Well, not a lot to update really, but I did use this rig a fair amount this fall and it hauled about one million pounds of rice out of the field for it's first harvest.
As expected, there are a few issues to work out this winter on it. The steering is still not exactly right. I broke one of the steering arms and had to re-weld it to make it through the season. I will be moving the hydro cylinders down to the axles themselves, to take a big chunk of the pressure of the steering linkage system. Another issue is with the unloading auger where it folds over. There is a locking mechanism that locks the two sections of the vertical auger together. I had problems with this mechanism unlocking and plugging up as it seems to not like the high speed Chelsea PTO drive that I have, before on the old rig, the augers turned really slow and it wasn't a problem. That shouldn't be hard to fix though.
Outside of that, everything else worked great. Great A/C, engine and trans stay perfectly cool even when we were harvesting in some near record setting 99* heat in late September. Power seems to be good too, I have no plans to hop up the pump anymore. Completely loaded down weighing around 30K, I could do 10mph through 12" of mud no problem.
Here are a couple of cell phone shots I was able to take, not the best, but it's all I could manage to get. Fall is hectic around here.
