Simple Ideas Make Night Harvest Easier

2001 - Volume #25, Issue #2, Page #10

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Dale Halsey, Ligonier, Ind., says a lot of his combining is done at night so he's come up with a couple of ideas to make things go a little more smoothly.
First, to make his header easier to see - and stay on the rows better - Halsey hit on the idea of spray-painting the tips of the snouts on his corn head with a bright orange phosphorescent paint.
Second, to give him a heads-up when the grain tank is getting full, Halsey installed a flapper switch about 3 in. below the top of the hopper and wired it to an alarm and a flashing yellow light that he mounted on the cab. When grain presses against the switch, the buzzer and light tell him the hopper is nearly full.
The light is bright enough to be seen by others in the field, too. He says this lets the person with the grain wagon know it's time to empty, so they can be ready or can set out to catch up with him if he's heading towards the other end of the field.
He says the warning alarm gets your attention, in case you're not paying attention to the grain tank. "This fall, my beans turned out better than I'd expected. If I hadn't had the alarm on the tank, I'd have run over the first tank and maybe some later because it kept filling sooner than I thought it would," he says.
The flapper switch came from his Deere dealer at a cost of about $7. The alarm is a backup warning device from a truck. He bought that from a junkyard for around $10. The light was a truck clearance light he bought at a farm supply store. To get it to flash, he installed a turn-signal flasher in the in the wiring.
And one more thing: "These older combines don't have dome lights in the cab. I installed one of those battery powered ætap' lights inside the cab, so now, when I need a dome light, I just tap on the light to turn it on." The light Halsey installed runs on 4 AA batteries and can be mounted anywhere.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dale Halsey, 9137N 275W, Ligonier, Ind. 46767 (ph 219 761-2803).

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Simple Ideas Make Night Harvest Easier COMBINES Modifications 25-2-10 Dale Halsey, Ligonier, Ind., says a lot of his combining is done at night so he's come up with a couple of ideas to make things go a little more smoothly. First, to make his header easier to see - and stay on the rows better - Halsey hit on the idea of spray-painting the tips of the snouts on his corn head with a bright orange phosphorescent paint. Second, to give him a heads-up when the grain tank is getting full, Halsey installed a flapper switch about 3 in. below the top of the hopper and wired it to an alarm and a flashing yellow light that he mounted on the cab. When grain presses against the switch, the buzzer and light tell him the hopper is nearly full. The light is bright enough to be seen by others in the field, too. He says this lets the person with the grain wagon know it's time to empty, so they can be ready or can set out to catch up with him if he's heading towards the other end of the field. He says the warning alarm gets your attention, in case you're not paying attention to the grain tank. "This fall, my beans turned out better than I'd expected. If I hadn't had the alarm on the tank, I'd have run over the first tank and maybe some later because it kept filling sooner than I thought it would," he says. The flapper switch came from his Deere dealer at a cost of about $7. The alarm is a backup warning device from a truck. He bought that from a junkyard for around $10. The light was a truck clearance light he bought at a farm supply store. To get it to flash, he installed a turn-signal flasher in the in the wiring. And one more thing: "These older combines don't have dome lights in the cab. I installed one of those battery powered ætap' lights inside the cab, so now, when I need a dome light, I just tap on the light to turn it on." The light Halsey installed runs on 4 AA batteries and can be mounted anywhere. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dale Halsey, 9137N 275W, Ligonier, Ind. 46767 (ph 219 761-2803).

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