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John Deere 8820 Combines. Any good?

J

John Deere American

New User
Recently my brother and I have had the option to rent some land from a farmer near us. He has about 5700 acres and he also wants us to buy all his machinery from him under contract. He has two Cat Lexion combines and 3 8820 John Deere combines. The Cats have 12 row heads and the Deeres have 8 row heads. How big of head could you potentially put on the Deeres? I really like them because they are cheap and to me, they do the same job any other combine will do. What do you guys think about these machines? Any good? Any experience? We are also doing the Wheat run in 2009 also. What do you guys think? Thankyou!
 
We have run a 8820 Titan II for several years now it has been a very good unit. We also run a 8 row corn head and can maintain about 3.8 to 4.2 mph in 160 to 180 Bu corn on flat ground with a excellent grain sample. 12 rows could be handled with little problem but I would say ground speed and capacity become issues. You want to also check the unit over very carefully as once they get 3 to 4 thousand hours on them you can expect many items to need replacing. Also this is still a 466 CID engine and most of the newer Deere"s have gone to the 8.1 or 9 Liter engines, so power could also become a limiting factor with the bigger head as well. Overall I would say a 8820 Titan II will run acre for acre with the 9600/9610 all day long for about a 1/3"d of the price if the machine is maintained properly. Just my 2 cents.- Ken
 
5700 acres? I'm about sick of the consolidation going on these days, its ridiculous.

Luckily I get to farm with the 4400 tomorrow since I have the day off of work. I'm sure someone will soon figure out how to turn my family farm into just some small figures in a huge corporate operation.

This is the first year that I've felt this way, but I'm beginning to get REAL, REAL bitter towards the huge farmers and the equipment companies that flood the market with 12 row cornheads and the like. In 10 years there'll be 10 farmers in the county.
 
You've got to remember, there are areas of this country that 5700 acres is a family farm without any employees...where I grew up, there is no way you could be a full time farmer with less than 5000 acres. Growing up we ran about 8,000 acres of tilled land and 12-13,000 of grass for cattle...until I got to be in my teens, Dad did it all with a little part time help during busy times (working calves mostly, ran 500 cow/calf) and hired custom harvestors. All that with a JD 5010 (bought new by Grandpa) and a Case 1370, no really big tractors, using mostly the same equipment Grandpa ran. Big acres in the Great Plains doesn't mean a corporate farm...
 
Five combines to cover 5700 acres??? Cropping is different here, but that seems like a lot.
How many acres should the Cat’s cover if you push them? How many acres do other guy’s get out of these in your area? They must be good for at least 2000 acres per machine.
8820’s are cheap for a reason. I don’t see many running here now. Can you find reliable help to run all this older equipment?
You’re going to have a lot of money tied up to rely on 15 – 20 year old machines.
Chris
 
Not to change the subject, but where I come from in WI 75 acres used to be a family farm, now it's more like 300. My friend Howard in NE has his dad's 11000 acre family farm where the dairy cows stay by the barn and everything else is free to wander, plus about 6000 acres of wheat and corn. I think he still runs 6 combines, CIH 2388's equiped to the gills with GPS and all the goodies, even CD players!
 
I heard from fairly reliable sources that the 8820 had similar capacity to the 9500. The 9600 is a bigger machine.
 
JDA the 8820 TitanII was a fine machine due to the age I would watch the hours and how well it was kept like lower sheet metal and etc. We had one of the original 8820 Titans Blaaa! but the new TitanII was so much more of a machine!
 
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