Plastic-Lined Floor Keeps Flex Head From Plugging

Plastic-Lined Floor Keeps Flex Head From Plugging COMBINES Headers 20-5-11 A Minnesota farmer mounted an 18-in. wide poly strip along the entire length of the plat-form on his 20-ft. Gleaner L2 combine's flex header. "It keeps short, tangled, down crops feeding evenly into the auger without plugging. Combine operation is a lot smoother since I made the modification," says Marvin Boike, of Maynard. He drilled holes along the front edge of the poly and bolted it down under the guard. The back edge of the poly is bolted to short pieces of 2 by 4's that raise it up about 3 in. to direct the crop into the auger. "The poly strip lifts the crop closer to the reel so that it can catch short crop material and dump it into the auger," says Boike. "The problem is that on a flex header the sickle and reel are positioned farther ahead of the auger than they are on a conventional header. As a result short crop material lays on top of the platform behind the reel and has to build up a couple of inches before it'll feed into the auger. I got the idea when I had trouble harvesting a short wheat crop. It wouldn't feed in properly unless I cut about 1 ft. of straw with the grain. This modification also keeps grassy weeds from hanging up on top of the sicklebar. I've found that the poly strip also helps on soy-beans, navy beans, etc. "The problem can also be solved by adding a reel enlargement kit that increases the grain head reel size, but they're a lot more expensive. I paid only $20 for my poly strip." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Marvin Boike, 2050 40th Ave. S.E., Maynard, Minn. 56260 (ph 612 367-2767).

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