Combine Questions

Briar Hill Brittanys

Well-known Member
Location
Near Jasper, MO
What kind of info can you tell me about the Gleaner in the Craigslist link below? Or a recommendation of what to look for in the way of wear, models to avoid. I'm looking for a small, older (with parts availability), serviceable combine to harvest a total of 25 +/- acres. Crops would be cereal rye, wheat, milo.sorghum, and maybe buckwheat. Any suggestions are welcome. I've heard them called "Silver Seeders". Thanks. Mark

http://joplin.craigslist.org/grd/5882928125.html
 
Gleaners are easier to work on than most models of other colors.

Parts are still available for such older models, tho dealers can be far apart. If you are within an hour of a good dealer you should be good.

Around here a combine like that would sell for $200 or so. With the return elevator busted apart, and it states 'other' issues, and the owner
never ran it so how long did it sit how old are the belts....... would sell for scrap under those conditions, sure you can restore it.

The owner doesn't even list the model, so the owner has no knowledge and will not be helpful on its history. It would look like an A, K, E, or that
size machine? Up here in corn country would be called a 2-row size, 2 row corn head.

Now, if it were in good working order, and price under $1000, that would make a fi resting 25-50 acres as you propose.

My concerns:

Too high priced for something that size, that old, even if it were in mint working condition.

Just how much stuff isn't working? Combine repairs end up being a money pit, no getting around that. The return elevator busted isn't such a
big deal, but it is time and effort.... How much other little repairs......

Age of the machine if it sat a while what shape are the belts in, belts cost a bunch to replace very many.

Header - what shape is the header in, those are really money pits to rehab the sickle drive, the sickle, etc. not that it isn't worth doing the work,
but it better be in good shape for $2000! Also does that header do all your crops, or will you need to add pans ot a floating cutter bar or.... I'm
not so familiar with some of your crops.

So, a good size and model combine, I'm concerned about the condition and price of it.

Paul

Paul
a246492.jpg
 
Sorry for my spelling I didn't proof read well. The police scanner just went crazy with 4-7 crashes on the roads around here, one was stated to be located very near my farm, but they couldn't find it so I was listening to all that radio traffic.........

That would be a good sized combine for 25-50 acres easy.

Different crops use different headers, does a simple bat reel sickle header do all your crops?

The busted return elevator comes from dropping the header too low without a header on it; takes some tin work to fix. Tells me whoever used it last was unfamiliar with these machines. What else is busted up or not working.

Gleaners were built simple to operate and simpler to repair but thrash just fine. Tho perhaps they were built a little light weight and need repairs a tad more often.... I've run same design, bigger machines of Gleaners since 1980, gets my crops out. I would be looking for an A, E, K Gleaner in good shape for what you want to do......

Too expensive for what it is by far, here. But maybe the market is different where you are.

Paul
 
I second all of the prior concerns. About $500 is is top dollar here. Those old Gleaners are good machines. If they are set
right they do as good a job as any other. No "silver seeding" about it.That's just a slang term,no real basis. For an older
machine,my first choice would be a JD '55/95' series,Gleaner would be second,IH third.
 
As a person who has "been to the mattresses" in this regard, I can comment here.

First, I don't know how seriously you take your farming. If you are playing, by all means buy a $500 combine. If you are aware that, potentially, you could be putting a lot of $$$ in the ground each Spring...then maybe you want a little more combine. Believe it or not, 25 acres can seem like a LOT of crop if your combine or head is a lemon and your local weather seems possessed by the devil. I have one field about that size and a much newer combine and last year it took me two weeks to get corn off it with weather fighting me and repairs every single day I was on the field. It stops being fun after a bit.

Second, these are simple machines BUT, more accurately, a combination of a few simple machines...harvester, thresher, tractor...and the interactions can make things seem complex. In short, you need to have used one for a bit before you will know what to look for. I would strongly encourage you to find a friend locally who will look at it for you. Might be worth a couple hundred to have a service guy run over it. You don't want a lot of surprises. My $10K combine that I bought 3 years ago has run up about $9500 in repair/parts bills. I don't know if I own it or it owns me.

Third, have you looked around your region for others to compare prices etc. Craigslist is one of the most expensive places to buy things. Go to a dealer and drive some used combines. See what is available and what the prices are. You may find that this is a good price, or you may find it is not. What you do NOT want to do is pass up a good combine because it is a couple hundred too high and then find yourself in September with no combine. You will be at the mercy of any seller later in the year.

Just some thoughts. Best of luck to you. When they run well they are a treasure, when they break down they are someone else's treasure.
 
I *think* that's a K. Personally, I'd be looking for an F or M simply for parts availability, capacity, and stability on the hillsides. I have an M2 for 120 acres (40 each of corn, beans, small grain) and think it's a good size machine. I bet a K was 250 acre a year machine, an F a 500 acre a year machine and an M a 1500 acre/year when new.

Just keep in mind that the cheapest combine is still a very expensive thing to own. There's a reason even some big farmers don't own one. There is a great value in being able to harvest your crop on your time schedule versus someone elses, but there's also great value in having someone else carry the repair and storage cost of owning one the other 364 days of the year.

I think Gleaner had the best conventional combine available in the late 70's/early 80s. "Silver Seeder" "Pheasant Feeder" and "Galvanized Corn Crusher" are names made up by jealous Deere and IH combine owners :p
 
By blowing the picture up that looks like an E Gleaner....Dad traded for a new E after
the 1966 fall harvest was over....At that time were were farming 400 acres (some hay and pasture)
plus doing lots of custom cutting..In 1967-68-69 we ran 400-600 acres a year thru the E....Yields back
then were nothing like they are today..

In 1969 we added another 220 acres,sold the cattle,plowed up the pasture and hay and
farmed it all..That gave us 600 tillable acres..In 1969 and 1970 we ran 750 acres each year thru that
little E Gleaner as we always had 150 acres of wheat followed by double crop beans..In 1971 we added
a 427 Cockshutt to help the E out..Finally in 1972 we traded the E for a 403 IH...

An E or K Gleaner thats in good shape will play with 25 acres of small grains..I would find a nice K...
An E at $1,000 is overpriced unless its like new..

In the 1970's lots of farmers in my area ran over 1000 acres per year thru 4400 JD's,
715 IH's,F Gleaners,etc..Today no one would dream of that..
 
Yea, the pair of 500 acre farmers by me in the 70s both had a Gleaner F series combine. Dad as 1/2 that size, and running a 2 row picker for corn and transitioning from a 2 bean row pull type combine to a JD 45hi lo.

I got an F and man, could we move through the crops, that big 80bu hopper (rated 100, but I spilled if I went more than 80....).

The neighbors have moved up to 2388 combines, I've moved up to an L3, but jeez that 200bu hopper fills fast.... The 6 row narrow corn head isn't much bigger than the 4 row wide was; the 20 foot bean head is double. This year I could not fit two rounds on the hopper in beans, I remember back in the day wondering if 3 or 4 rounds of beans would fit on the F......

Funny to look back.

Paul
 
I appreciate all the replies. Have not heard back from the seller. Here are a couple of other combines for comments/suggestions.

John Deere 95 Corn Special, 4 row corn head, seed head. What makes it a corn special? Don't need the corn head, as I don't want corn in the rotation. Will the seed head work for the small grains I listed?

http://springfield.craigslist.org/grd/5936420443.html

F2 Gleaner w/header. What is a batwing header? I searched for the term, but ended up with mostly batwing mowers or similar adds.

http://seks.craigslist.org/grd/5879790993.html
 
If they were equal, I'd go for the Gleaner, BUT I'd be inclined toward the 95 because it looks like it was driven out of the shed for pics. Seed head is just a grain head. With that quick attach feederhouse, you could put about any head on it up to a 900 series head if you found a better one. Fairly large capacity machine.

The Gleaner F looks like it's been sitting there quite a while. Sitting outside is murder on a combine. I know first hand. it's also likely overpriced. Dunno how your market is down there, but that'd be a $2000 or less combine here if it was running.
 
I think a Gleanr of that size and age is easier to work on and might have easier parts availability than a JD of that age and size.

I would be scared of a Gleaner with the weeds growing around it, looks like it sat and has some outdoor age on it.

The JD does look in nice shape.

So, hard to say what I would pick, if the owner doesn't move a machine out of the weeds to advertise it I typically figure it's a dead duck.

A batwing header is for straight combining small grains, the sickle is rigid, no flex or float, and the reel has smooth batts no spring wire teeth on
it. As far as I know.

The pictured header isn't a batt wing reel, but perhaps it is rigid and that's what he meant.

Paul
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