Amity Technology 3200, Operating Manual

Page: 32 / 77

7 - 5
7.2.6 Loose Beets In some conditions beets may be knocked loose from the ground which prevents
them from being harvested. The best way to minimize this is to raise the flail height as high as possi-
ble while still removing the petioles. This will provide less aggressive impacts to the beet. Adjusting
travel speed doesn
’ t help much and in some cases will be worse for this condition as the tangential
velocity of the flails is much greater than any fractional change from reducing travel speed. Instead,
if raising flail height doesn
’ t provide enough relief, lowering the PTO rpm in conjunction with reduc-
ing travel speeds will provide a less aggressive impact on the beets. This should be done in addition
to raising the flail height.
7.2.7 3
rd
Drum Height (50 series only)
On all 50 series Amity defoliators the 3 drum can be adjusted upwards. With the defoliator run level
as intended shown in Figure 24, the front steel drum 1 is 2.5 inches (6cm) ( higher than rubber
drums 2 and 3; with drum 1 removing the majority of foliage and drums 2 and 3 cleaning the peti-
oles from the crown of the beet. The purpose of drum 3 being adjustable is for beet stands with
poor emergence where beet height varies drastically. In this situation when running level the front
steel flails would be slicing off the tops of higher beets. Raising the 3
rd
drum allows the operation to
lower the rear of the defoliator and raise the front with the end result of having drum 1 higher. This
adjustment may also be used as the flails become worn and the rubber flail
’ s 2.5 inches (6cm) differ-
ence in operating height becomes closer to the front steel drum.
To adjust the 3
rd
drum upwards:
1. Third drum height may be raised up to 1 inch (2.5 cm).
In ¼ inch (.6cm) intervals.
2. Determine desired amount to raise the third drum.
3. Loosen bolts on gearbox, center hanger plate and end
hanger plate as pictured below.
4. Lift gearbox upwards with eyebolt until it is high enough
for desired height.
5. Remove spacers from the storage location on top of
drum two.
6. Place the desired spacers underneath gearbox three in
from each side.
7. If two or more spacers are used remove the standard
bolts and swap them with the longer bolts used to hold
the spacers on top of gearbox two.
8. Apply Loctite 243 and torque gearbox bolts to the spec
listed in Section 11.6.
9. With gearbox adjustments complete, the center hanger
plate and end hanger plate need to be adjusted to
match.
10. Starting with the center hanger plate shown in Figure
27 take a measurement of the current position.
11. Using the eyebolts raise the plate until the measure-
ment matches the height the gearbox was raised.
Figure 7 - 5: Gearbox 3
rd
Drum Adjustment
Figure 7 - 6: Center 3
rd
Drum Adjustment