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East Central Ia | We currently run a Case IH 7010 with the small tube rotor and have been frustrated with combine loss. We felt we could do a decent job the last two years with it but this year had us pulling our hair out. Long story short... we decided to demo a Lexion combine and ended up having trouble with our corn head the night before our demo... and the dealer loaned us a corn head which made it about 15ac and broke down, so we ended up borrowing our neighbor's Deere combine and getting another neighbors Geringhoff corn head for our 7010 which is identical to what we have. Soooo this is what we ended up running side by side.
A 08' Case IH 7010 with kuchar grates and the small tube rotor with an 8 row non chopping Geringhoff corn head. 350 Sep hrs
A 09' Deere 9770 with a Drago 8 row corn head. 75 Sep hrs
A 09' Lexion 570r with a Lexion 8 row corn head. 80 Sep hrs
The Lexion guys had a large screen that they laid down on the ground in the middle of the 8 rows to be harvested and we ran each combine over top of it with the spreaders off and windrowed everything out the back. We then sifted through all the trash and counted the kernals and did the math to figure the bpa loss for each machine running the same speed (5mph).
The corn was second year corn running about 200bpa at 21% M.
The best we got the 9770 to do was around 1.8bpa loss (don't know anything about this setup... the dealer and my neighbor/combine owner set it)
The best we got the 7010 to do was about 1.7bpa loss (Had to run the top sieve almost wide open to achieve this...)
The best we got the 570r to do was about .25bpa loss ( averaged .36 bpa loss over all the tests, can't remember what the others averaged)
This was conducted by the Lexion guys but Dad was standing with them and helped them count... in other words they didn't fudge at all.
The samples varied quit a bit as well.
The Lexion had by far the cleanest sample... little tiny bits of cob and a very very few small bits of stalk, almost no grain damage.
The Deere had a pretty clean sample as well with maybe a bit more grain damage then the other two.
The Case's sample had the most cob and trash in it but very little grain damage as well... really not horrible for having the sieve wide open.
Power wise...
The Case IH was noticeably shorter on power then the other two.
The Deere and Lexion didn't seem to be in need of hp.
Fuel...
The lexion was averaging a little over 1gpa for the day
The Case IH was around 1.7gpa for the day
The Deere was around 1.85gpa for the day
General thoughts on each.
The Case Ih...
Has by far the best cab and controls... hands down. A very quite, comfortable cab with lots of room and great visibility. But the seat in the 7010 is not very comfortable. Wish I could have run my other Neighbors 7010 to compare the ST rotor to the AFX rotor as well, but we had enough of a circus going on already! Maintenance is stupid easy on these... not sure about the long run though as I have only run the same one for 2 seasons before trading into the one I have now. The standard hydro is pathetic in this. My first one had the heavy hydro (130cc pump) and this one has the standard hydro (110cc pump) it can barely pull itself up a small hill with half a hopper on it. We had our dealer turn the pressure up to what they run on the rice versions and that helped but it is still a far cry from the heavy hydro. We think this combine is difficult to set. Nothing seems to react the way you think it should... if the tailings is running high we open the bottom sieve... and it makes no difference... Things like that make this a PIA to set. Not sure if the AFX rotor machines are easier or not, but we have a HECK of a time getting corn off the cob with this combine... especially in fungicide sprayed fields that hang onto most of their leaves... even into December. Seems like ears just float through the rotor and never get threshed no matter how tight we run the concaves. Speed the rotor up and you end up with busted cob with kernels still them. Not quite sure what else to say as I have run this for 3 years and nothing seems to pop in my head right now.
The Deere...
Well actually I can't even believe that Deere can't come up with anything better then this! When I turned it on I about asked the salesman if it came with complementary green ear plugs! When I turned the separator and head on I about hit the panic shutdown switch because I thought some parts were gonna fly off. The hyrdo is super loud, the unload sends a vibration through the cab so much you can feel it in the control handle. It did unload a fair bit faster then the other two combines though. And the alarms... on my gosh the alarms! It beeps about everything... unload auger out, unload auger on (as if you couldn't feel it already), and you have the reach over into the middle of all the control switches to hit an ok button to make it go away... for about 10 secs and then it starts beeping about something else. And what in the world is up with the delay on the unload auger? It takes a good 10+ seconds after you hit the button to actually turn on?!?! It has the same beeping sound for the grain tank full as everything else... so it got to the point I was immune to it and didn't know how full the tank was. It doesn't have the beacon lights or a 3/4 full warning... just beep your full. And the cab post with the monitor on it blocks a large area of your vision... I didn't like the lay out of the buttons on the control handle as well as the other two. But the seat was pretty comfortable. I guess you got my opinion of this... :( Sorry if it seems harsh, just my first impressions.
The Lexion...
If the cab on the 7010 was a 10, the Deere a 5, the Lexion would be about a 7.5 I guess. The seat was the most comfortable. It was quite a bit quieter then the Deere, but no where close to as quiet as the 7010. The buttons seem very archaic and the CEBIS screen is only black and white and a bit confusing at first, although I caught on it a lot quicker then I thought I would. It had the Ag Leader Insight (which I am familiar with) for a yield monitor mounted in the same spot as the Deeres monitor blocking a fair chunk of visibility... Not sure where you could move either one as the cab space seems pretty limited in both machines. This machine has the beacon lights (which I think is a must after running them for 3 yrs) and a good system to notify you of the grain level in the tank... very similar to the Case IH. The unload stream seems very wide... annoying dumping into a hopper trailer... and non factor into the grain cart. The steering seemed like it took more effort to turn the wheel and the turning radius was absolutely horrid. The steering stops could be adjusted but we didn't touch them so I don't know if you could make this acceptable or not. How it was set I could barely turn on 80ft of end rows and end up 16 rows over from my last pass comfortably... yes that bad. The Deere didn't turn very well either but much much better then this. The 7010 turns on a dime. Both the Deere and Case IH had 28L 26s, and the Lexion had 620's.
I really liked how the auto contour engage works on this machine. You hit the left side of the button to engage the lower heights and the right side for the higher heights. You press the left side a second time and you can toggle between two preset low positions... I used the lower position most of the time and when I came up to a washout or rut I would toggle the higher position and it would float right over without worry of wrecking a snout. The manual raise and lower switches are neat too. You press it a little bit and the head moves slowly... you press it a little harder and it raises quickly.
Power folding grain tank extension was a neat feature. All the belts scare me but the pullys are huge precision cast parts that look like they will stand up... with replaceable bearings, and the belts look massive as well.
Headers...
The Geringhoff by far took in more trash then the Drago or the Lexion heads but header loss was pretty darn close on all of them.
This is a novel by now and I can't think of much else at the moment. Others commemts and questions will be interesting to read.
We are going to price a 7120 with the AFX rotor, and a Lexion... what should I expect from the Lexion guys? I have no idea what they cost... more or less then red and green? My dealer would be Altorfer Cat... and I was impressed with the service guy who came out to put the duals on it. And it seems I live right between service guys... about 25 miles from each of them. Makes me a little nervous with service but I will gladly trade a few miles for someone who is specialized in a particular piece of machinery. | |
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Deere vs Case IH vs Lexion demo day
