Going to buy the BEST combine....

Dave H (MI)

Well-known Member
I can possibly afford. If you want to know why, just head over to implement alley and see what fun I am having with my Cyclo 800 corn planter. A relatively simple machine and I am three days into it now putting out fires and that is AFTER I spent last fall getting it "field ready". Told Mrs Dave that the combine budget just increased. I am not doing this again in the fall. Wish me luck!
 
Dave, everyone has their own opinion on this but to me it's always wise to buy the best machine you can afford, even if you end up paying a little more than you wanted to. The "fixers", while cheaper at first very often cost more in the long run, and this does not take into account any down time. While you can go to extremes on the side of cheap or fancy, it's almost always better to buy a machine that's been taken care of. Sounds like you are learning a valuable lesson. Mike
 
You want trouble free combining? No such thing.....Hire it done.All jokes aside,My old JD 95SB last year had ZERO problems.This past year one minor glitch....Did 70=/- acres each year.And will again this year.
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If you are talking about the planter I guess I will reserve judgement. It is nothing short of astounding that this monster can place a seed with the precision it does. It is actually a very simple machine but it is now 30 years old and in reality, it probably only needs a new pump. It's a very nice machine and they do work...just this one is putting me thru a few hoops first.
 
A valuable lesson? Yes...probably not the one you think, but yes. The one about farming with junk I learned only too well ages ago when I started this adventure by cutting my own hay with a JD #5 mower. Said mower being of more use as an anchor for a swim raft or a deep water mooring for a sailboat than for cutting hay. I had two of them and wanted rid of them badly. Finally a fella came around and asked me if he could cut hay with those. I went all innocent and said "Oh yeah, they will cut hay." And they would. Just with a lot of aggravation and coaxing. He gave me three times what I paid for them and is still cutting his own hay with them.

The lesson I learned this weekend is how to repair virtually everything on a Cyclo 800. I know more about this planter than I ever wanted to know but it is a good lesson because it will likely never get the better of me again.
 
My experience with old equipment is that you MIGHT have to completely rebuild a lot of the critical components in the first year or two of ownership. This can be REAL expensive...like the Cyclo. The planter cost me around $1000. I added end transport to it and put that all together for about $500. So for $1500 I had a pretty nice 8 row no-till air planter that could be folded up and taken down the road. Then comes planting day and it turns out the pump is likely shot. Now I get to almost double my original investment with a nice $1000+ pump! But after that it is likely to plant for years with normal maintenance. Say a prayer.
 
Dave, don't feel bad. All of us have had to learn this lesson and some of us seem to have to have a reminder at times. The school of hard knocks does not give out diplomas. It only offers graduate courses..:) Mike
 
I'm a small time farmer in the grand scheme of things.

Few years ago my moderate sized neighbor got a fairly new 1200 Case planter.

He had many problems getting it to work, I got done planting with my small equipment and wet fields long before him.

Now many years later he is using the same planter, getting along good with it. Just growing pains, learning it, and making it work for you.

Paul
 
Yeah. Mrs Dave went out to grab us a lunch yesterday. We have a spot in the center of the place where everything seems to meet. I have a stone BBQ and a table. We all go there for drinks and meals when we take a break. I was back there alone sitting in a chair. The spot has big old walnuts, oaks and hickories. Wind blowing the leaves and there were birds I could never quite see singing. I sat there and stared way down the lane at that planter and thought to myself...this isn't so bad. Sure, you had to fix 8-10 problems over the last two days, but you only have one left. Down the road when it acts up you will know exactly what to do to fix it. That will be a real benefit when it is 70 acres instead of 7. Bottom line is, I have it ready finally. Next nice day I plant. Now if I could just find a nice F3 green stripe, low hours, all the bells and whistles...and for a price I could afford...
 
Mike - those are the wisest words you could have said. People want to get cheap when it comes to a combine, but it will cost. If you farm 100 acres or less, you might get by cheap because if you lose the crop, you aren't out that much. More than that, and it get's to be an expensive hobby.

I'm not saying everyone needs a new combine, but your words of "Buy the best you can afford" are well worth repeating. Bob
 
mAke sure you buy the best one, and not the most expensive one. Sometimes they are not the same.

There is some high priced junk out there... and some bargains. The bargains are a lot fewer and further between though.

Happy hunting.
 
Coonie is right on. There are some cheap machines out there that do a good job and are dependable. During the years when I was helping the neighbor with his harvest crew We 'ate, drank, and slept' combines from January when we started getting them ready for the harvest till November when we finished up. Combines occupied our whole lives during those months. When the 8 repaired and freshened up machines went into the wheat fields for the first time in the season most of them were nothing but trouble for the first day. A few, for unknown reasons ran the season practically trouble free. The next years those formerly trouble free few were nothing but trouble and a new set of trouble free machines from the same bunch took their turn. What I'm trying to say is a thoroughly gone through used combine is not necessarily going to be trouble free the first day out. When you go combine shopping bring along a good bright flashlight. You can take it from there. Good luck. Jim
 
One thing that can be said about the older, simpler machines is that they are simple and easy to repair. With small acreages timing isn't all that critical, so taking time to fix it isn't the end of the world. Now try to tell me that when my old Allis 60 has a problem!
 

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