Combine purchasing time

Hi All,

Last year I asked advice on purchasing a
combine and received many great responses.

I decided to hold off, per those responses
to learn a little more about what I was
looking to accomplish and am back, ready
for round 2.

Anywho, as it stands, I am looking to work
soybeans, oats, wheat and corn.

Acreage is small and growing to a total of
about 100 acres total when all is said and
done - likely 3-5 years down the road.

Would like to keep things simple and a
Gleaner K2 or F2 seems appropriate, but
likely not as a now purchase.

Have a line on an all crop 60, while small,
seems sufficient for this and likely the
next 2 years as things develop on the farm.

Long story long - my questions are:

Instead of needing corn heads, can I swath
corn and just pickup like a soybean with a
Gleaner k/f or ac 60?

Does the ac 60 need many changes in parts
to make it adaptable between soybeans,
corn, wheat and oats?

Same question for the Gleaner - aside from
heads? Or can you even get away with a
grain head or pick-up and do it all?

Lastly, anyone see it worth getting
something the AC 60 now and then a Gleaner
down to road, or just get the Gleaner and
be done?

Thanks,

CnB

Let's address the 60 first. Some of those are 80 years old. They have canvases. If they're bad, I suppose somebody might make them in Amish country or something, but the price of them, and the chance that some very expensive belts will be rotten, the 60 would be a total non starter for me.

That brings me to the swathing. I guess it's a regional thing, but no, you absolutely can not swath corn. As far as swathing soybeans, I never heard of it anywhere. They pull and windrow dry edible beans, not soys. If you're going to move up to a Gleaner, skip the expensive mistake with the 60 and just buy one. Unless you live somewhere that everybody swaths, forget about it. Cut straight. You'll have to have both a grain head and a corn head.

There are belts and pulleys to change the cylinder speed for different crops, well, one belt and one pulley, but different sizes. I think I have three belts and three pulleys for my K2. Simple to change. Also, if you want to run soys, there's a screen that goes in in place of a sieve. Just check with the seller and see if he has all of that stuff and don't leave it behind.

Hi rrlund,

That is kinda what I was thinking as well.

So will pass on the 60.

For Gleaner's and models - with 100 acres being my likely top end for a while, I didn't see the need to go beyond an F2, just find a good condition K/K2, F/F2.

Is it correct the original K did not have a rock trap?

Any thoughts between those 4 models?

Reason to go bigger/newer?

I want to keep things simple, easy for me to fix and have good parts availability.

For windrowing, just like that system over direct cut as I see benefits in dry down and cleaning as well as liking drapers over augers - trying to figure out if there was some way I could do all together: soybeans with pickup, windrow grains and sneak by with some pickup for corn, similar to old canvas sickle machines.

I'd never heard that the Ks didn't have a rock door. My K2 does. It's not really a trap in the sense of the word as other brands have traps, it kicks a door open under the cylinder and you have to get off and close and latch it. For what you want to do though, no, I wouldn't even think of going bigger than an F series. The only basic difference between and F and a K is the width. The K has 3 straw walkers, the F has 4. Belts, pulleys, chains, sprockets, bearings are all common between the two.

I'll second everything Randy has said....but you might discover an F2 easier to find than a K series, simply because more were built, and as a result, more heads are available as well. You will need a corn head to harvest corn ,no way around that. A 3 row 30 inch or 36 inch on a
K makes a very good combination, 2 rows were only available in wide row or 36 inch configuration. An F series will handle a 3 or 4 row in either row width.
For small grains, a rigid header will do fine, on those a pick up attachment to the header can be used for swathed crops.
For soya, a flex head with a floating cutterbar is ideal, various types of these are around, and you could get away without the automatic header height control on small acerages.
Cylinder speed has a wide range of several hundred rpm, for lower speeds, under 500 rpm, you may have to change drive pulleys as Randy said.

When you purchase a header, make sure it includes all the drives for that model of combine, and any associated screens or equipment needed to harvest it's crop.

Good luck and have fun, they are a good machine, easy to set, operate, and repair.

Ben

K had the rock door, just like the EIII and E that came before it.

If a bigger combine appears on your radar that's in good shape for a good price, buy it. Just because it's meant for 400 acres doesn't mean you have to do 400 acres. With old machines it's more about how good their condition is. Back east, an F3 will often sell for as much or more than an M3 or L3 in the same condition. Now if you can't fit something bigger than an F series combine down a road or through a bridge, that's a different story. I have a K2 that I keep patched up for 30 or so acres of small grain that will go down a road that nobody else can get through with their bigger, newer combines even with the heads off.

Forget about the 60,or any of the old small pull types. Very few,if any parts are still available.Wiuth their small 20 bushel grain tank and short unloading auger that will only reach into a pickup truck,they simply dont make sence unless you are into small plots,or are Amish. The Gleaners,or an IH Axial flow would be a fine machine. I would not consider a JD xx00/xx20 eries because they seem to be overly complicated with way too many moveing parts,even though they are good popular machines.A 4 row corn head would serve well for 100 acres,but norhing wrong with 6 rows either.Really,trying to harvest corn without a cornhead is futile,justwont work.Best to cut grain standing if you are in an area that allows it.If not,then you have to swath. Acctually thats not a bad thing. You tend to get a cleaner sample due to all the green stuff being dried up.Downside to that is slightly higher harvest loss,and unexpected heavy rains can damage crop.Swathing is how I prefer to harvest oats.Since I no longer grow oats for grain,not an issue.I run a 1965 JohnDeere 95 with 4 row corn and 16' heads. New,NO! But perfectly adequet for my needs. Back in the day when I grew over 100 acres of corn,it did the job well. My biggest issue then(and now) is lack of adequet trucks to haul it away. One little 12 single axle grain truck just doesnt cut it. So an adequet grain truck is also an important consideration.You cant haul your crop away without an adequet grain truck. Good luck.

A 2 row machine was neat on 40 acres when we yielded 100bu corn, 40 bu soybeans.

Now with 180bu corn, 50-60 bu beans, the old machines struggle. At 100 acres, ou can do it with a .k, but you will be happier with an F.

I ran a gas F, F2, F2 briefly, F3 with hydro, M3, and L3. Actually of them are still sitting here.

The F3 was a monster nice machine compared to the F. Thry made a lot of upgrades.

Headers, you need to strip the ears off the plant to combine corn, if you try to feed the whole corn plant through you are looking at miserable slow and wear and tear. No go. You need a corn head for corn.

Soybeans you need to carefully, very carefully feed bean plants with pods that want to shatter into the combine. A floating flex header is the only practical thing.

Small grain you can direct cut with a floating bean head if you lock up the flex part; or with a ridged header; or swath and use a dummy header with belt pickup to feed in the swaths. You can remove some of the rigid or flex head stuff and biology on the belt pickup each harvest, but that becomes miserable work.....

There is no getting around owning at least 2 heads with your crop mix.

I too like swathing and letting the grain and weeds dry.

Paul

Wow, lots of great info - thank you.

Yeah, here with our humidity and potentially wet falls, I was hoping to get away from extra implements - but it sounds like in the long run it is less work and quicker work to get what is needed vs making something sorta-work.

Any recommendations on corn, pick-up or grain heads that are cross-compatible between machines?

As someome new to combines, there seems to be an abunance of options and without knowing much, would hate to go in the wrong direction.

If one were to focus on an F2/3 or K2/3, and not trying to break land speed records or worried about the biggest header that can poaaibly fit for those extra 2 feet, but instead on slow-steady dependable/reliable workhouse implements - any thoughts?

It's not so much the width of the header that determines the rate of harvest, but the capacity of the machine behind it. For example, an F2 with a 3 row head could travel 25 percent faster than one with a 4 row head....but still only cover the same area in an hour since the throughput capacity of the F2 is limited to x number of bushel per hour. On long fields where unloading at one end is desired, a narrower head works better....you are more able to make a round before the bin is full. A smaller header works better in soft field conditions. A wider corn header will run slower than a narrow due to lower ground speeds thus a bit less wear. It boils down to what you can find and it's condition and if it fits.

Ben

I have a K2. If I were in your shoes I'd look at F2-F3. The F and K models share many parts, but there are certain things K2 specific that are harder to find than the same F2 specific parts. Also, should you want a proper flex head in the future (not just a floating cutterbar attachment), they were available for the F2-F3, but not for the K2.

I beg to differ. Many parts available for the All-Crop line. In fact probably more than many of the old self propelled, and far fewer of them needed. Drapers, thrash bars, concave and concave bars, all the belts no problem. In fact I am advising a project that will have All-Crops built for use in Africa. Still a good solution for small acreage.
Mewe site for allcropharvester.com

I have only seen a couple of pickup units in junk pile. One of the pickup heads were for the AC 60 and the other was for a MF 35 pull type combine. Quite a few years ago neighbor thought her was going to be smart andswathed his wheat instead of direct cuting to get a few days earlier double croping soybeans. Got the wheat in the swath and rain came and lost all his crop due to spoilage. Could mow and windrow Red Clover for seed and pick it up with the AC 60 without a pickup atachment I could see where we were loosing a lot of seed doing that and talked Dad into direct cutting and about doubled yeald of that clover seed, never went back to swathing it.