August 13, 2016

View of the day-The buggy man had a easier day of it today since the full fleet wasn't running.

We woke up to a thick fog that eventually cleared off, but the clouds remained. We went out to the combine to see if we could find out why the fuel gauge wasn't working...it was always full and we knew it wasn't that fuel efficient. It was a loose wire...we think. We never got to use very much to confirm our theory.

Once we got a loose wire looked after, we waited to see if it was dry enough to start combining. After about an hour, we were given the go ahead, so Al went out to start and Marilyn went home to make lunch. Well...started to go home. Al called back to say there were error codes and alarms going off and he didn't recognize any of them. He did, however, know that as soon as he engaged the rotor, his engine speed dropped and after doing all the usual things to remedy it, gave up and called Ray at ProHarvest.

It turned out to be a perfect harvest day, but all we could do was watch the rest of the rigs doing their job out in the field. Two of them had their own problems during the day, but they managed to get them fixed...mechanical jobs are a lot easier to figure out than the "software" related ones.

We did get a number to call one of the local guys from Young's Equipment in Windthorst and he happened to be on his way back to the shop. After he grabbed his diagnostic equipment and a couple of sensors that he thought might be the problem, he came right out to the field.

Kurt worked on the combine for about an hour, then after getting all the "codes" cleared and new sensors in, gave us the go ahead to start combining as he packed up and left.  He didn't make it very far from the field. We started the rotor and the same thing happened...back to square one. Once he had exhausted all his options, we called Ray at ProHarvest back and let him talk to Kurt.


One comment overheard in the conversation between the two was that Kurt had never seen a tier IV engine smoke like this one did...it just poured out when he had it running. Al said it was smoking like an old Gleaner combine.

After comparing notes, it was narrowed down to the turbo, but we had just gotten a new one put in when we had the Uptime Inspection done at the Rocky Mountain Equipment dealership in Yorkton a couple months ago. We had only done about 225 acres, so it didn't have a lot of wear, but when Kurt climbed into the engine compartment to inspect it, he saw a loose bolt on the clamp.

Good news is he found the problem...bad news, the turbo was shot and we needed to replace it. Fortunately, all the emission components have a five year warranty. After Kurt was able to locate a new turbo in Moosomin, we drove over to pick it up and when our man at Rocky Mountain called back, he said he would send someone out in the morning to install it.

Al hates technology even more...