Tractor-Mounted "Stripper" Harvester

Tractor-Mounted "Stripper" Harvester COMBINES Headers 28-1-3 Harvesting small grains under light load and green stem conditions is hard on conventional combines, and on their operators. Harry Thompson of Lohman, Mo., came up with an alternative - a tractor-mounted "stripper" harvester designed to strip the seed from any standing loose-headed grass or small grain crop. It then cleans and transfers the seed using a vacuum air system. "I can use my machine on most warm and cool season grasses, and possibly on rice, oats and other loose-headed small grains," says Thompson. Parts for the machine were scavenged from three combines, a row crop cultivator, a portable mix-mill, and brushes from three street sweeper brooms. Various sealed bearings, shafts, pulleys, belts and structural steel were bought new. "My out-of-pocket cost was only about $1,600," says Thompson. The machine is equipped with a 20-ft. wide broom stripper head on front and a 3-pt. mounted, pto-driven vacuum cleaning system on back. To make the stripper head, Thompson used discarded street broom wafers which he trimmed to a uniform 18-in. diameter, then mounted on a rotating drum. The drum is powered by a hydraulic motor and can rotate in either direction. The head attaches to the front weight block of an 80 plus hp tractor and is raised and lowered by a hydraulic cylinder. Once seed is stripped, it's collected by a cross auger and vacuumed to the rear of the tractor by the 3-pt.-mounted blower. Seed is pulled into a tank mounted on the blower frame, and then the chaff is blown from the tank out the top exhaust damper. An auger unloads the grain from the tank. Some of the adjustments that Thompson can make to the machine include varying ground speed, changing the stripper drum speed by means of a hydraulic motor, and adjusting the concave distance. For a more aggressive threshing action, the operator can reverse the stripper drum rotation and add an optional header hood. The platform that the stripper head mounts on folds to a transport width of 12 ft. "Using storage stands, I can remove the sweeper from the tractor in only about 30 minutes," says Thompson. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Harry Thompson, 8009 Stringtown Station, Lohman, Mo. 65053 (ph 573 782-3259).

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