Sidehill combines

Mtnfarmer

Member
Anybody on here know about side hill combines Considering buying one for small acreage probably an older one Which ones are good or bad. Ground around me is pretty steep
 
Well there are side hill and hill side combines. Side hill machines will not level as much as the hillside machines. John Deere made both. I own a JD 6620 Titan II sidehill combine. It is a great four row machine but 200 bushel corn with a six row makes it slow going. The Sidehill models JD made where : 6600, 6620, 9500,9510 and the 9550. I do not know the hill side numbers.

Then you have several companies that make sidehill and hillside kits for the different makes of combines. Hill Co is a common one.

So what size header and what price range are you looking at?? That makes the selection narrower.
 
(reply to post at 19:02:32 12/17/16)
4 row will be fine maybe 6 row. 15 acre feild is huge for us Transporting will be an issue also Didn't know about side hill and hillside either Hillside is probably what I need How steep will a side hill like yours level up on
 
Far as price goes I don't want wore out price or new either but small acreage can't support to much price I guess I'm looking for opinions on what's available and price ranges on certain models
 
Definitely will need a hillside Did all the big name manufactures build hillside combines as small as I'm wanting
 
We had some in our part of the country, JD 6600 hillside I believe tilted 18 degrees and the sidehill was up to 45 degrees.
 
(quoted from post at 21:24:18 12/17/16) We had some in our part of the country, JD 6600 hillside I believe tilted 18 degrees and the sidehill was up to 45 degrees.

It's easy to get the hillside/sidehill thing confused. The 6600 Sidehill tilted to 18 degrees, the 6602 Hillside tilted to 45 degrees.

Here's a comparison of the two from another forum:

43313.jpg
 
IH made some in the 1960's (x15 series?). They offered a 1470 Axial-Flow hillside combine, but I don't know if many were sold. Maybe Gleaner too?
 
Hillside combines were made by just about everybody... the first were pull types by Holt, and Catterpillar. I think IH made the first self propelled hillside.

Deere may have been the only one to make the sidehill (moderate slope) from the factory. The sidehill is the only one that will handle a corn head- hillsides were platform only to cut wheat
in Washington, CA, etc.

The Deere sidehill concept came about in the late 60's when two Deere engineers were deer hunting on some land in either WI, IL or IA along the Mississippi. It was the family farm of one of
them. They saw the grain loss coming from corn combines on the slopes, and put their ideas together into a functional form. It's a good example of some farm kids with some gumption that had
a good idea.
 
So If want to combine all 3 crops corn wheat and soybeans on slopes steeper than 18 % I will have to go with the deere hillside
 

Not the HILL SIDE combines, they are all grain only to my knowledge. The feeder houses are different. Your only wanting to do smaller acres and still level on slopes steeper than 18%. That machine is not going to be found.

So your going to look for a JD sidehill machine if your going to do corn with a four row header. Even then you will need a JD 6600 or 6620. The newer JD 9500, 9510 and 9550 are too wide for a four row header too. A six row narrow barely fits.

That Hillco kit is $35K alone on a new machine. So the used value is higher too. The trouble with a HillCo kit is your not going to be able to do 4 row corn with them. The base is wider than that.
 
Guess I will have to sacrifice corn harvesting What is the smallest grain header can I run on the side hill. soybeans and wheat will be more important than corn Sounds like I will need two different machines and not plant corn on any ground over 18 % slope
 
I run a 4 row on a 7720 and a 9500 with no problem. Our 9510 is the same width as the 9500 but never had the 4 row on it.
 
4520bw: The trouble is the sidehill 9500, 9510 and 9550 are wider than the regular JD 9500,9510, and 9550. I know of one JD 9500 Sidehill that was setup for 4x38 corn. We had to find 20.8x38 tires with deep dished rims that fit back over the final drives. In good standing corn he had about six inches on each side of the tires. If he did not start at the bottom of a hill and worked his way up he would side shift and run over the next row of corn.
 
Forgot to mention I am using 38 ich rows also but a 9500 series is outta my price range A 6600 or 6620 is closer to my window You said the hillside machines are for grain only will it combine soybeans also?
 
A lot of heavily sloped ground is harvested with conventional combines. Increased harvester losses or slower harvest speeds are factored into the costs. Erosion control could be a bigger problem than harvest losses. Are your slopes over 18 percent after terracing?
 
No terraces all notill no erosion issues I keep a ground cover all yearlong Would like to plant winter wheat followed by soybeans or soybeans followed by wheat and then sow it down in hay for 2 years some of my ground is not bad steep but alot is over 18% and will be located in same feild with not so steep this is why I'm wanting hillside that will do both beans and wheat
 
I would just go with a JD 6620 sidehill. YOU can harvest steeper ground just like you can harvest hill with a level land machine. With the JD 6620 you can easily switch headers and do corn/wheat/soybeans. The hillside machines would work well on wheat but not so well on soybeans as they hillside headers did not have floating cutter bars or automatic header height control. I harvest hill steeper than 18 degree OK.

Here is a picture: The field is in hay in the picture but I rotate it into corn and beans too.
a245833.jpg
 
A John Deere 6600 or 6620 will mechanically tip the entire machine, but is not the only way to get better performance out of a combine on a slope. I recently bought a Gleaner M2 with hillside blowers for my farm, which has a few contour strips that have 30-60% slope according to my soil survey. An M2 will outperform a 6600, and you won't have the full-throttle engine sitting a foot away from you. You'll get a centered cab that is just as nice as a 6620 cab. You can also get sidehill blowers on an L2, and it will leave a 6620 in the dust. Both will fit behind a 4 row head better, and both are easier to work on.

I gave 6k for a 1981 M2 with 4rw, 6rn, 20 flex head, and pickup head. It came with it's own boneyard (2 parts combines).

This is one of my flattest fields.

43372.jpg
 
That interesting! see how much you can learn on here. Most of the land around here is flat enough that none were sold in this area. Was at the auction in Indy one time and they had a 6620SH on the sale. Sure was neat to look at. The guy that drove it thru the auction tilted it,
 
Was gonna ask about the gleaners but really like the concept of machines leveling themselves Like the pics that you guys posted I still need to figure out how to do that Also the slopes in the pics are comparable to my best land majority of mine will be steeper than that How hard is it to get parts for the older gleaners and deeres How do I tell if a gleaner has the hill blowers on them I've not been around combines that much but think I'm gonna have to purchase one so I can still rotate crops and still make money in my area. I have self propelled forge harvester experience on steep ground but they are a total diff machine. I can't use wagons around here we blow the silage into small single axle or small tandem trucks the single axles will go where the tandems won't and we pay attention when planting to make sure our patterns will accomadate the ability of the trucks Maybe that will help to give you guys a better idea what I'm looking for or need
 
A Gleaner equipped with sidehill blower will be pretty easy to spot. The blower fan is black and mounted up high beside the fuel tank on the RH side.

I think parts availability is about equal for an 80's Gleaner and an 80's Deere. The Gleaner is going to be easier to work on.
 
(quoted from post at 23:28:56 12/19/16) I would just go with a JD 6620 sidehill. YOU can harvest steeper ground just like you can harvest hill with a level land machine. With the JD 6620 you can easily switch headers and do corn/wheat/soybeans. The hillside machines would work well on wheat but not so well on soybeans as they hillside headers did not have floating cutter bars or automatic header height control. I harvest hill steeper than 18 degree OK.

Here is a picture: The field is in hay in the picture but I rotate it into corn and beans too.
a245833.jpg

I would think floating cutterbar headers would be used on hillside combines as there's a lot of lentils and some peas grown in the PNW. Lentils grow very short so a floating bar would be essential to prevent big losses.
 

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