Tim Sweeney 60MFWD combining

tim s

Well-known Member
I have been sorting through the pics and movies, here is a you tube clip, maybe one of you guys can post it better..
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tim+Sweeney+60MFWD
 
That don't seem to work well...It's under "Tim Sweeney 60 MFWD combing at Rantual"
 
Nice looking #30 combine your pulling there TIM. I've never seen a straw chopper on a JD pull type combine. Can't say I remember seeing one in the owner's manual either.

Dad had a #25 for a few years and was finally able to talk the JD salesman out of his #30. First thing He did to both combines was replace the main drive gearbox so he could unload on-the-go. The #30 also got a Hume pickup reel one year. Not sure how much it was used before Dad bought it, suspect not much, it combined 20-30 acres of oats 3 years the 5 years Dad had it.
 
I have not seen one that you could unload on the run,,I would like to know more about that. We had 2 model 25's when I was younger, then went to a #30, the one in the clip belongs to a friend of mine out near Rantual. I have seen straw choppers before. I have a #30 here that I run wheat with now and then, I have seen hume reels on them..
 
The #25 & #30 both used the same main drive gearbox, back in the 1960's you bought the whole gearbox from Deere. The new gearbox ran the combine all the time, and unloaded the grain tank as needed. Dad also installed his own wagon hitch. The factory Deere hitch was an accident waiting to happen. He welded a single hitch point to the left front side of front bolster between tongue and left frt wheel on the running gear, and two hitch points on the right side of the combine hitch, one about 3-4 feet back from front of combine hitch, and another about 4-5 foot further back. Then welded up two bars with clevis hitches on both ends on one, and one end on the shorter bar with a series of holes drilled in the plain end.

The longer bar pinned to the front hitch on the combine and front bolster of the wagon. It's job was to push & pull the wagon. The shorter bar with one clevis hitch attached to the back hitch point on the combine and rested on the other bar and simply steered the wagon tongue. The wagon was pretty well locked in position relative to the combine.

We got a factory wagon hitch with the #30, going down hill with any load on the wagon hitch raised it up and let the wagon creep ahead and closer to the combine or would push down and dig into the ground. Next-door neighbor was a design engineer at JD Harvester, I'm surprised he didn't implement Dad's design as factory. We used the factory hitch on the #30 one time on a little patch of oats on a hill, worked O-K on an empty wagon, unloaded the tank and almost wrecked the wagon & combine.

You had to shut the PTO off, engage gearbox to unload grain tank, engage PTO, and then take off combining again. When tank was empty, you could shut off unloading on the go. The wagon always stayed in position relative to the combine so you could unload going around corners. Dad could combine by himself. I hauled in and unloaded. One year we were combining right by the farm stead. I went and got both hay rakes after I was done unloading one load. Raking 14 feet per pass I was done raking minutes after Dad was done combining. I did that mostly for the one neighbor to talk about. He had a thing about baling straw before it got rained on, wanted "Bright Straw".

I doubt Deere has much for parts anymore for #30 combines. A salvage yard would be the best place to look for that gearbox. It was a regular Deere part, even came painted green. Dad put one on both the #25 & #30 several years apart. Neighbor Dad traded help with had a Massey Clipper for his first combine, then a #25 for a short time, then got a #30 a year or two before Dad got his. He had Dad's wagon hitch and I think he had the unload on the go gearbox too. So there's two #30's and a #25 for sure out there with them! I remember the old #30 gearbox hanging off a spike on the wall of the machine shed where the combine was stored. I suspect it was put with the combine or on a hayrack and sold at Dad's first auction in Dec. 1972.
 
So the machine had to run to unload,,what about if you were bagging would the complete machine still need to 'slip' run a bit for each bag?? Back when we ran them most all was bagged and stacked on a truck or flat wagon, there were no wagon hitches in this area..One of my first tractor chores was to run the PTO lever as they filled bags, the guy filling the bag would nod his head to start and finish,,and I "had" to pay attention so as to not let the bag get too full, then a quick "Miller's Knot" was put on the bag..I still member how to tie one...
 
NOBODY bagged anything they combined with a small combine 20 miles east of Moline, Illinois in 1960. Most farmers still fed livestock so wagons were the most common way of handling bulk grain, a few BTO's had single & tandem axle trucks. I've seen bagging kits for combines that replaced the grain bin, had a flapper valve to direct flow of grain to one bag or the other. Normally a small platform took the place of the bin so the person bagging had a place to stand and carry a few extra folded bags.

But yes, combine ran constantly, could only shut off by shutting PTO off, unloading control rod just engaged the grain tank augers & shut them off.

Our oats normally made 40-50 bushel per acre, 20 acres would have been an aweful lot of bags! We had a BIG drive-through corn crib with overhead grain bins over the full length of the driveway. Those bins easily held all the oats.
 
We had a grainery that sat up off the ground as high as a 2 ton truck bed, so we could walk off the bed and into the grainery with a bag on your shoulder, pull the Millers knot as you held the end of the back,, things were a lot different back then..we just tore that old grainery down a few years ago. And our area was way behind the rest of the world...
 

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