He Uses Combine To Do Two Different Jobs

He Uses Combine To Do Two Different Jobs COMBINES Conversions 15-2-6 After being dissatisfied with the grain cleaners he hired in town, Oklahoma farmer Bill Crain decided to turn his old Deere 95 combine into an on-farm, portable grain cleaner. What's more, Crain also uses the converted machine as a self-propelled swather, laying down grain swaths for harvest later with another machine. "I cut off the combine right in back of the motor, removing the cylinder drive chain, straw walkers, return elevator chain and the feederhouse conveyor chain leading up to the cylinder. I mounted a grain hopper off an old pull-type Gleaner combine on back that drops grain onto the front end of the sieves," explains Crain. Screenings are caught in an old cut-off 50-gal. barrel and clean wheat is elevated into Deere combine's grain tank. "It does an excellent job, cleaning between 275 and 300 bu. of wheat per hour and it only costs me the price of running the combine. I like the fact that I can take the cleaner to the grain, rather than hauling grain to the cleaner," says Crain. To swath grain with the converted combine, Crain simply removes the long belt on the right side to stop the separator, and then removes the feederhouse door, cross brace, and other pieces of metal just in back of the header auger. "It does a good job, laying down a swath between the combine wheels. It has swathed many an acre of small grains, even during the years when it was still used to harvest grain." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bill Crain, Helena, Okla. 73741 (ph 405 626-4766).

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