around."

And now we know how much a complete motor (a re-manufactured motor, mind you - NOT a brand new one) for a combine costs.... $21,400.00

YEA.

Ok- so now that I have your complete & un-divided attention I'll tell ya the story:

B-rad was in the field doing his combining thing & the machine started to vibrate really bad.  He heard a loud 'flopping' or knocking noise that sounded like a belt was coming apart.  Suddenly the engine died & smoke started rolling.

So B-rad did what any other farmer would do, he got out to figure out what the hell was going on.

And what he saw made his heart sink...

Pieces of the motor...broken... 

and bent...

And I have no idea what all this stuff means, but I'm gonna tell you exactly what B-rad texted me when I asked him what the hell happened to describe on the blog told me... A piston hit a valve that was stuck open.  A bolt had come out & something slid over causing that valve to stay open.  Then the piston hit the valve, the rod broke & sent it through the block in front & back.   Like I said - it's all Greek to me, but it's very, VERY bad.

This is a catastrophic (dramatic, much?) failure.  I mean - it's the MOTOR.  And things like this just don't happen everyday.  B-rad watches his gauges, he checks the oil & the engine temp.  He didn't let it overheat & blow up - it just came apart.  No warning, no reason.

B-rad spent most his day Monday trying to research their options.  Of course we still have grain in the fields so we have to do something.  He called to get a price on a new motor (which is the $21,400.00 I told you about).  And even though that's bad enough news, the even worse news is we can't get one for at least 35 days.  We don't have 35 days to wait...

Before anything else could be done, they had to get the broken combine out of the field.  Thank goodness he was close to the barn when it broke.  The head was still on the front of the machine down on the ground.  The head runs on hydraulics & guess what controls those hydraulics?  Yes, the motor...

First job was figuring out how to get the head to raise up & remove it so they could haul it back to the barn.  I have to give it to my hubby, he's pretty darn creative.  They hooked the hydraulic hoses for the head to another tractor & operated the head via the tractor.  If you look closely you can see the black hoses connecting the 2 machines.  

 The next night they used the Case tractor to pull the combine back to the barn.  They had a chain hooked to the combine as well as the hydraulic hoses.  B-rad's inside the tractor pulling & controlling the combine from it.  His dad is inside the combine to control the brakes...

And since Sunday night when this happened & today when I'm posting this (Friday) we have changed our minds about 4,324 times as to what we want to do.  We know we HAVE to rent a machine from our dealer to get as much done as we can while we figure this whole thing out and/or get a new motor.  That will cost $15/acre.  We can't just throw our hands up in the air or lay in the fetal position sucking our thumbs - we have a crop to get in - we paid a LOT of money to get it put out!  

Here were our options:  (I would like to also point out that the boys looked & looked for other machines to get motors out of.  Burnt machines, older machines, old motors, etc.  Trust me - they didn't just jump into the $21k option...)

1.  Replace our motor & wait 35 days for it to come in.  That will end up costing around $30,000.00 by the time it's all said & done.  (Shipping the motor [that ain't cheap], putting oil & fluids in it, & other various 'parts' it would require.  That does not include the boys labor to put it in.)  This also means we would be renting that other machine for 35 days.  We have roughly 1000 acres left.  Not that they would get all 1000 done in 35 days, but if they did - that would be another $15,000.00 for the rent - worse case.

2.  We could trade in our combine for the rental machine & pay $10,000.00.  (Best I can explain that is like when you're upside down on a car - you owe more on it than they will trade for it.  I mean-the combine has no motor - it's practically USELESS.)  {B-rad did a TON of work on that machine this summer to get it ready.  (Remember we just got it at the end of last years harvest?)  He had to mount all his monitors & it had been sitting in a barn for a while before we bought it & it reeked of mice.  He had to take the whole cab apart to get it cleaned out.} The dealer would waive the rental fee if we did that. As of Monday night - that's what they thought they would do.  BUT-when the rental machine got here on Wednesday, B-rad did NOT like how it ran, how it sounded or how it looked.  He was uncomfortable with the machine & the prospect of trading ours for the rental (which is also a year older & has more hours on it.)  B-rad told his brother, "We really need to think about replacing the motor."

3.  Rebuild our motor.  I heard words like 'short block' & 'turbo' being thrown around.  Not sure what any of it meant, but that job would be quite an undertaking. 

4.  Brian called Cummins (that's who makes the motor) & talked & begged about other options to get a motor faster.  The Cummins guy ended up doing some more leg work for us & found a motor in Canada...& it's brand new.  It will cost us $19,000.00 & will be $1800.00 to ship it here.  It will come with a warranty, so depending on whether it's void if we install it - Cummins will do the work for us & we'll have whatever labor bill for that.  

And option #4 it is, people...  

And you may be wondering if the motor is so expensive that surely we will make butt loads of money off our crop to cover it?   And of course, it's not that simple...  Right now prices on corn are down - like in the $3 range a bushel.  That's like really, really low.  We have been selling grain from last year we were holding onto to pay some bills, but money is still tight right now.   I always tell you guys B-rad doesn't do this to make money, he does it because he loves it & he's investing in our future.  The farm pays for the ground we own & the property taxes.  (And for those tax conscience blog stalkers, B-rad & I show the payment for the land from the farm as income when we file our taxes.) B-rad & I can't afford that on our own.  That would be around $20,000/year for just the 200 acres we own & taxes on them...that does not include the 200 we own w/ Brian & Lora or their 200 acres they have separate from us or the taxes.  It's crazy town money.   AND what makes the combine motor money situation even worse is our financial guy has been on or asses the last couple of years about how much money it costs to put our crops out, etc.  This past year we had to make MAJOR changes to get our input prices down or he was going to refuse to let us borrow the money.  

He's got the money - so he's got us by the balls...  

Although the farm doesn't pay any of our personal bills (house, cars, groceries, utilities) the financial people still look through our personal finances.  Every year I have to tell them how much money we have in savings & investments.  I have to tell them what our home, belongings & vehicles are worth.  I also have to show them all bills we owe (credit cards, loans for said house & cars, etc.)  2 years ago when I bought my car, he ripped B-rad's ass about it - he questioned why we did that.  UHM, I traded in a car that got like 15-17 mpg for a car that gets 29-33 mpg & the payment was less.  To me, that was a good decision but he didn't think so.  

So if you're wondering how we're going to pay for this - me too!   We will have to sell more grain now at the lower price - which sucks but we gotta do what we gotta do.  Grain prices always go down at harvest because everyone is harvesting at the same time.  It's supply & demand, people.  If we can hold onto it & store it & sell it in the winter & spring when there's a demand & not much supply the price goes up.  We are fortunate because at the barn we have 8 bins for grain storage.  (The bins are financed in w/ the land we own w/ Brian & Lora that we bought from my in laws a few years ago.  Yep, we're also paying for our inheritance.  Cool, huh?  I think I blogged about it but you guys may not remember...it was 2011, after all...)  Most farmers around here don't have that so we usually have more flexibility on when we sell & can watch for the market to go up...

For now - B-rad has been using the rented machine to run corn.  He will continue to do that until the new motor comes in & is installed - whether it's Cummins or McAfee's.  B-rad thinks it should only take a day or so to get it all put it.  I was surprised by that...seems like that much money should get at least a weeks worth of work out of them...

I know I threw a lot at ya'll in this one - as always, if you have any questions comment below.