Silage 2025 with the JF 1100

Been fixing up this 1100 over the last few months and finally got to use it there the other day. My 850 has been dismantled for parts as most of the parts on this 1100, like the spout, all the chain drivelines, shafts, knives, and panels are all off the 850. The drum is 6 blades short of a full set but blows well enough. It's not completely restored yet, there's some more painting to do and things to tidy up (pto gaurds among other things) but it is mechanically all finished and has a few extras fitted to make my life easier while driving it. Hydraulic drawbar, hydraulic reverse, all hydraulic chute controls, long drawbar tongue and a wide reel from a scrapped 1100. A modification it has which I didn't realise at the time I bought it but discovered afterwards is that the inner feed roller hinge has been modified to that of a 1350. I also cut the bump stops as short as possible on that same hinge. Needless to say, it can handle raked grass and lumps with little trouble.

My Same Galaxy 170 was earmarked to use this machine all along but the morning I went to hook it up I wanted to adjust the clutch pedal a bit because there was a bit of play in it but after an hour or so of trying to bleed it, I had to give up and hook on this t7 I had borrowed for a few days. Which brings me to the next point. Where's my Tm165 in all this. Yes. As it was on the mower cutting everything for the JF, it developed a knock in the gearbox so it is now parked until further investigation is carried out. It is not looking too hopeful for that one. I think a tooth has come off a gear inside to be honest but I'm just not even going to think about that right now because work is a little busy at the moment. I really should be trying to fix the clutch in the Same right now but I need to sit down for a bit because I'm a little wore out. It's Sunday evening :p I'll work tomorrow.

So anyway. Hooked on the T7. Went to the field. Picked up 5 metres. Got blocked. Thought it was because of the half set of knives. Put 9 extra knives in. 10 Metres more. Blocked again. Slip clutch was going off. This harvester was taking more power to drive in the first 10 seconds than the 850 ever did in the 4 years I used it. Changed the pto to just a straight pto, very risky I know, but I had to try keep things moving when I have everyone looking at me trying to get this machine to work. So I put on the straight pto and the harvester then proceeded to absolutely just inhale grass and send it north without another thought. Class. I was happy. Good good. If we had not finally only got going around lunchtime on the first day it would have been a one day affair but given the first teething problems and broken tractors fiasco (there were multiple casualties) then this would have been a one day affair to pick up the 27ac I had cut. We were finished before 11:30 on the second day. We lost some time on the first day as I lost the little clip for a chain joiner in the grass when I was rethreading a chain on the feed rollers (we thought we had spares with us but I put the wrong little baggie in the tool box in the panic before we left the yard. I brought cam bearings not chain joiners). It only threw it off when a lump of earth got sucked in, it didn't even break. That was the only chain trouble the first day and on the second day some grass got wrapped around the shaft that drives the pickup reel and knocked off those 2 chains so we lost some time rethreading those. But again, not broken just knocked off.

I did block it maybe twice or three times where it was my fault but my hydraulic reverse works really well and immediately pushes any blockage back out again and you don't have to try and turn it out by hand like we used to have to do on the 850 as the electric actuator wasn't strong enough to reverse the rollers when they were under pressure. You just have to get out and take the grass out of the reel before you spin it forward again but it's only 2 minutes as opposed to 10 minutes if you blocked the 850.

I also thought afterwards it's a bloody good thing I did not put the Galaxy on the JF this year. For one, I did not have a 21 spline shaft without a slip clutch to quickly change over when the slip clutch failed. And for two, there is a fair to good chance some pistons would have got melted oh my god this harvester can take power. I had this T7 baling afterwards and it definitely has more power than my tm165 which I believe has been screwed out to around 185hp at the engine. So this T7 is probably 190hp at the pto and even at that the tractor knows all about it when it sucks in a lump. So picture the poor old same which is most likely 40hp less on the pto than this! Guaranteed this harvester has the capability of killing 150hp from full tilt to stone dead in a second flat! Genuinely a serious bit of kit this. I love it.

I will try get the Same on the JF in about 2 weeks at a vintage event though so no worries. Picking 10ft will be fine but not 18ft like I did