A new design header feed spiral has solved crop feeding issues on MacDon fronts during canola, lupin and pea harvesting.
A collaboration between Esperance, Western Australian farmer Mic Fels and well known Merredin engineer, Laurie Phillips of Phillbourne Manufacturing, the Turbodrum is durable aftermarket feed spiral to replace units on MacDon D60 and D65 header fronts.
Mr Fels said his MacDon front performed extremely well with the exception of feeding in canola where the canola would bridge before entering the rotor and then choke when a large volume tried to pass at once.
The resultant stress can cause the rotor shaft to bend.
“The issue comes to a head for most people when the spiral breaks - they are underbuilt,” Mr Fels said.
“They are too light and have a really long shaft to carry all the retractable fingers.
“It’s when you are direct heading canola, lupins or peas that you tend to have breakdowns and for some reason the issue seems to be worse when it is hot and dry,” he said.
“The canola fluffs up at the front of the spiral on the draper and doesn't want to feed and then it all gets to the middle and is sticky, and really hard to grab and when it eventually does grab it takes the whole lot in at once overloading the spiral and causing the shaft to bend and other issues.”
Mr Fels decided on a design solution rather than a major rebuild and contacted Laurie Phillips of Phillbourne Manufacturing for engineering support.
“With my design and Laurie's ideas on how to build it and make it strong and reliable, we’ve come up with the Turbodrum,” Mr Fels said.
“It is all welded, and all the parts are replaceable without having to take it off the machine
“We literally designed this in October and got it in the header later that month.”
A few posts on Twitter about the solution saw a market grow - and already more than a dozen units have been sold all over Australia.
“It really is the Achilles heel of the MacDon front,” Mr Fels said.
“We all love the MacDon’s because of the suspension system, their weight and ground following ability - except for the feeder drum.”
Mr Fels said a lot of farmers were getting rid of draper fronts because they are slow in canola and going for extendable deck Vario style fronts for the harvesting speed.
“The Vario front is really good in canola but now the MacDon with the Turbodrum is just as good and better in cereals than the tin front (Vario),” he said.
“If you want to have just one front the ideal one is a draper with a Turbodrum.”
He said the Turbodrum cost about one third the price of a replacement spiral and would take two people a few hours to fit.
The Turbodrum can be ordered via www.ipaddock.com.au/turbodrum freight free for a limited time.