What to buy

Hi everyone I am interested in buying a combine for use on my farm and for @ 20-50 acres of rented ground narrow rows and a grain head what would be a good one for some one that's never run one with a 3-5 thousand budget for combine and heads
 
Prices are so variable on that size machine.

I see a lot of Gleaners, K, F, M running around here, and my preference of course. Easy to work on, if you have a dealer anywhere near you,
they have a lot of parts available for the old buggers yet.

International the 815 and 915 are pretty cheap, bigger machines. I hear the smaller in the series parts are getting harder to find? Also the rotary
International machines 14xx,16xx, etc are very popular, not sure if they get to your price and are still dependable tho or worn plumb out? I hear
the rotiries are real easy to work on and keep running.

JD the 4400 and 6600 were the go to machines for many farms for many years, if you can find one not worn out. The 4420 and 6620 are better,
but will cost more. The older 95 and so are good, but harder to find parts I think? JD is kinda hard to work on when they break; but they are built
pretty well so don't break as often maybe?

100 miles SW of me they sell all those small old machines for $500 to $1000. 150 miles NE of me they all might start at $5000 if in good
running condition. Proce is just so varriable, depends on what is used in your area, size of the farms in the area.

Oliver made a good combine back in the day, if you can find a good one yet and if you can find a parts source.... Depends if you want to be a
little out on your own or have some experienced folk, advice, and fence row parts available to you.

I've never been around working with one, the old Massey combines, there were many around, but I keep hearing what a nightmare to work on
when they break down..... People were happy to be rid of them. Sure were a lot around back when, but it don't see many at all compared to the
other older machines 'here', and keep hearing of the happy day when it left the farm......

Paul
 
How many acres total and what time constraints are you under at harvest time? If the 50 acres is the total to harvest and you have lots of time, you can use a much smaller machine and if you are able to do some fixing as it breaks you can get a pretty old machine to do the work. On the other side of the equation, if you are working 2 jobs and have 200 total acres to do, you'll be wanting a larger, newer machine so you can make the best use of the limited time you have.
 
i live in south central ky so some small combines around older will be fine as I have some extra time gas or diesel which is better deere and caseih are closest dealers and not afraid to work on something simple to fix
 
for 50 acres to 100 acres , go with a JD 4400 or Gleaner F or F2. NICE capacity for the money , lots of them around. parts are not bad to get and if all all else fails , you can buy a mate for a parts donor many times for not much money at all. even for the price of a single repair part , depending of course. stay away from lesser brand combines , bigger and cheaper is not always the best. we run and F3 gleaner and have gotten lots of salvage parts for $$$ less than new , we are lucky to have a combine graveyard 25 miles from here though. do a search on craigslist and you can find some really nice older , yet very serviceable machines in the 5K price range. narrow your search and make a few calls , visit a dealer or two also. load yourself with info and spend the winter looking . good luck
 
a nice jd 4400 combine posted under photo ads. it is listed as a 4440 jd under tractor ads , its in TN so maybe close , low hours with both corn and grain heads , $5000. JUST SOMETHING TO CHECK OUT again , good luck and u can always ask questions here
 
There really isnt a "best" machine out there. Personalpreferences,dealer accability,CONDITION are probably the parts to look at.
Many models out there.Conventional or rotary.Find somthing in your price range.Post back when you find somthing.I run a JD
95.combine 70-80 acres(or more) yearly.Does a good job plenty of capacity and trouble free.Easy to work on too.Parts are
beginning to get harder to find
 
If you have rocks make sure the machine has a rock door or rock trap. Gleaner is light years ahead in this.
 
come up to Louisville area and buy my 300 massey gasser ,.. good low houred machine , just old ,1965,. 3500 bux to a good home, you have a choice of qik attach 2 row wide or 3 row narrow,. and choice of grain heads...
 
Nothing wrong with a good, well maintained MF. A 300, 410, 510, 540 or 550 will all do lots of work for not much money.

I saw a pretty decent 540 with both heads sell for $3000 this spring. A good 550 will be out of your budget, but you might get lucky. A diesel and Hydro are huge bonuses, but lots of crops were harvested without them.
 
I am with R G on the Massey's First one i had was a 300 that i bought in a driving rain storm at a sale for 650 bucks i added a cab for 150 bucks changed the gen to and alt dyue to the fact that it would not handle the lights that i added on the gen. bought a corn head for 7.50 and ran that 300 hard for seven years doing custom during the small grain i would put 10-150 acres thru it for small guy with field that had narrow gates back thru narrow lane thru the woods that the guy with the bigger machines would not do and every fall i would run between 300to 400 acres of corn thru it And that little 300 would plum eat corn . If you thought that one 16 grain truck and two gravity wagons and one tractor was going to keep up you had best think again. With just hauling seven miles it took three trucks and four wagons and two tractors to keep me moving in good corn . Second gear and 2/3rds up on the variable speed , don't know the MPH but if you tried to walk along side you were on a good run not walking . The only down side was the bin was not big enough to make it to the end of the long field in 180 bba corn . had to unload at each end and sometimes pull out before reaching the end . Sold the 300 and bought a 410 and after going thru it and replacing a hand full of bearings and a few belts it was the same way , it would plum eat corn but faster doing 4 rows instead of just two.
 

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