Case IH 7120 Harvester

By: Terry Stevenson, Photography by: Terry Stevenson

Date: 15.11.2010

Case IH’s 7120 Axial Flow combine harvester has intuitive controls, and is able to harvest all types of grains

Case IH 7120 Harvester

Incredible external vision
Simple to understand controls
Axial flow design
Can handle all types of grain

Engine and power

Powering the Case IH 7120 is an 8.7-litre Case IH/Iveco Cursor 9 six-cylinder engine, which produces up to 268kW (364hp) at 2100rpm, with a 41kW (55hp) power rise (at 1950rpm) with zero unloading boost. Or, the engine can provide a 22kW (30hp) power rise with a selectable 19kW (25hp) Power Boost.

Common rail fuel injection of the Tier 3 engine is electronically controlled, boosted by air-to-air exhaust gas aftercooling and a turbocharger. Fuel tank size is 1000 litres for all-day operation.

Performance and handling

The Case IH 7120 Axial Flow combine harvester is designed to harvest grain. As such, the machine works differently to a silage, maize or grass forage harvester in several areas, one of which is an on-board hopper to store grain between off-loads.

The 126-blade rotor head is different, and so is the unique axial flow method used to thresh and accelerate grain gently into the hopper. The rotor has an auto-reverse function, in case the rotor becomes blocked.

Operating the 7120 wasn’t difficult. Start the engine, hit the switch and the hopper cover automatically rises, release the park brake, push the main stick forward and you’re moving.

To the right of the main control stick are buttons and toggle switches to run the machine, including switches that put the mill and front cutters into gear, threshing drum rotor speed control, and the dial potentiometer. The 7120 can be fitted with another dial to set the auger and feeder chain to your ground speed.

The large orange lever is the throttle, to its right is the top sieve adjustment for the different grains. Another option is auto steer, not fitted to our 7120.

The front row includes boom height fine tuning, boom high and low stops, road transport mode – up to 33km/h, cleaning fan speed adjustment, rotor concave gap adjustment, the bottom cleaning sieve adjustment, and the rear spinner speed adjustment.

Right at the front is the Park brake, gear selection dial and 4WD mode.

Maize is tackled in first gear from 200-500rpm, barley in second 400-800rpm, wheat at 900rpm, and clover up to 1150rpm.

Inside the cab

At 14,943kg base weight, the Case IH 7120 is a large machine, but it has a high seating position, incredible external vision, easy to operate controls, and large rear view mirrors.

An easily visible meter on the rotor offers a rudimentary yet effective display. The boom has a height sensor (adjustable) on each end, when activated by an object the boom will automatically rise, so I didn’t have to worry too much about hitting a foreign object on the unseen outside rows.

Directly behind the driver is a big sight glass looking into the 10,580-litre grain tank, so you can easily see when it’s getting full.

The axial flow design has a single in-line rotor for best quality grain harvest by avoiding high impaction on the drum during initial threshing and separation. The process is gentler on your crop for increased yields per hectare.

The rotor runs long ways through the combine, and does thrashing in the first part of the rotor and the main separation in the second part. Straw goes straight out the back, whereas on a conventional header is a drum at the front [lateral] that goes through another beater then goes onto the straw walker to shake the grain out. The 7120 uses centrifugal force to throw the grain out and that is the main difference.

Another bonus is the 7120 won’t give you ‘skinnings’ in malting barley.

Comprehensive Computer

There are six main pages to the AFS 600 Pro colour touch-screen computer, where you can monitor and adjust almost anything.

The Toolbox is the main set-up page where you can control the likes of engine boost and store crop settings. The first page displays boom ride height, the optional maize moisture content, your work rate average per hectare, tonnes per hour, engine load, rotor speed, fan speed, and several other indicators. All pages show your speed, the fuel level and oil temperature.

Page two includes rotor speed, moisture content, boom tilt, number of working rows, spreader speed, sieve offset, and yield.

The third page provides an instant look at your hectares/hour, average tonne/hour flow rate, area covered, moisture, a weight counter, and dry weight. On this page you can enter the farm name, paddock name, task and crop type, etc.

Page four gets you into the sieve readings, concave opening size, rotor speed, litres used per hectare, as well as boom positioning speeds.

The fifth page highlights all the mechanicals such as engine hours, threshing hours, average fuel consumption per hour, current fuel rate per hour, fuel temperature, boost air temperature, air filter not blocked notice, and all relevant temperatures.

Our demo Case IH 7120 is not fitted with a GPS guidance device, so page six wasn’t active.

See a range of Case IH combine harvesters for sale.

Specifications

Engine Six-cylinder Case IH/Iveco Cursor 9
Capacity 8.7-litres, turbocharged
Power rating 268kW (364hp) at 2100rpm; 22kW (30hp) power rise plus selectable 19kW (25hp) Power Boost
Transmission Four-speed, hydrostatic
Max speed 33km/h
Fuel capacity 1000 litres
Weight 14,943kg
Wheelbase 3765mm
Length 7951mm
Width 3488 (with tyres)
Height 3900mm in transport mode
Grain header cutting width 6.1/7.32/9.15/10.7m
Rotor drive 220-1180rpm, variable speed gearbox and shaft
Rotor size 2623mm long by 792mm dia
No of threshing/separating modes 4/4
Cleaning fan 300-1150rpm, hydraulic load sensing
Grain tank 10,580 litres
Unloading rate 11.3 litres/s
Straw chopper and spreader Integral 126 knives