Good 4RW Combine

2510Paul

Well-known Member
What would be a good four row wide combine? Parts availability is also a concern.

If the opportunity presents itself I would like to row crop some corn and beans. I have a JD 7000 4RW planter. What would be a combine with a good track record, both reliability and efficiency, to go with that? A hillside version would be a benefit here in Western Wisconsin.

Thanks. Paul
 
A number of good choices. I"d suggest an F2 Gleaner, after sn 39201, so you have the long cleaning shoe with more capacity. 96 hp turbo diesel runs about 3 gphr. Adjustments and repairs are simple. Many machines sold, so parts availability is excellent. Rock door is the only effective one. Hydraulic folding unloading auger is nice.

Can run 4 row wide/narrow heads, up to 15 ft bean head. (13 for 4 wide rows) Some have hillside air attachment (combine follows ground contour, but air blast is directed to blow to high side of separator by pendulum system). Good monitor system, header height control.
 
You wont go wrong with a good JD 95 or 105.But parts through Deere are starting to get 'iffy'.A 6600 still has good parts availability.They are goog machines too.They just have 3 times the moveing parts as the *05s. As was said,there are MANY choices out there.
 
I cant agree more with DeltRed on this on, A 95 or 105 with a 4 row head will flat out get it! A lot of parts interchange from the 55 95 and 105 so that helps. I run a 95 Corn Special and run a 15' grain head and an AC 8x20" corn head and love this combine. Easy to run and work on and not bad on fuel, It likes gas but not that bad. Bandit
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Cousin ran wide row jd. 7000 planter with 444 head on 6620 jd combine for years in the 90s. We could plant or harvest 50 acres per day. 6620 is a very nice combine to run.
 
Agree with the F2 Gleaner---You won't find a machine easier on fuel than the 4 cyl. turbo diesel F2. I could run mine for two days before refilling---used about a gallon (Imperial) per acre. Look at the belts on a Deere and imagine how long it would take to change some of the main ones....then look at the Gleaners belts. Ben
 
IF your in Western Wisconsin then you have pretty good hills. I would say a JD 6620 side hill.

To the guys saying a Gleaner F2 is so easy to work on over a JD. Well it should be as you work on them more. I have ran both machines. The JD 6620 will run many hours with fewer repairs than a Gleaner F2. If you think I am wrong look at the market share of each machine. Gleaner became a very small percentage of the market.
 
Count the belts....IIRC, exactly twice as many on a 6600 vs F2. F2 is a smaller capacity machine than the 6600, but better than the 4400. 6600 has heavier shafts and bearings than 4400. I considered trading for a 6600, but stayed with the Gleaner.
 
My vote is for the Gleaner F 2 a great combine. One big plus is the operators platform it is in the middle instead of on the side like a 4400 or 6620. The rock trap is also a big plus. A neighbor ran a rock into his 6620 with their supposedly good rock trap and it was down for days rounding up parts and putting it together again. The F its get out close the door and go again.
 
Thanks so much for the comments.

On the F2, are parts available?

I was surprised there was not a comment on a IH 14xx rotary. Are they narrow enough to do 4 rows wide? Also, were there any major issues with them. I heard or read once the frames were weak. Any truth to that?

Thanks again, Paul
 
The 1420 was made for 4 rows. I see more 1440 1640 machines. They will work on 4 rows. I can't say anything about the frames.
 
I think the 1420 is the one that has a frame problem with axels tube braking. There good machines just weak in the axel on the 1420 and early 1440's. They can be reinforced to be made stronger. Bandit
 
I've had a F2, L2, and now have a 1440. They were all good. The F2 in good corn would carry some out the back if you weren't careful. The L2 with a 4 row head would really eat corn. I do like the 1440, easy to set and operate. Gleaners are easy to work on. I have also owned Massey's and Deeres. IH and Gleaner are the best.
 
Run f2 with short shoe and case ih 1644, both on 4rw. F2 a little short on corn capacity in200 plus by. corn just go slower, easy to set ,work on,(all shafts go all the way thru combine, no hidden bearings.) Doesn't like green stemmed beans . 1644 is 4 row corn hog .44 & 66 &88 series have extra 18inches of shoe compared to 40&60 series. Never throw corn out back on it. Easy to set. In fact, only change beater deflector plate in back of combine and slight adjustment on rotor concave. 10 minutes at most. Lots of aftermarket parts. Other than a disk and 2 plows only I-h stuff on farm.
 
we use a Massey 760 around Eleva, some hills on the farm. The combine has the 1144 head does a nice job. Parts are available. Has the Perkins motor. We may be looking a selling the old girl. Putting all the corn ground in hay this year.
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Well there maybe more belts on a JD 6600/6620 but the machine is much more durable than a F2 Gleaner. I have ran both and worked on both. The Gleaners where light built to me. Too many shafts/bearings and chains. You seem to be replacing bearing all of the time. Yes there are few things that are stacked like in the JD combines but they are just as hard to work on.

Also the parts availability is much better on the JD combines. Better after market support and much better company parts system. I get tired of hearing that I can't get things from AGCO for 2-3 days. IF I am willing to pay the machine down freight I can have just about 99% of the JD parts the next morning even ordered as late as 4 PM the day before

Then the biggest advantage of the JD over the Gleaner is switching form one crop to another. With the JD you DO NOT have to switch sprockets and belts for the different crops.

A good neighbor had a Gleaners for years. F and F2s. HE could make them do a great job as far as cleaning but it took him half a day to switch from corn to beans or back. I have many times ran corn in the morning until the dew was off and switched to beans until dark and switched back to corn to run late. Try that with a Gleaner F2.

Even if we could argue about the basic separator for hours but the JD headers just put the final nail in the Gleaner. The JD 40 series corn head is head and shoulders above the Gleaner corn head, even the later black header. Then the JD 200 series flex head worked much better and is way more rugged than the Gleaner gran tables that will fit an F machine.

The whole Gleaner header issue always mystified me. They never standardized there headers much. That is just poor engineering in addition to making cost higher.

Try to find a 15 foot flex head of a F2 Gleaner. You will have a hard time finding much of a choice. Look for a 15 foot JD 215 header and you will find hundreds of them.

The only place that a Gleaner will beat a JD 6600/6620 is price. They will be much cheaper. So if your a smaller farmer than you maybe able to justify a Gleaner easier than a JD combine. You really need to look at your dealer network around you. There is only TWO AGCO dealers in a 100 miles of me that keep many parts for a non rotary Gleaner combine. In that same area there would be 5-6 JD dealers that would have most of the common parts for a JD 6600 and several salvage yards that have few if any Gleaners scraped.
 
Thanks again for the continued responses. I don't have the land now but if I find some will be going back to my printed version of this thread. Paul
 

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