A stupic a$$ed question.

[stevieb49829]

I'm not a farmer, so I know naught. How do you tell when the bin is getting full on a combine? Inquiring minds need to know! steve

Sorry, that title is StupiDDDD

This post was edited by stevieb49829 on 10/18/2023 at 06:19 pm.

 

[waugh621]

Most combines have sensor on them. Or just pop out the cab and lay the old peepers on it.
Nate

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Don't some combines have a clear window in the bin near the top to see when it is full?


The combines in my neighbor hood are dumping their load in a transfer cart while they are still harvesting. Combine never stops to empty the bin. The time it takes to empty the cart into the semi parked along the side of the road, the combine is ready to empty the next load.

 

[MarkB_MI]

You can always look. Typically you learn pretty quick how fast the bin is filling and if you'll be able to complete a circuit around the field before the bin is full.

On hilly ground, you don't want to get the bin too full as it will tend to cause the combine to tip and cut unevenly.

Mind you, it's been almost forty year since I operated a combine.

 

[Roger in Iowa]

Notice on most combines,especially new ones, there will be grain on top of the cab roof (there should not be grain there). Evidently sensors and eyeballs don't always work. Or yep there is enough room to make it to the end of the row.

 

[buzzinduzzin]

there is also a balance between header size , hopper size and field length . for example on 1/4 mile rows you can generally make 2 rounds in beans or one round in corn in my area

 

[flying belgian]

What?? You have a cab on your combine??

 

[rustred]

this all depends on what model combine, new or old ??? older ones you just turn around and look in the hopper, some have a plastic window in the front of hopper and most u can see just by looking at the top of it as the grain will be easy to see. and yes it is common to unload on the go. everytime you shut down the combine your grain picks up chaff . there is a sweet spot combining, not too fast or not too slow. and of course these million and a half new combine tell u everything so u are just a dummy operating it and reading the computer. i run my old combines and hardly trust the grain monitors when they are beeping and flashing. and am always looking at whats going into the hopper. just like i told my new wanna be neighbor farmer. i said i look behind me lots more than i am looking ahead of me when baling and cutting hay. the machine is behind you, you need to watch it.

 

[redforlife]

Newer combines have a beeper that goes off when the bin is full. Kind of like when your microwave runs the time off and then beeps at ya.

How does this work? There is a sensor that reads when the grain reaches a certain level. When it reaches that level, it trigers the alarm.

 

[redforlife]

Such combines are designed to spill over on top of the cab roof first when it overflows. That way the operator knows the bin is spilling over. If it spilled over a back corner first, the operator may very well not realize it's spilling over.

Alot of people have thier warning sensor set so the bin fills to the very max. The problem with this is, even though they might stop harvesting when the buzzer goes off, they still got to get back to a truck to dump it off. But if they go over a terrace, or hit a bump, or drive through a roadside ditch, the heaped up pile in the grain bin will level out and spill over at the lowest point. That lowest point being on top of the cab.
Not a good idea to set sensor to fill bin to the max because of what I described.

 

[John M]

Thumbs up to you on that one! We never had a combine with a cab right up into the early 80s when we went to full hay operation. 141 IH Hillside, and JD 45. Cut over 1000 acres a year with those things.

 

[Masseyharrisnut]

Hi Steve. My case combine has a window that gets covered with grain by the time the hopper or bin is half full. Then there is a 3/4 full warning beeper and icon on the monitor screen. Then when its full another sensor beeper goes off and a larger icon shows up on the monitor. I have mine set so that you can go another 100 to 200 feet on a decent wheat crop before it starts to run over. Gives the trucker time to get there to unload.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Doesn't the sensor generally trigger some bit BEFORE the bin is full?

You're supposed to stop and dump but that doesn't usually happen. It's not FULL. "There's still room in the bin so I can keep going a ways," or, "I can make it to the end of the row..." Sometimes you end up with CAB CORN.

 

[stevieb49829]

You know, the part I never even thought about is the experience of doing a pass or two and knowing how full you got covering that ground. I appreciate the cordial replies. I guess it wasn't really a stupid question after all. I like the part about grain on the cab roof. steve

 

[Goose]

Most new combines have beepers, etc.

The last two that I owned, a JD 55 and a JD 105 had mirrors that looked into the bin. Can't remember if they were factory installed.

 

[E.B. Haymakin']

I was hoping for a 2023 answer....oh we have a deployable drone that sends images of the grain bin from overhead to a video screen in the cab....oh well.

 

[620 John]

The old Deere 20 series combines have a back window in the cab. There is also a window in the grain tank. Once the window in the grain tank completely covered the bin is full. This is assuming they don't have grain tank extensions.

Since the 9400-9600 combines they've had full sensors that sound an alarm when full.

Funny story. I went through a combine inspection on a 70 series jd combine and talking with the customer I mentioned the grain tank full sensors didn't work. He said "Yea I know they don't work and the last combine we had they didn't seem to work very good. It'd be nice to get them working again because it doesn't take long to have corn running on the top of the cab and going all over the place. I thought about drilling a small hole in the extension so I could hear a small trickle of corn on top of the cab shortly before it comes running over the top."

As you can probably imagine, cosmetics don't really matter to that operation.

 

[moresmoke]

No drone needed. Many modern combines have a camera
mounted at the top of the grain tank. You can pull up the
image on the in cab display and see in the tank.

Most combines today have a couple level sensors in the
grain tank to provide a warning. You can also use the
yield monitor to count how many bushels have been
harvested since last empty. Deere offers a set of scales in
the bottom of the hopper that will tell the operator how
much is in the tank.