John Deere grinder

notjustair

Well-known Member
Tell me about the John Deere 400 mixer grinder. I am looking at one that is in good shape. Has been shedded. Not sure whether the hammers/knives have been turned. I will see it in person this weekend. From the pics I have seen the auger flighting and stuff looks good. Hasn't been trashed and backed into everything.

The guy wants 3,000. Seems reasonable given the price of grinders around here. Good ones are scarce as hen's teeth.
 
got a 400 grinder/mixer at the farm. usually run it with the 3020 gas. has never let us down. we have ground and mixed ear corn, shelled corn, oats, and supplements for the cattle with no problems. when it was bought, it was gone through, the belts and bearings and all were checked and replaced as needed and ever since has worked flawlessly with routine maintenance.
 
I have one that is in good condition, use it for ear corn, oats, and hay mixture to feed to beef feeders. I paid $375 for mine and have done nothing to it but turn the hammers one time. Just saw an excellent one for sale for $1450 on craigs list. It is located somewhere in southern MN. Here in MN, I have seen many nice grinders sell for less than $1,000 on farm auctions. My neighbor just sold a very nice model 700, and it didn't bring $1500. I don't know what he finally took for it, but it was less than that. So, yes I think they are good machines but unless your area is much different than mine, that is quite high on the price.
 
I had a 400 for several years. It worked good. Make sure it has all of the different screens with it. Check the oil in the lower gear box. The seal always leaked on mine. $3000 seems like alot around here but there isn't much livestock here to make demand for them
 
Its a good grinder but I think it could be bought for far less here. Other brands seem to bring $1200 to $1800 at auction here.
 
I just don't know what kind of attitude you'll get if you need parts for it. When I tried to get parts for my 700,the trouble I had with the parts manager was the end between me and Mother Deere. He copped an attitude,told me it was awful expensive. I told him that was alright,I needed it,go ahead and order it. Then he told me there were only 3 of those parts left in the world,he didn't know what I was going to do if I needed another one. I told him I guessed we'd better get it coming then. So then he really lost it and told me it wasn't one part,he'd have to order all the parts seperate,as if it wasn't his job.
That was the end. That grinder ended up in the scrap yard. Hope you have better luck than I did if you break it.
 
Feed grinder prices have really took off the last few years. The reason is that there are very few new ones getting sold. So good used ones are hard to fine.

Just Thursday I was at a consignment sale. here are what some grinder mixers sold for.

NH 355 with scale sharp $13,000
NH 355 older but still nice $8,500
NH 353 clean but heavy use $3,500
Gehl 100 nice but no scale $7,500
Gehl 100 no loading auger $5,500
JD 400 super sharp $4,500
JD 700 rough but worked $2,500

So you can see the value of a good grinder mixer is much higher than just 4-5 years ago. So if the JD 400 is as clean as you say than the $3000 price is in the market. There just are not many "deals" on good usable grinders now.
 
I have one I brought about ten years ago. I grind a mixer full every week about 9 months out of the year. I have had good luck with it. I talked to the guy that use to own it and he advised me to keep a close eye on the gear box under the mixer. He had to replace it when he had it. I check it about every month or so, the oil level. It seems to leak out a little so I ended up putting corn header grease in it. I had to work a little on the flighting on the feed auger as it was getting wore. Other than that mine has worked out good for my small operation. I paid 1600 for mine when I brought it. I haven't seen one in as good of shape as mine but I have seen them sell for 800- 1500 in sales. I got about the same results as the other poster when I went to the JD dealer and asked about parts, I just hope I never need anything that I can't make or I can't buy somewhere else.
 
The price of a new H&S is $30,000. That is what is causing the value on older grinders to go up.We have two 400 mills and like them but I do not think they are any better than the New Holland 352 that we use to own.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top