Sending a "Modern" Combine to the Ukraine

A business contact of mine has been over from Europe several times and I've gotten to know him a little. His parents are still farming in Ukraine, his father is only 65 and farmers don't really retire in Ukraine because this area is very, very poor by our North American standards. They use equipment until it's dead, then they piece it back together and use it more.

They are using a pair of ancient Deere 55 combines, one is an open station. I believe he said they have 2500 acres if I'm converting hectares correctly of small grain, so combining takes a long, long, time apparently. They also do a neighbor's land. I don't know what a Deere 55 covers in a day, but I'm guessing it's not 200 acres. Breakdowns are frequent, repair parts do not exist. The engines have been replaced with some type of Soviet-era diesel, the fact that they accomplished this repower is a testimony to their powers of bush engineering.

Anyway, this guy was wondering how I found my old Deere tractor for my hunting property and I unwittingly introduced him to the wonder that is Craigslist.

He has been surfing it for the past year or so and he is astonished at the equipment that is being "given away" over here. Combines with less than 5000 hours for less than $7000. This is unheard of in Ukraine where working used machines are almost never sold at any price. He showed machines to his father and it's absolutely killing both of them, so he looked into the cost of shipping whole combine and to be honest I was surprised at how cheap it was. $5000-$6000 will get 'er all the way to Odessa from the US east coast.

He's looking at 6620, 7720, and 8820 Deere machines, so total outlay to get the machine to Odessa with a grain head and spare parts would be somewhere around $18,000 - $20,000.

I think he's crazy. His father says that these machines are ultra modern by Ukraine standards.

So my question is:

Were these really good and reliable Deere machines? Any major issues they should know about?

Is this crazy? I mean, be honest. Shipping a combine this far to be used by someone who's never driven a hydro machine and never worked on anything newer than what, 1960 or whenever the last Deere 55 rolled off the line?

He's so serious about this that he's looking at bringing his father over this summer to "go shopping". His father has never left Ukraine. This guy makes good money as an engineer, so he's going to buy the combine for his dad for a birthday present. I just would hate to see them go through all this trouble and expense and get a bum steer or worse.

What do you guys think of this idea?

Grouse
 
Yes the hundred series or the 20 series were both good machines,the straw walker were wooden boxing's but they last last almost forever, the big thing is it's a Hydro, how long is that going to last or when it need work, is the big unknown. You can get them with posi-torque drive too, there good too, that's two big sheaves the close and open to get a variable ground speed. The John Deere engine, the 404 or 466 are real dependable too in my opinion, there going to be picking up swaths there? But i hope he realize he needs another 2,000 dollars of parts, Brg's belts, pick up teeth,fuel filters, engine oil, you dont want to gas engine oil in them turbo diesles, etc, he might as well buy a big Job box and send along with it, that way he's got a place to keep it, and all dry!!
 
Apparently, the Ukrainians have some shirttail relatives up in Saskatchewan that has been advising them. They've been helping these guys keep the 55s alive with parts care packages.

The SK relatives said the XX20 Deeres are the way to go as they had them back when they were new up there. I guess the plus side is that they can help on the knowhow end and they are pretty creative with taking apart things and sending them piece by piece in the mail. I guess they've taken apart stuff and sent one part over in 6 packages so they can get it through the regular mail which is way faster.

Grouse
 
I agree they are solid machines
But if they are that poor even
$20,000 is a lot of money
Just wondering
Dugger[/quote]

It sounds like they are in "have to do something" territory. How old are those 55s? Also if thwy are doing say 3000 acres how lon would that take?

Plus, the son has a good job based in Germany and I'm sure he's pulling down 200+ k so what's a few bucks for the old man...

But yes, its a big pile of change plus I'm more thinking of maintenance costs.

Grouse
 
Why don't they look in western Europe for a combine? Lots of good machines there, and
the shipping costs saved would cover a lot of repairs.
Ben
 
What about rostenmash combines,l believe
they are Russia? We had one that was
shipped in from the Ukraine to be repowered
so they could be sold here. I believe
buhler versatile own them now.
 
Just send him some nice square back diesel 105s. Those should double those 55s can do plus it would still be the same basic design they are familiar with. Also, I have been told by many guys who ran 55s back when they were new is they were good for about 40 acres in a long day.
 
google "Haukos Brothers" in Glencoe, MN. They have been shipping JD planters and other equipment to Russia for many years.
 
Fella here in Minnesota was buying up all the JD 7000 planters and shipping them to Russia, was pretty good as the price of those planters
about doubled.....

I think they can be broken down to fit in a container tho, stuff it full of planters for cheap shipping.

A whole combine, that's a little more involved.

An interesting, maybe, view of farming over there in one part of their country in my link.

Paul
Farming Ukraine style
 
I would say its not a terrible idea especially if they have family willing to help with parts from north america. A hydro would probably be a safer bet. Belt drive parts are JD manufactured whyle the hydro components are eaton and sundstrand which should make them a lot more available outside of JD's part system. heare is a link to an outfit that sells them, http://www.stoens.com/john-deere
 
Thanks for the replies guys. At least it's not the worst idea anyone's ever heard of. I like this family and I guess I empathize with them being from the European equivalent of our flyover land.

Why not buy a European machine? Good question. I'm speculating that it has to do with politics, cost, and transport. They certainly have looked into it in Germany, CR, and Slovakia. Everything in Europe is very, very expensive to these folks. Russia and Ukraine aren't on friendly terms these days, so cross border travel with expensive machines sounds dicey to me. The political situation in this part of the world is very dicey and complicated.

And to be honest I get the sense that they like the adventure of this. Farming out there sounds like quite a grind and apparently, there's a wedding this summer up in SK that they'd like to attend. I guess these weddings are quite the deal, like a 3 day deal.

Well, like I said, at least the idea isn't the worst. It'd be pretty cool if they pulled this off, but I just want to see them get something better than what they got, doesn't matter from where.

Things are pretty rough over there, we talk about bad times and troubles over here like we know what they are. Gotta say over there you get people yearning for the good old days of the Soviet Union and you can't blame them a lot for it. I can see where they do think of those as the good old days, everybody had a job and got to go to a summer camp every year, etc, etc. Makes you thankful for what you've got.

Grouse
 
They can hook up with a export broker to handle the paper work and get it exported/imported. Should not be too big a deal but unit does have to be squeaky clean when it gets to port or they will clean it and bill the shipper. I do a few dozers a year and not a big problem.
 
The guys who harvest my crops sold two 580 Lexion combines to someone in the Ukraine. He got more for them that way than he would have made selling them in the US. The 580 is a very big and pretty modern combine with computerized controls and the works. The only thing I can figure out about the deal is Lexions are made by Class. Class is huge in Europe.
 
(quoted from post at 19:50:36 01/03/18) The guys who harvest my crops sold two 580 Lexion combines to someone in the Ukraine. He got more for them that way than he would have made selling them in the US. The 580 is a very big and pretty modern combine with computerized controls and the works. The only thing I can figure out about the deal is Lexions are made by Class. Class is huge in Europe.

That’s CLAAS! Two a’s, not Class.
 
The 20 series combines are good machines. A IH 1460 is a very reliable combine too and they can be bought very reasonable.I have seen parts 1460's only bring $1,750 so you could send one over for parts too. Let us know how this goes.
 
You should told your friend to look in France or Deutshland. I can help them find a decent combine in France: There are many decent machines over there.

https://www.agriaffaires.com/occasion/moissonneuse-batteuse/19619896/john-deere-8820.html

One thing is that 8820s are expensive to haul accross Europe due to their width. I have heard of someone from Eastern Europe buying 8820, cutting the grain bin accross the length to make them 3m wide, and welding them back on. Probably hugly but it worked.

A friend rode an 8820 400 miles acrross France to save on transport. Not sure the hydro would survive 2000 miles, but that is by far the cheapest option, altought it is the slowest, 10 days trip at least.

Around those prices, a NH TF44, 42 is also a darn good machine. Those can putup 15-20000 hours easily. I have seen it done by contractors working 15-2000hr per years. And parts for them are easy to get.
I love the 8820s, but I would buy a TF44 if they were same price.

https://www.agriaffaires.com/resultats/1/new+holland+tf44.html
 
19671581_1510759007_472.jpg


A TF44 like this with the Mercedes V6 turbo engine is quite the combine!
 
I'll certainly post an update if they try to pull this off.

I'm not going to weigh in with direct advice or my opinions. It's their business and after being over in Eastern Europe a time or two, all I can say is there's a lot I don't understand about what makes things tick.

I would think almost anyplace in Europe would make more sense than overseas, but what do I know. I know they have looked in Germany.

I have to say that some good stories will be made if two guys, one with a heavy "Russian" accent and another who doesn't speak English at all but has big Russian tattoos on his arms, hit the road with a suitcase full of cash in rural America trying to buy farm equipment from people. Yeah, nothing to see there...

I already told the son that there was about a 90% chance they would be detained by the police at some point in some podunk town in middle America just because the whole thing looks so weird.

"Da Janovich, that just part of fun! This beeeeg adventure, Janovich. What fun we having if police not come?"

It's a little different over there.

Grouse
 
I can believe sending planters overseas because at the time they were current technology and parts were readily available.

I have a tougher time with shipping forty year old combines that are obsolete, half worn out or worse, and have limited support that is continuing to decline. That could easily be a creative scheme of money laundering. Buy an old combine that can fit in a shipping container for $2,000 (make sure the manufacturer is still producing new combines), haul it to a port for around $2,000, ship it overseas for $6,000, leave the manufacture date off the manifest so it can be listed as a $150,000 or $200,000 used Deere combine, collect the exaggerated payment inside the USA, and then sell or junk the old machine at the overseas destination. Are the combines being refurbished before they leave the USA (bearings, belts, chains, sprockets, augers, thin sheet metal, cylinder and concave bars, rebuilt walkers, etc.) or are they shipping as-is?

Your friend is probably very honest and is not part of the scheme, but such schemes are very common today.
 

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