CapitalPress.com
October 7, 2016
Combines require specialized
service in the off-season
By BRENNA WIEGAND
For the Capital Press
Many more things are
involved in maintaining a
combine than a tractor.
“There are a lot of me-
chanical parts inside a com-
bine that are wear items,”
said Carl Laux, Papé Ma-
chinery’s South Willamette
Valley sales manager. “Spe-
cialty items on a combine
that need to be looked over
include the threshing rotor,
concave, feeder house and
threshing shoe.
These are joined in recent
years by new fuel systems
that meet federal emissions
standards and, like many
other newer machines, the
need for regular software
updates.
“Twenty years ago we
would never have thought of
such a thing,” Laux said.
Papé’s winter service
package encourages cus-
tomers to schedule checkups
and repairs during the winter
when both parties are not as
busy and to head off untime-
ly breakdowns next season.
Laux said winter service
involves an extensive check-
Brenna Wiegand/For the Capital Press
Papé Machinery service coordinator Mike Gerard removes safety
shields on a John Deere 9650 combine. With their specialty parts
and innovations, combines require more involved maintenance
than most other machines.
list — about four pages of
different items.
“There are a lot of differ-
ent things we do with those
combines,” Laux said. “A
combine goes out and does
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all the grass seed, grains,
small greens — all the spe-
cialty items we have in Or-
egon. Our biggest crop is
grass seed, then the clover
and then there are just a ton
of specialty seeds. We’ve
done sugar beet seed, cori-
ander, flax, it’s an endless
list of all these small spe-
cialty crops. We’re very
different from the Mid-
west that grows corn and
soybeans.”
There’s maybe 400 acres
of coriander in the valley
and 200 acres of spinach be-
tween Eugene and Portland,”
Laux said, “but we have to
go combine them with these
machines.
“The older the machines
are, the more expensive they
are to repair,” he added.
“That’s why as dealers we
encourage farmers to trade
their equipment often and
avoid some of those larg-
er repair bills as those ma-
chines age.”