Harvest Breakdowns: Header and Machinery Repairs On Farm

Harvest is the worst time for something to crack. The weather window is short, the contractor is booked, and a header sitting in the paddock with a split front or a worn pivot costs money every hour. Most of these breakdowns are welding jobs, and most of them can be fixed where the machine stopped. We do on-farm harvester and machinery repairs across the Barossa, the Adelaide Hills, the Murraylands and around Gawler, from our base in Mount Pleasant.

Do a welding check before harvest

An hour with a torch and a grinder brush before the season starts finds most of the cracks that would otherwise find you in the middle of a run. Clean off the dust and chaff, then look at:

• The front. Cracks around the feeder house mounts, the adaptor plate and the skids, and any bent or cracked fingers and guards.
• Frames and brackets. Hairline cracks in the paint at welds, bolt holes and corners, and any rust weeping from a joint.
• Pivots, pins and bushes. Slop in a loader arm, a three-point linkage or a front lift usually means a worn pin or bore. Worn bores can be line bored and brought back to size.
• Augers and troughs. Worn or holed auger troughs, cracked flighting and loose mounts on headers, field bins and chaser bins.
• Chaser bins and trailers. Drawbars, hitch points, axle mounts and tipping body hinges take a hammering in harvest. Our guide to trailer repairs covers where they crack.
• Truck trays and headboards. Cracks at the corners and mounts, and loose or broken side gates.

Anything you find now can be welded on a quiet day in October or November instead of a hot one in December.

What we can fix in the paddock

The rig carries the welder, a generator and the cutting gear, so the work comes to the machine. Typical harvest jobs:

• Grinding out and welding cracks in fronts, frames and brackets, with plate added where the steel needs more strength.
• Air arc gouging out old or failed welds and welding them back properly.
• Line boring worn pins and bores on loaders, implements and pivot points.
• Oxy cutting damaged sections and welding in new steel.
• Repairs to chaser bins, field bins, augers, truck trays and grain trailers.
• Tractor and implement modifications, and loader bucket repairs.

We weld steel, stainless and aluminium with MIG, TIG and arc. Bigger rebuilds can come back to our Mount Pleasant workshop once the season is over. See our welding repairs page for the full list.

When something breaks mid-run

1. Stop and make it safe. Shut the machine down and do not keep running on a crack, because it only gets longer.
2. Take photos: the damage up close, plus one that shows where it is on the machine.
3. Call Sean on 0455 579 207. We get a lot of emergency call-outs and fit them in as soon as we can.
4. Tell us where the machine is and how we get to it: the property, the paddock and any gate codes or tracks.

We work Monday to Saturday, 7am to 5pm. It is not a 24/7 service, but breakdowns are fitted in as soon as we can.

Welding in the fire danger season

Harvest runs through the fire danger season, and welding, grinding and cutting in the open throw sparks. The CFS sets rules for this kind of work during the season, and on Total Fire Ban days they are much stricter. Before we start, have the area around the machine clear of stubble and chaff, water and an extinguisher on hand, and check the day's fire danger rating on the CFS website. If the day is too risky, moving the job into a shed or onto a bare pad, or doing it early in the morning, is often the answer.

How far we travel

From Mount Pleasant we are about 10 minutes from Springton and Birdwood, 30 minutes from Mannum, around 40 minutes from Nuriootpa, Tanunda and Gawler, and about 45 minutes from Murray Bridge and Mount Barker. Further out? Call and we will talk travel. To book a pre-season check or a repair, send the details through our contact form. Quotes are free.