Rebuilt harvesters on the way

Press, 13 April 1984, Page 29

Rebuilt harvesters on the way

A Christchurch man’s skills of repairing aircraft engines are being used to rebuild header harvesters, which could result in big financial savings for farmers. Buying a second-hand header which has been “remanufactured” by Mr Bob McGarry has become another option for farmers faced with replacing their worn out header. A header rebuilt by Mr McGarry’s firm, Harvester Rebuilds, has spent the current season harvesting for Mr Fred Bull, of Sheffield. Apart from some teething problems involving adjustments, the header ran like a

new one and was very smooth, said Mr Bull, who has a contract harvesting business. The header’s engine had broken down, but this had not been involved in the reconditioning. Mr Bull, who is the president of North Canterbury Federated Farmers, said the idea of rebuilding headers had a lot of merit considering the high replacement cost of a new machine.

Mr McGarry said the cost of a rebuilt New Holland 1500 series header would be $70,000 to $BO,OOO, compared with $130,000 to $150,000 for a new machine of the same size.

Mr McGarry is an aircraft engineer who specialises in rebuilding vintage aircraft engines. Replacing combine harvesters after 10 to 12 years •with expensive new machines seemed to be a waste of money to Mr McGarry so he set about rebuilding one. Mr Bull took a keen interest in the operation and decided to buy the rebuilt header when Mr McGarry was part way through working on it. The 10-year-old header was stripped down completely. Every item was cleaned, inspected and new parts fitted where necessary.

In some cases Mr McGarry had to make new parts, shafts were straightened, bearings, elevator and drive chains, belts and hydraulic hoses were replaced. Corrosion' was removed from the bodywork and it was repainted. This first header took 14 weeks to rebuild, but Mr McGarry estimates that eight weeks will be long enough in future. A water sand-blaster unit will speed up the stripping of the paintwork.

Mr McGarry said he aimed to turn out a rebuilt header which would do the same number of hours as a new machine. He offers a warranty on remanufactured combines of one year or 200 hours operating time. In the aviation industry, inspection methods ha d to be spot on and Mr McGarry said he was applying that same high standard of servicing when working on headers. Only one header has been rebuilt so far by Harvester Rebuilds. The increase in the amount of land devoted to grain crops has forced up the price of second-hand headers so Mr McGarry intends importing used machines from England. His first import is expected to arrive in just over two months. Many farmers replace

their headers every seven to 10 years, but others keep them considerably longer. Combines harvesting maize, clover and peas do not usually last as long as those working on grain crops. Instead of buying a new header from a New Zealand agent, some farmers import a header on their own account, at a considerable saving. Second-hand headers which have done only a little work are also imported by some farmers.

Evapotranspiration Christchurch: Thursday, April 5. . 0.7 Friday, April 6. . . 1.3 Saturday, April 7. . 0.3 Sunday, April 8. . . 0.7 Monday, April 9. . . 1.0 Tuesday, April 10. . 1.8 Wednesday, April 11 0.7 Weekly Total 6.5 Total to date this month 9.1 Average for April 35mm Culverden: Weekly Total 9.7 Average for April 30mm Timaru: Weekly Total 4.9 Average for April 25mm Winchmore Irrigation Research Station: Weekly Total 10.1 Average for April 30mm From figures supplied by the Meteorological Service.