Reworked Skid Shoe Stops Pushing Dirt

Reworked Skid Shoe Stops Pushing Dirt COMBINES Headers 34-1-37 "I changed the shape of one of the skid shoes on my Deere 630 Hydra Flex combine header because it wasn't working as well as I wanted," says Roger Gutschmidt, Gackle, N. Dak. When combining this year's soybean crop under wet conditions, the skid shoe on the left side (under the knife drive) kept pushing up mud and dirt. He solved the problem by flattening the steel skid plate to more of a gradual incline. He had to remove the skid shoe from the combine and place it in his press. "It's made out of some real tough material that could not be shaped without taking it off the machine. Once I had flattened it in the press, I had to weld in a pie-shaped piece of sheet metal," he says. "The project took about 3 hrs. in all, but 2 hrs. of that was removing it and reinstalling it on my header." According to Gutschmidt, the poly skid material on the underside was not changed or altered, so the replaceable pieces can still be purchased at any Deere dealer. "Once in place, the modification is almost impossible to see, and it works perfectly. There's no more pushing dirt," he explains. "I'm surprised the factory engineers couldn't see that there'd be problems the way it was shaped originally." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Gutschmidt Manufacturing LLC, Roger Gutschmidt, 6651 Hwy. 56, Gackle, N. Dak. 58442 (ph 701 698-2310; shopdoc@drtel.net).

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