Repowered Deere 5830

1997 - Volume #21, Issue #1, Page #40

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When you cut 60,000 to 70,000 tons of silage a season, you need all the performance, speed and capacity from your forage harvester that you can muster.
That's why Fairview, Okla., custom cut-ter Randy Keck and his company repowered his 1991 Deere 5830 self-propelled forage harvester with a big Cummins diesel out of an over-the-road semi tractor.
"We simply needed more horsepower and torque than the 290 hp Deere diesel was capable of delivering," says Keck of GRK Enterprises. "In 25-ton per acre corn silage, we're now able to fill one of our shop-built, 22-ft. long by 8 1/2-ft. wide by 7 1/2-ft. high truck boxes in just six minutes. Before we modified the forage harvester, it took eight minutes to fill one of the boxes."
Keck and associates repowered the for-age harvester, which they call a "Keck/ Deere 5950", with an 855 cu. in. 400 hp diesel out of a wrecked Kenworth semi. Be-fore installing it, they completely rebuilt the Cummins to farm engine specifications. This included replacing the original fuel pump with a variable speed pump with 35% torque rise.
Fitting the bigger engine into the harvester required stretching the frame 9 in., then fabricating a longer, higher hood to cover it.
"The biggest part of the job was engineering an adapter plate out of mild steel to adapt the Deere main drive clutch, which is 12 in. in dia., to the Cummins flywheel, which is 14 in. in dia.," Keck says.
"We kept the Deere's lower fuel tank but replaced its top plastic tank with a 130-gal. steel tank, increasing total fuel capacity to 200 gal.
"We added two 6 by 12-in. blower paddles fabricated out of abrasive-resistant 1/4-in. thick plate inside the blower, increasing the number of paddles to six. We also made a 15-ft. long discharge spout out of abrasive resistant metal. It's 1 1/2-ft. longer than conventional blower spouts.
"On the main drive pulley on the blower housing we went from a 3-groove 14-in. dia. pulley to a 4-groove 16-in. pulley to add an extra drive belt to speed up the machine's four feed rolls and cutter head by 25 per-cent .The extra horsepower increases cutting speed by 35 percent.
" We also installed a 48-knife cutter head drum in the harvester instead of the standard 40-knife drum. That's to help get a more uniform 3/8-in. long cut."
The machine is equipped with a German-built Kemper 4500 6-row (30-in.) or 5-row (40-in.) head.
The project took a couple of months last winter and cost $15,000 to $20,000. The company plans to do a limited number of conversions in 1997.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Randy Keck, GRK Enterprises, Rt. 1, Box 56, Fairview, Okla. 73737 (ph 405 227-2903).

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Repowered Deere 5830 FORAGE HARVESTERS Forage Harvesters (31F) 21-1-40 When you cut 60,000 to 70,000 tons of silage a season, you need all the performance, speed and capacity from your forage harvester that you can muster. That's why Fairview, Okla., custom cut-ter Randy Keck and his company repowered his 1991 Deere 5830 self-propelled forage harvester with a big Cummins diesel out of an over-the-road semi tractor. "We simply needed more horsepower and torque than the 290 hp Deere diesel was capable of delivering," says Keck of GRK Enterprises. "In 25-ton per acre corn silage, we're now able to fill one of our shop-built, 22-ft. long by 8 1/2-ft. wide by 7 1/2-ft. high truck boxes in just six minutes. Before we modified the forage harvester, it took eight minutes to fill one of the boxes." Keck and associates repowered the for-age harvester, which they call a "Keck/ Deere 5950", with an 855 cu. in. 400 hp diesel out of a wrecked Kenworth semi. Be-fore installing it, they completely rebuilt the Cummins to farm engine specifications. This included replacing the original fuel pump with a variable speed pump with 35% torque rise. Fitting the bigger engine into the harvester required stretching the frame 9 in., then fabricating a longer, higher hood to cover it. "The biggest part of the job was engineering an adapter plate out of mild steel to adapt the Deere main drive clutch, which is 12 in. in dia., to the Cummins flywheel, which is 14 in. in dia.," Keck says. "We kept the Deere's lower fuel tank but replaced its top plastic tank with a 130-gal. steel tank, increasing total fuel capacity to 200 gal. "We added two 6 by 12-in. blower paddles fabricated out of abrasive-resistant 1/4-in. thick plate inside the blower, increasing the number of paddles to six. We also made a 15-ft. long discharge spout out of abrasive resistant metal. It's 1 1/2-ft. longer than conventional blower spouts. "On the main drive pulley on the blower housing we went from a 3-groove 14-in. dia. pulley to a 4-groove 16-in. pulley to add an extra drive belt to speed up the machine's four feed rolls and cutter head by 25 per-cent .The extra horsepower increases cutting speed by 35 percent. " We also installed a 48-knife cutter head drum in the harvester instead of the standard 40-knife drum. That's to help get a more uniform 3/8-in. long cut." The machine is equipped with a German-built Kemper 4500 6-row (30-in.) or 5-row (40-in.) head. The project took a couple of months last winter and cost $15,000 to $20,000. The company plans to do a limited number of conversions in 1997. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Randy Keck, GRK Enterprises, Rt. 1, Box 56, Fairview, Okla. 73737 (ph 405 227-2903).

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