You can learn a thing or two...

Driving a combine 60 miles or so. Mrs Dave thought I should have it trucked but I told her it was a good chance to get a feel for how everything works...so off we went. Got there about 10:30 AM in order to miss rush hour and my worst fear confirmed, the darn thing wouldn't start. Clearly a battery issue and a quick conference with the PO confirmed those nice looking batteries are not as new as they looked. SOOO...long story short... I got it running and it sounds really good. Look to my left and there are no markings on the shifter to show 1-2-3. Manual was there but couldn't find it. So I pulled it out in the yard and figured out which was which and practiced stopping. Not too tough but gonna take some more practice. Had my route all planned and the PO had generously left 3/4 tank of diesel so out on the open road to learn how to drive a hydro. Roads were mostly empty and, frankly, driving that thing down Howell Rd with all those big fields on either side...it was just beautiful. Drove it from west side of Mason to the NW side of Brighton, MI and really did not have any problems. Stopped at McDonalds and had lunch. Took me about 4 hrs. Drove it just like y'all told me...full RPM's and use the hydro to stop it. Never touched a pedal. Only issue is here on the driveway at home when I stopped on the slope of the driveway so they could move the PU out of my way it blew a bunch of hydraulic fluid out of a connection up under the left side cowling toward the rear. Clearly I stressed something holding it on the hill. Hopefully not too bad. I will try to get some pictures up in the near future.

You get to know a machine by running it like that. Now you will know when something in the driveline just doesn't feel right. Combines are hard on batteries. Big engines, lots of sitting time, and run under bad conditions. When the batteries go on something like that I buy new batteries for something else and rotate older batteries into the combine. Makes no sense to have older batteries in the tractor that you use each day if they will swap. That's why all of my gas tractors have a battery the same size as my pickup and the pickup has never left me stranded with a dead battery!

Look and see if your hydraulic came from a system vent. With the machine I am familiar with there are some of those here and there. I haven't had them blow fluid but each machine is different.

I will check that out, thanks! I never mentioned it was an IH 1660. There are so many posts below on the topic. I only had a few scary moments. One...had to go under the freeway to get home. As I got up to the underpass I got it in my head the combine was too tall to go under it. 20 mph and too late to stop so I ducked and went under. My chase vehicle said I cleared it with lots of room. Sure didn't look like lots of room! Two...the clean grain bin extends will past the cab as you know. It was a fine day and I wanted the window and door open as I drove thru the countryside. The design of the machine funnels air into the window and as I drove by a wet field the "design" caught a swarm of some type of bug and literally 1-200 of them ended up in the cab with me. I prayed they weren't bees as I fishtailed down the road waving my hat to get them out the door. Three...in spite of my previous assertion that the area between here and there was "flat as a pancake", it is decidedly not true. My first experience with a hydro, a combine, and a hill with a large pond on one side at the bottom is as follows: I was moving at good speed. When a combine goes down a steep grade most of the weight goes to the front tires. The hydro starts to brake the combine and transfers MORE weight to the front. The machine starts to head bob as the braking action starts fighting with the added weight and speed. Each down cycle of the bobbing takes more weight OFF the rear tires. You steer with the rear tires so as you are bobbing down the hill you really only have good steering as it bobs up and you lose it when it bobs down. SO...bobbing down the hill, steering for all I am worth back and forth on the narrow road, feathering the hydro back to try to stop the forward momentum. I could not tell you what was on the left side of the road because all I could see was the large pond on the right. Got to the bottom safe and sound and after that I learned to watch carefully for steep grades and also how to adjust the hydro to make it safer. May be the best lesson I have learned this year. It won't catch me unaware twice.

Drove the F3 hydro home from 90 miles away, but stopped half way at the dealer for a check over so 2 segments. First time driving a hydro, they are fast on the F3, was uneventful but when I stopped at the dealer, I decided to move the machine after I parked it, would not start. Turned out the mouse chewed wires fell off, so sure glad I never stopped along the way.

Second F3 I drove home 45 miles, owner said the fuel filter will gum up so etimes need to blow it out. Well yea, every 10 miles stop and blow it out, sheez, why sell it with bad fuel? Grrrr. That was frustrating.

Paul

I have hauled a lot of stuff home. Sometimes on it's own tires and often on a trailer. I had the IH 800 planter on the trailer. well over 20' long planter on an 18' car hauler. About 9-10' wide with the tongue folded and the trailer is 7' wide. Cribbing and blocks all over. Every chain and binder I could muster and several straps as backup. Had to lift it on and off with loaders.
This was the first time I drove something like this home and it is bigger than anything I currently own. The IH 1586 is dwarfed by it. To get some perspective, it is parked crossways to my three car garage. It is longer than the garage is wide. When you stand up on the deck by the engine you can count every shingle on the garage roof. I was not really prepared for how truly large it is. I can tell you that an F3 would have made me more comfortable but, in the long run, I think this one is going to give me less trouble. Cab stinks but other than that it is really clean and starts right up and runs well. Engine is good with obvious maintenance to filters, etc. Sticker for a mobile hydro hose service in the cab. It's been looked after and seems to work well. Seller is a local farmer with a good rep who offered to drive 30 miles to help me start it...but I had it running. The way things normally work is that I will spend a month on the driveway fixing 90% of what is wrong with it and several hours in the field fixing the rest. After that the learning curve smooths out and things start to hum along.

Dave,
The thing you may not be thinking of is: You did not have a head on at that time!
Just wait until you have an 8 row corn head on and an empty bin and start down a hill. The rear end gets real light in a hurry!
Keith

Enjoyed hearing about your adventure. Most of the stories and adventures my friends and I get talking about over beverages is about bringing home old cars and machinery over the years, something that scared the crap out of you the most, is the stuff you laugh about the most later.

I've done crazier things...I'm sure I have mentioned a few over the years. We are about to pack it in for a week's vacation. I'm thinking that combine and the drive home will come up more than once over dinner. A combine is an amusing thing to park in the driveway of a home. It has to be there because that is where my shop is and it needs a little freshening up. Still, one of these neighbors is going to have an accident trying to figure out what the crazy guy on the road is up to now. I don't blame em...the friggin thing is huge.

Oh believe me! I thought of it. I had four hours to think about things like that. I was looking down at the front of that thing and wondering how in the heck does someone steer it with a head on the front? Guess you are just going a lot slower? It was an adventure, but a mostly pleasant one. Got slightly lost at one point but only for 20 minutes or so. Really pretty here in July. The PO told me to go 6 rows on the head. He said the 983 head was a little more than she wanted in heavy corn. It would do it but he didn't like the ground speed. Not like I am growing anything like "heavy" corn this year...but one can dream.

For your cab interior problem check out www.fehrcab.com. As for your hydro problem it's possible that your oil overheated on the hill and boiled out of the reservoir. Hydros are not made to hold the combine in place on an incline. Especially if it's still in 3rd gear. Also watch freewheeling down a hill on the road. Those combines are notorious about stripping the splines on the input shaft to the hydro. When it starts to freewheel and the hydro grabs repeatedly going down a hill it puts a lot of stress on those splines. But glad you got it home ok. I remember when I drove my 1660 home for the first time 12 yrs ago!

Glad? Delirious! After 4 hours it was a treat to park that thing! Wouldn't be so bad exceptin really never drove anything quite like it before. Glancing at the manual last night for the first time. I like the part where it says to read the entire thing before even starting the engine! I didn't even know it HAD a manual until I opened the toolbox for the first time. Just got back from a week up at the National Cherry Festival and now it is time to get to work on this beast. This is a hard one. Just checking the lights I needed a helper. After three times up and down the ladder I called one of the kids over and had her walk around and see what lights came on and what didn't. Sheesh!