PTO Driven Corn Shellers

I recently saw a JD #43 pto driven sheller in the classifieds on this
forum. Did other people make such shellers. Do they come with a
bagging unit on them? Where could I most likely find pictures of a
JD 43?

Thanks
FMcMullen
Texas

In Iowa the large majority of shellers were Minneapolis Moline. Jim

What would be the MM model number that was most popular, and do you think they were as good a machine as the John Deere?

I agree about the MM shellers. In Iowa, back in the late 1940s - early 1950s before combines came on the scene, people had to shell corn that was stored in the crib...seems like we always did that when it was -20F!

The MM sheller was the one to have. Some guys mounted a big MM sheller on a truck and went farm to farm all winter long, and sometimes in the summer. Our sheller guy had a big IH truck, and mounted a barrel on the right running board and plumbed it into his radiator so the engine would not overheat.

I recall that when JD came out with a sheller, it was never taken seriously because it took so long to get the job done. The JD sheller attached to a corn picker was the most popular JD sheller, even those were few and far between.

Having the corn sheller come to your farm, with several neighbors helping, was a big deal to a young farm kid. Especially exciting was near the end of the shelling when all the rats had no place to hide anymore so they made a break for it...a good farm dog put on quite a show then. Some farmers tied their pants cuffs with twine...if not they made some interesting dances.
I recall one guy finally grabbed a rat under his overalls when it got up to his knee.

LA in WI

Oh boy, someone else is gonna have to help us out on that. Seems like there was the model D, or maybe it was the E, that most guys mounted on a truck, most commonly an International because the IH engine held up the best. There were a lot of smaller ones behind tractors too but I'm not up on model numbers.

The drag feed on the MM's had a single chain and was easier to set up than the Deere's double chain drag.

What I do remember best is the farmer's wife's cooking. Jim

I remember the Mpls Moline "D" seemed to be the
common one in Minnesota. Have a manual on a JD
4-B but thats probably not close enough to the common "43" for a picture. Chuck

E was smaller/ older MM I believe.

D was the most popular by far. Run about 2000 bu through mine every year. Good ones is when a Vee belt is going up to the top of the elevator & there is a cross auger at the top. Older D models had a chain drive going up there, & a drop chute.

1200 was much bigger, you can't keep up with it unless you are a family of 8 or something.

1210 was perhaps the last model, White was involved by then, refined a few things on the 1200.

--->Paul

If my memery serves me a MM model D was rated at 400 bushel per hour and an E was 1,000 bushel per hour.

It is fun to hear you guys talking about those memories. That's the stuff that made this country what it really is down under all the current nonsense.

Was the MM model D a PTO driven sheller? If so, maybe one of you guys can find me one in your community. I can get to Kansas easily. Missouri's not bad, and Iowa is a possibility if I can't find one closer.

Later
FMcMullen
Texas

Some were belt driven, most I see are pto driven.

--->Paul

I didn't get in on a lot of shelling in the old days, but I think there were just as many john deeres if not more than molines around here. We still shell a couple of cribs for my FIL every year and there are usually 4-5 scooping at the end to keep the JD busy. Seems like it takes about 3 hours to shell 3000 bushel that includes set up time. Lee

I didn't get in on a lot of shelling in the old days, but I think there were just as many john deeres if not more than molines around here. We still shell a couple of cribs for my FIL every year and there are usually 4-5 scooping at the end to keep the JD busy. Seems like it takes about 3 hours to shell 3000 bushel that includes set up time. Lee

All the shellers that are talked about are the large commerchial type shellers. The sheller that you are asking about is not a commercial type but sized for the farner that wants to shell a 50-100 bushel batch of corn at a time to grind for hog or chicken feed, not for shippment and would be operated by 1 person and not a crew. They would have a capacity of around a hundred bushels of husked corn an hour, less in snapped corn. And a tractor like the John Deere 40 would handle them with about 20 PTO HP. One step above the old hand cranked sheller but not big enough for the custom operator. You will find most of that size sheller in the small livestalk farm areas in the states east of the big muddy. and you could put one in the bed of a full size pickup. There were lots of companys that made that size sheller. The people that had that size usually had a 10" hammer mill to go with it to grind their feed. And that same small tractor would handle the hammer mill as well as the sheller and possibly do the plowing as well.

BINGO!!! LEROY!! That's EXACTLY what I'm looking for. Can you think of any manufacturers...models....etc.....so I can look for one of those.

Thanks,
Faber
Texas

I know Sears and Wards both sold them tho I do not know who made them for them, I am sure IHC also had one but for model I do not know. If you found a Deere if you can at all get it that is your best bet as I would think Deere would be easier to get parts for.

Leroy:

I wonder how I could find out the model numbers of such a John Deere so I could begin a search. I suppose they were belt driven and probably powered by hit and miss 1.5 horse?

Faber

(quoted from post at 05:20:51 06/26/08) What would be the MM model number that was most popular, and do you think they were as good a machine as the John Deere?

Click to expand...

As stated the model D was the smaller one E was the bigger one. I believe there were also older models A and B. I remember my dad mentioning Belle City shellers also. Not to say anything against JD shellers as Ive never been around them, but if someone had a sheller in the 1940s 50s it was generally an MM.