98’ R52 Feeding Issues

I am running a 98’ R52 with a 20’ 800 series header in soft red winter wheat. The wheat has a lot of straw in places and some is tough, some isn’t. We just put the rear floor hump removal kit in and lowered the rear of the throat floor also, new rear feederhouse chain and sprockets and front chain and sprockets doesn’t have many hours on them. We also did some mods to the rotor and cage while we were working on it. I am struggling terribly now with plugging the feederhouse (both slip clutches on feeder chains rebuilt also). It doesn’t matter how fast or slow I go, how hi or low I cut it randomly happens. It’s probably plugging up 5-10 times per 1/2 mile rounds. Drive belts are good and tight. I was blaming a lot of this on the header but after lowering the auger, slowing it down, grinding the flighting square and changing the finger position it has started feeding better. The rotor seems to be taking the material fine but it acts like it’s plugging at the transition between the 2 chains. Or in the front chain. We had this problem before we did the floor mods and was really hoping this would solve the problem. Combine just has slightly over 1200 sep hours and we’ve owned it for 18 years. I just don’t understand what’s going on, been fighting this problem for a few years and just don’t know what else to do. I’m about ready to give up on this combine and drag the old 69’ F!!

Both slip clutches rebuilt with full sets of double springs. Rear clutch is slipping also. Drums set for max height, and in the large pulley down front.

When my reel is all the way back and lowered it will barely touch the auger flighting and just clear the sickle. Are you saying it needs raised and moved further back? I have also ground the auger flighting square and that did help tremendously but still having issues. From the cab it seems like it is regurgitating material out the throat onto the auger but when I stop the machine there’s nothing on the top side of the throat feeder chain. I just gave up and walked off last night. I’ve never had these issues before, or at least to this extent.

Do the R62’s have these feeding issues with the wider feederhouse? I don’t want a bigger combine but considering one just for the wider feederhouse.

Wider feeder house is waaaay better for sure.  The 30 inch diameter auger is what I've always complained about on the 800's and newer headers. Because of the larger auger diameter, it keeps the reel teeth (when at 6 oclock) farther away from the auger causing a larger void area, losing some control of the feeding smoothness. In soybeans, the best results are auger moved forward as far as possible (even adding a half link or two to the drive chain), up off the floor at least 3/4", make a slow down sprocket for the 30 inch auger (peripheral speed too fast compared to 24 inch augers) and then adjust the reel as far down and back as possible. Raised feathering sheets are another huge plus. I'm not a wheat guy and I don't think the auger forward and up will work. I've never tried the lock washers driven onto the auger flighting to help with feeding. It couldn't hurt, could it ?? I still wonder if the rear conveyer clutch hesitates first and then the throat clutch then has to give out. I know years ago I started trimming the front feed drum side shields (on the header) back an inch on each side to open things up a little. The low flighting extensions aren't feeding too much to the middle are they ??   Tough straw aggravates feeding.

I have actually trimmed the header auger flighting in the center. I removed the extension on the right side and took a torch and cut several inches off of the left side. I have also tried the lock washer trick and it seemed to cause more harm than good. I am shoving quite a bit of material through it and it seems to take it then bam!! It’s all over. I am gonna have someone drive it today and walk beside it and see what starts slipping first.

You've already done all the things I would have suggested. Make that rear clutch solid would be next try. When I rebuilt my 62 rear feeder I put the 65 shaft in and eliminated the clutch.

How about adding a half link to the rear chain to get it closer to the transition area?? 

The grain is dry 12.1 yesterday but some tougher straw. Feederhouse chains are installed properly but they are aftermarket from Abaline machine and don’t have much bite on their slats. Wondering if that’s a lot of the problem?? My wife got in the cab and ran the switches for the separator for me so I could see what’s going on. When she engaged the feederhouse it pulled the slug out, but as soon as it hit the rotor at idle it slugged the rotor. I had to lower rear cage door to clean it out. I had her engage separator again to clean out. Dumb me, I had left the door open, well the fingers on the cross auger under rotor hit the door and then something got into one of the new accelerator rolls and destroyed it. I just had to walk off!! Got the 83 F3 out and planning on finishing with it.

We pulled the R52 up to the shop tonight to make some repairs. Put the OEM feederhouse chains back in, replacing the torn up accelerator rolls.

Question for Dr on the RH pivot belt. So you say the belt goes on the large diameter pulley down in the front lower portion of the throat and on the smaller pulley on the RH pivot shaft? Just making sure I’m reading this all right.

Thanks for all the responses and information.

As Doc suggested, the front of  the rear feed chain needs to be close to the back of the front chain - you have something going on here out of the ordinary.  We have a ton of R40-R55's running - some cutting SRW wheat close to the ground to bale behind.  Another suggestion, we leave the front/rear drums in the CORN position but cut the top of the block so as to allow max movement up after adding the late model 'deep throat' kit. The only issue I had with the old R50 was when wheat was 'down' and laying in different directions and this even causes issues in our R72 - and every other machine. Cylinder speed is 900 plus at near 0 on the clearance...    

Update on the R52 and to answer a previous question, no it doesn’t have lateral tilt. We pulled it up to the shop last night to make repairs on the accelerator rolls. I went over everything to make sure things were set right and I’ll be the first to admit when I screw up, and I did. I had the feederhouse chain drive belts on the wrong pulleys on right side of throat. I switched those and things improved but not greatly. So we took the aftermarket feederhouse chains out (not impressed with them at all, chains ok but slats were horrible) and put the original old OEM chains back in. Went to the field and no improvement at all until about a 1/4 mile of cutting. The chains were rusty and it seemed like once they shined up things started working better. It is night and day difference now. Still plugging up some and it is usually the rear chain slipping first. I think after reading all the responses and listening to the Dr. And Tbran I feel that the problem is the transition between the chains. I did the Dan Hurtt feederhouse floor mods but kept the 8” drums. Things still seem super tight between that rear dr and floor. Would the 7” drum be that much of an improvement?

There was lots of issues going on; my ignorance on the right side belt being wrong, worn flighting on header auger and auger needing lowered, and the poor aftermarket feederhouse chain slats. I feel like that gap between the chains can cause a lot of grief. We cut all day today, even had a neighbor come drive trucks!!

Question for Tbran, you mentioned having lots of R40’s to R55s running, have you ever had anyone put a draper head on one of the smaller feederhouse machines? I would love to put a 20’ draper on my combine and see what it would do. I bought an old 25’ Honeybee rice draper that I had wanted to fabricate an adaptor and cut it down to 20’ but never have got it done.

I have heard  7in is better than 8in.  My 62 has 7in drums and works good in beans and corn. No wheat here. All the Hurtt mods.

Sometimes going fishing for a couple days to let the straw dry and ripen makes everything go better. Thats what some of those old timers would say.