Gav836

I haven't tried the CR yet but the 580 was certainly a much better combine than the AFX, alot easier to drive, not so much to fiddle with really. The AFX you had to get out and dusty on to adjust straw flow, i'd pick the 580 over that anyday.

OOOOOOO.. sound nasty to me - I remember my combine fitter days - Nothing worse than the pressure to get you boys going again

Tell me about it, we nearly told the boss to f*** off as he was annoying us too much and the more he interfered the longer it took!!

one shaft is worn but the bearing was still good, haven't worked out how a good bearing can wear a new shaft that we fitted last year yet, but put another bearing on so it's running on 2 and it cut another 500 acres then no problems. 3 of the bearings were fitted due to a fitting fault on a new accelerator drum, no -ones fault, the fitter and myself didn't know a shaft could slip a bit in pinch bolts! ? between 4 and 8 hrs everytime it went though, last time was a front wheel off job!! ?

thats what we really wanted to try instead of the AFX but there wasn't one available. Heard a few horror stories about them locally, bent headers and one spontaneously combusting in the rotor area!

not so fast there NH2 the comparison was between the 880 & his old 460 not the newer 580, but you may well be right ?

let's ask shall we ?

whats the 880 like up against the 580 ,gavin ?

Well the output was more on the 580 but the 880's cab was way ahead on comfort levels, the Claas cab is a bit outdated now, hasn't really altered much since our 1997 460. But it's not a fair comparison between the two combines because the 880 is a straw walker machine and the 580 is a rotary combine, really needs to be compared with a CR model which we should be trying in 2006  :)

one showing the two combines along with the countryside

another one with our 460 in as well

heres a few of a Case AFX8010 we had for a day

I thought that it was a brilliant combine, it was running rings around our 460 which is the Claas equivelant except the 880 was a bit more powerful and a 30 foot cut. The 880 was much more comfortable to drive as well and also could cut spring barley 2kph quicker than the 460. I'd rather have it anyday 

another of the same

Heres 2 of a New Holland CX880 we had a day later

heres another of the same

Thought i'd post up a few pictures of combines we've had out on demonstration over the last couple of years. First 2 are a Lexion 580 terra trac standing next to our existing 460

My Renault 836 was on 20.8r42 and 16.9r30 good years when we first got it. At 800 hrs the rear tyres were cut to pieces as we've found good year too soft on our soils. We then replaced the rear ones with Kleber the same size and they only lasted about a year before they started to slip on the rims. we've now upgraded them to a set of Firestone 620/70r42 and 480/70r30 and the extra grip we are getting is quite significant over the old ones. They also help it to stay on top a bit better when fertilizer spreading and rolling. We've only budgeted the tyre life to be 2 years on our harsh soils so they probably won't be on long enough for age related cracking to show up. We did want Pirelli but there were none available in this size anywhere in europe at the time and the french were on their summer break ?

Think the reps name was Andy Balfour

We're trying out Firestone's on my Renault at the minute, so far i'm impressed with the grip i can get with them. We don't like to pay alot for tyres because the sandy/stoney soil about the farm cuts them to pieces in under 2 years as a rule. Tryed Kleber in the past and was lesss than impressed when they started to slip on the rims at under a year old and the rep was as much help to us as a chocolate teapot!! too many unfulfilled promises from him! And as he's the same rep that supports Michelin in our area it didn't fill us with confidence really

I'll agree that theres room for improvement in the header area on it. I bought it as it is a good looking model and i like to try to get a model of anything we've had on demonstration on the farm for real  :D

in the past i did drive an 8400 Valmet and it was a really nice tractor, its just the T series that i couldn't get on with

the 836's can certainly pull, and they do whine like hell in the process but they just keep going. Been ploughing with mine on heavyish land today at 10 inches deep with a press and 6x16inch furrows at 8.5kph and she just kept plodding along, and sounded great in the process 

I drive a Renault 836 which replaced a tweaked Magnum 7230 (240hp) and we have no regrets as i can get just as much ploughed in a day and have a tractor i can use for any job if i need to

my bosses father just switched from JD to Claas and Mccormick, he regrets the latter as the gearbox went bang 2 weeks out of warranty, but its the same story here, all JD people are going to AGCO or CNH or Claas now

Sounds familiar, one of the local JD dealers here doesn't seem to want to do anything if you can't fix it with a lap top now from what i've been told, my boss won't even deal with this dealer now. :

the one i know of was a ?20 000 backend problem that JD didn't want to pay for although it was a manufacturing fault and under warranty!! Made the farmer wish he'd stuck to Renaults!! :D

i think a 1000ft barge pole is being generous- 100 000ft barge pole would be better!!!  :D

Didn't help that it was my uncle who was selling it, couldn't be as awkward with him as i was with the other dealers and ask about specs and criticise the tractor, i wasn't too impressed by the way it was struggling with a 5 furrow plough on very light land, it should have played with that on there really. I would love to have a play with the new Fastrac though, looks like a hell of a tractor  :D

Fendt was top of my want list but the boss couldn't afford them, Renaults were second, so we got two of them, i hated the valtra, was more due to the spec i think, a 50KPH tractor with no cab suspension was awfully uncomfortable! Fastrac was ok but we would have had to of upgraded all the trailer brakes to air to accomodate it so was ruled out.