WD hand clutch picking corn

I was picking corn with my mounted 190 picker on a WD. My problem is with today's corn I cannot go slow enough.

Yep, plant at 20,000 or 22,000 seeds per acre...... maybe up to 25,000. Better yet, find a D17 and mount it to that.

My dad bought a '53 WD that had been a demonstrator. We were told that because the hand clutch was a wet clutch, oil bath, that it could be spilted all day. 

ALL WD hand clutches were wet clutches..ALL.Like what was said, lower your population to around 20,000 or so. The manual explains about the clutch pack shim procedure. Enjoy your picking! Wish I could help!

I never meant my comment to be a comment on slipping a wet clutch.....just when something is getting hot, it usually ain't a good sign, and like doc says, it's likely going to cost you money at some point.  Thing is, I guess "hot" is a subjective statement.  How hot?  Feel the from a foot away, can't quite stand to touch it, fry an egg???

Gary, We have an old WD that picked most of the corn on this farm Some years over 5000 bushels. Dad put on 12.4 tires from the 11.2 and speeded the tractor up to the point it was almost to fast in general picking and in hard picking, you had to slip the clutch... And it got slipped by the hour. Keep the clutch full of good oil.  Seems we pulled a few shims out of it many years ago But never has been apart.  Maybe we were lucky. The picker is a number 33.

  There was one year that we had to hire the picking done when we had planted Trojan TX90 corn, that stuff was 12-14 feet tall and had 3 cobs to a stalk and the first one was at eye level or higher.  That was some corn. Tried picking it and the rolls had a hard time with the size of the stalk itself and could not raise high enough to just pick under the ear. Even a New Idea 324 picker had some troubles picking it. had an 8 roll bed and should have had a 12... the ears were over a foot long too.  That TX90 seed was only available for like 3 years and was discontinued.
  To plow the stalks under was like trying to plow small trees down. had to disc it twice and put weights on the disk to get it to cut through... should have had a stalk chopper at the time.

Better yet sell picker to me and get yourself a pull type new idea. Just kidding unless you want to sell it then I would buy it . Always wanted one.

I think its more that the heat is more efficiently transferred.

HoughMade wrote: I think its more that the heat is more efficiently transferred.

It isn't. Transmission oil is designed to "grab", which decreases heat and friction in an automatic transmission. It doesn't have friction modifiers. This application is different. He wants a controlled amount of friction. Cooling fins on the case would reduce heat, but it really won't improve anything. The clutch is being used as designed. Maybe he could put a set of wheels and tires from a B or C on the WD while using iy for picking.

Eta: Uh maybe not. I checked tire height. The tractor would be about 22 inches lower. It would move half as fast. But the drawbar would be dragging in the ground.



Edited by DougS - 02 Nov 2017 at 7:06pm

If you can hold your hand on the housing it's not hot.

200 degrees + is hot. 110 degrees is about all you can hold your hand on.   MACK

Edited by JimIA - 06 Nov 2017 at 9:17am

The WD hand clutch was built to pull a round baler and if you have baled heavy hay with one you know just how the hand clutch was feathered it for long periods of time, I'm saying go 10' or so and stop them go again 10' and stop all day long. Keep it full of good oil and pick your corn it will be OK. lol

Gary I had a 226 JD picker mounted on a wd45. I had the PTO gear for a JD tractor. I continually had to slip the hand clutch. If I had the correct gear for the WD 45 the picker would have run faster eliminating the slipping of the hand clutch. I had purchased the picker at a farm sale and purchased the mounting brackets from another fellow. He could not find the PTO gear for the WD 45 so I ran the one I got with the picker. Might speed up your picker a little and eliminate your problem.

Edited by HD6GTOM - 06 Nov 2017 at 8:23pm

Yeah being able to see it is good in a way, but that dust is a killer.  Sometimes literally.  Lots of older farmers developed asthma, emphysema, etc.,.  Personally I have asthma.  I'll keep the dust behind me, and in many conditions I have to wear a mask.