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mijohn

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I would like to tell you a little story about an old friend of mine. This takes place back in 1953, He had a farmall H and an unstyled john deere B. He bought a model AC 60 combine to harvest his wheat and oats. It was PTO driven. The wheat harvest went fine but when he got to the oats later on they were down. Without a motor on the combine he had to stop, shift into neutral, let out the clutch and clear the machine, push in the clutch, shift into gear again, let out the clutch and be on your way until the next plug happened or had to slow down to shaft into a lower gear. He went to see about an aux-engine for the combine. With cost of the engine and the labor for the change over it would be about 800 dollars. The john deere 50s and 60s had come out the fall before with independent PTO. He asked the dealer what a 50 would cost and he told him about $2000. So he bought the 50 instead. If IH would have had IPTO on the newer Hs he very well went for the newer H. I asked him if he thought about trading in the old B and he said it didn't owe him a dime and besides he liked to cultivate with it and it was cheap on fuel. he just left the cultivator on it so he didn't have to lift it on or off every year. I'll add more to the story later. thank you for listening to part of my life. john
 
Now you go to town for a new tractor, even a modest one and it?s $100,000.

Dad bought a couple year old international 300 to pull the combine. The Oliver 88 did it, but dad got a bad bout of brucidus and couldn?t use his shoulder, the 300 had live pto, the hi lo, and the fast hitch so he could raise and lower the combine without having to turn around and yank the big lever.

So he turned to IHC for the better features......

Paul
 
I'm always surprised at how many people had an ALL CROP harvester, who had little or nothing else AC. We pretty much had JD implements, but had JD and AC tractors. The oldest JD in my memory was a 50, which was the row crop tractor. My cousin, 20 years my senior, was present when our grandfather paid $1700 for a new WD w/wide front about 1950.
 
Thank you for posting this story. I enjoyed it and the responses too. A lot of times people post things like this and it is just about like having coffee in the diner with a couple friends except you are getting new stories from all over.
 
We had tractors with both types of PTO's. My Dad made me learn on one with out the live PTO. I asked him why he had done that? His response was now you will appreciate it!
 
Sounds decent. Always tough for me to convert back and forth in the two currencies. I have been offered 73Grand for my 6 year old Kubota with 2200 hrs. Cab 4wd loader 125 hp. I gave 93 for it, so cost of owning the tractor per hour would be close to $10 per hour plus fuel
 
Bob, lots of AC pull type combines around here back in the day. Although, by the time I was old enough to care they were either parked in the fence row or if they were lucky stuck in the back corner of the barn. AC dealers were numerous enough and close by. More than a couple of JD 30's around, too. A couple of MH but virtually nothing else. Many years ago while working in Rochester a couple stopped by the store that had an 8N from his father and the story went that the father home shortly after the end of WWII bought a 2N then 8N tractor. He bought every last Dearborn implement available. A couple of times I was invited out to see everything but could not make it each time the offer was put out. Was not long after that I never heard from them and forgot about it for many years. Maybe they still have it and at the time they had all of it inside.
 
If he had a Cockshutt or COOP he could have had an independent PTO in 1946. My father in law used an E3 on his 60. He was going to by a new H in 1950 but a neighbor had a '48 E3 and told him after you try it you won't want the IH. After he quit most of the farming he sold the 60 for $200, two years after spending $400 on new canvases.
 
Pulled an AC 72 All Crop a lot with a 49 A John Deere back in the day.
I don't remember it ever clogging in anything.
When My son had an F2 Gleaner years ago, I learned a lot of new cuss words with that thing clogging.
Richard in NW SC
 
That's pretty cheap ownership. The next 2200 hours probably won't be as cheap....maybe new tires, batteries, a few repairs...kinda makes you feel you
Should be dealing, but a replacement may be North of 150g...

Ben
 
Yeah, my dad cut for years with an All Crop 66....same as a 60 but six inch wider cut....pulled by a Massey 30, no LPTO. I guess he managed ok, when he was combining, we were shovelling grain around...

Ben
 
A late B would also have had creeper gears like the 50, but not the independent PTO. I wonder what it would have cost to trade for a new combine with an engine compared to adding an engine to the existing combine?
 
Dad had two WC"s and a Model 60 AC combine. Combining flax and he couldn"t drive slow enough, so chained the two tractors together. My brother drove one, Dad on the other. Second one powered the combine, first one could idle down in first gear for a slower ground speed.
 
Neat story.My dad owned a early model AC 60 combine and traded for a new model 60. He combined alot of acres with it.He pulled it with a IH model h tractor.Just laughed and said you learned how to shift the tractor out of gear fast to keep the combine from plugging up. They were a good machine in there day.
 
A guy I worked for as a kid told about using a 60 All Crop to cut his beans behind an M Farmall one row at a time. He said it took forever, then he bought a new 1957 John Deere 45 with a 10' head and cut 3 rows at a time. Thought he died and gone to Heaven!
 
Reminds me of the year we borrowed an all crop 72 to do an extremely heavy and down crop of spring wheat. Had to run 510 John Deere in 1 and 1 most of the time. Occasionally you might get into low 1 and 2 but if you where not on the ball it would plug. I remember on the 3rd day Dad saying to forget it and we would call the neighbour, but I stuck at it until we got it done. I guess that somewhat bad experience and the 90 degree exit of straw prevented me from ever buying one. In my humble opinion the Oliver model 18 is a far superior machine which I would think to be of the same era? I combined this field of oats which went down bout as bad as the wheat was a couple weeks before it was ready, and the Oliver did not plug once and I used same tractor in gear 1 and 2 high for the most part occasionally going to 1 and 2 low.
cvphoto2629.jpg
 
I have run lots of beans and wheat with my Allis 60 pulled with my JD D. No live PTO, sure does keep you on your toes and alert. Nothing wrong with taking half a swath and keep going either.
 
My uncle tells the story of his AC 60 combine that had a engine on it. He always put it in the shed when he was finish that fall and pulled it out next spring crank it and it would fire right up. A salesman come by one winter day and seen it in the shed and told him he should start it in the winter to keep it lubed up. Uncle said that next summer went to crank it and could not turn it over.
 
We always used a WD-45 on the baler so we had the live PTO with the use of the hand clutch,you could ease into a large windrow when they occurred to avoid plugging,that was our only tractor with anything close to live PTO.At the time we thought it was great!
 
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