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John Deere 55

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c_eilers

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Saw a nice looking JD 55 combine coming up on a auction. has a gas engine and a 343 corn head on it. From what I can find out that would be a quick attach head correct? How would you run a newer flex head with a hydraulic reel on this combine? Thank-You! Chris
 
The 343 is a quik-tatch header. It'll be 3 row narrow. The 213 Flex could be put on that feeder house but you will have to figure out some way to drive the reel. The 200 series heads never offered a mechanically driven reel like the original "Quick-tatch" series platforms did. To use the 55 without modifications you'll need a "quik-tatch" series head with mechanically driven reel. Sometimes these heads are referred to as the "100 series" heads, although Deere never called them as such. The "QT" heads were offered in 10 and 12.5 ft widths.
 
I put a 220 JD flex on my 1660 Case combine. Because it doesn't have enough hydraulics I put a 6" pulley on the right side of the auger shaft and a big pulley bolted to the reel drive sprocket. Need to add a tightner for the drive belt and it works good. Don't have a very good picture but here it is.....
a199203.jpg

a199204.jpg
 
All you need to do is find a header off of a White combine. Those headers used a self contained hydraulic unit that was mounted on the header itself to run the reel. Take that off and bolt it on to your header. The guy we bought our 55 from uses a 105 with either a 215 or 218 header and that is what he did. It can be done.
 
Yes its the combine on the Albrecht Auction, I wonder if the feeder house was replaced to run the 343 corn head, since the grain head that is shown in the pictures has the feeder house on the grain head.
 
Yes, many kept their old platforms when they purchased the feeder house to run the 40 series corn heads. The quick-tatch platforms weren't all that different from their predassessors other than the fact that they were quick attach so there wasn't a huge incentive to change over especially if funds were tight. The corn heads were a different deal. The 40 series corn heads were a major improvement over all the Deere heads that came before them and set the standard for corn heads for nearly 20 years. Even guys that ran red combines used green corn heads back in the 70s and 80s. The 200 series flex platforms was a fairly important game changer as well...
 
I have a 55 with a quick tach feeder house. I run a 215 flex head, would have liked to have a 213 but this is all I could find close to home.
Anyway I got a hyd pump and reservoir off a White combine and mounted it on the back of the head. It runs off the sickle drive on the left side.
There are two styles of pumps that were on the Whites. The version I have reel speed was adjustable by a cable. The newer version had an electric solenoid to adjust the speed. I have been told that the electric solenoid is hard to fine and expensive if it goes bad.
I never rigged up a way to change reel speed from in the cab. It's trial and error.
Here are some pics of the set up.

IMG_3107.jpg


IMG_3109.jpg


IMG_3108.jpg
 
(quoted from post at 14:16:04 09/01/15) Lots of work and fabrication compared to a couple pulleys on the other end for a mechanical set-up.
Click to expand...

Not much more than adding pulleys and tensioners. Reel speed with this setup is adjustable.
 
Wont be getting the John Deere 55 sold today for $6000.00 Yes thats six thousand and not a typo. You could use the 6000.00 on a down payment for a nicer newer 6600 or even a newer 6620.
 
That's the kind of setup I was referring to in my earlier post and I think it looks nice and makes the header more usable. I hate not having an adjustable reel speed on my old antiques.
 
$6,000 could get you a couple of 7700s in my neck of the woods. Are collectors starting to go nuts over combines now?
 
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