Gehl forage harvesting equipment....

While we're on a silege kick, figured I would add some pictures. Pretty sure I can only add a couple two or three at a time, so I'll just add on to this post through replies. These were taken last year (2019) while I was helping to set up the thresheree in Richfield, Wi. Think I've made mention before, that this is probably the only show that has an official Gehl history display. One of the pieces, the hand cranked corn cutter or hexelbank, came from the Gehl museum at the factory in West Bend, Wi.
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In the middle of this picture, is a combination cutter & silo filler. Think it might be a model A. There is a better picture; don't know where it's hiding at the moment.
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Mike
 
Next on the list are, from left to right, a B40 hay cutter/silo filler, WU80 silo filler, if I recall right, a 45 Grind-All hammer mill, MX65 fiberglass tank Mix-All & the corn cutter/blower again....
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Rear view of the B40....
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And the WU80 & MX65....
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Mike
 
And to modernize a touch, we have a FH48 with the Continental engine & CA60 corn head....
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FH84 Chop-All with hay head....
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And to round things out, a SP82 with the two row wide corn head & the 84 is in the background...
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Hope I got this all correct, as I had to wing it without the books. Didn't want to wake everyone while bumbling around upstairs to find the manuals.

Next year I hope to get a bunch of video posted on the Gehl machinery. Wasn't ment to be this year.

Hope you enjoyed!

Mike
 
That is really neat to see the implements a painted up tractor is pretty boring but implements they really are neat to see
 
The equipment is part of what sparked my interest in farming when I was a pup. The rest of the attachment is, a lot of what was done on the farm at that time was a family affair. My grandfather had Parkinson's & everybody really pitched in in the last several years he was active in it. Then the adventure skipped a generation & struck my fancy. Only one in the family with a genuine interest/investment in farming.

Mike
 
I never had any Gehl Equipment but alway's thought it was pretty good, i had two neighbor's that had the single row corn chopper with the auger built into the feeding, of the corn plant,they used them for years!
 
Nice pics !
I do not know the model #'s but dad had a pto drive similar to the FH48 with window pickup, he chopped dry hay mid 50s to early 60s.
He used a Massey Harris 33 for power. Chopper came with corn head but that was sold to an uncle, dad decided not to grow corn.
He had a blower very similar to the WU80.
The chopper was junked out in the 70's but parts of it live on on my brothers sawmill and the axle is in the weeds at the farm.
The blower was used in the 70's to launch wood shavings into the hayloft for bedding.

I still have the MH 33 in the shed waiting for fix up.
 

There was a fellow that had a Gehl display at the Badger steam and gas Show a few years back. He had scratch built a bunch of Gehl machinery in 1/16th scale, or maybe 1/12th. One of the items was a gasoline tractor he said they built in the teens. I think he said they only built three or four and gave up. Cannot find anything online about it. If it is true, it is an interesting might have been to think about.
 
worked for Gehl as a test engineer in the mid 1990's. still debate whether i should have stayed or not. eventually would have either had to go to MN with the skid loader group or would have been out of a job when they disolved the ag group.


kinda fun to play with experimental stuff, try to dream up ways to test stuff. Gehl tested the heck out of stuff before going to market.

the engineers weren't union but the prototype shop was. the junior guy in that shop had 40 years experience so he had to work 2nd shift.

management didn't keep up to date with the quickly changing market shifting from many small farms to big farms. our large TMRs and scavenger spreaders kinda fit the bill there but not much beyond that. they looked at reviving the self propelled mow/co but decided they were too late and would be too much to get into the self propelled forage harvester market. I worked on expanding a feed grinder from 170 to 190 bushel to aim at the bigger farm markets but that was axed as well as the big guys don't want to spend time grinding feed. it worked. tore the whole thing apart to put strain gauges on shafts to see what the torques were to see if the larger size tank needed too much power. it didn't.

worked on BUs (Gehl had some odd terms. BU = bunk unloader = forage wagon) and tested input torque requirements for them as well. Surprisingly a 980 wagon with a full load of pea/barley hayledge at full speed unloading only took a peak HP of 12HP at the PTO.

helped here and there with balers and mow/co's too. would even unroll round hay bales in the parking lot in Wisconsin January to try out a new part on a round baler.

Tested alot of stuff in central FLorida in the winter. Some in southern California where they grow hay to ship to Japan. can get a lot of test hours on a machine running all day everyday.

fortunately i didn't have to work on the spreaders much. just helped a bit. had to put a new liner in a spreader at a chicken farm. it was a liquid PIT set up and they threw dead birds in it. went straight to the laundry mat after work and threw my coveralls in the washer.

good memories
 
We had a gehl self unloading wagon with the rubber belt conveyor. Belt sucked as it would slip. Got a gehl 72 green chopper bought new the gear box didn't hold up to an MD and 830 case gas. Had an old 1 row Corn chopper worked ok just got small for our chopping needs as we wanted to chop hay and grind high moisture ear corn off the stalk to bag for the years use. So it wnet down the road for a Uni with 3 row head pickup and stripper plate head for ear corn. Never thought all that much of Gehl equipment for durability. The Badger wagons had them beat all to for unloading with few problems.
 
Nice pictures. FYI: Try adding 2, preview your reply, hit return to forum and add 2 more. Repeat as necessary. I can add as many as I want that way.
 
Saw something similar to the FH48 probably ten years ago at an auction. Looked like it filled silo once then was stored until the sale. It was that nice. Had the cream colored spout. Sold for 600 dollars and I wished that I had 600 dollars on me that day to have bought it. Not a lot of Gehl stuff around back in the day. Usually had to go past at least two JD or IH dealers to get to Gehl or NH here so mostly IH and JD stuff. The Paper plant was around 20 miles west of me but not many choppers sold here but a fair number of silage wagons.
 
This old Gehl #17 silo filler is still earning it's keep on this farm near Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin. Cutting some corn stalks for heifer feed a few days ago. This machine is about 100 years old and works just fine. There are still shims in the bearing caps to take up wear. Keep it greased and oiled, and it should last another 100 years.
 
There is a YouTube video of it from about 20 years ago. Do a search on YouTube for Gehl silo filler belted to 10 hp M. I will upload a new video when I get some time.
 
It was repainted about 40 years ago. Other than that, it is 100% original. I've owned it since 1970, paid $3.00 at auction.
 
That fellow had those pieces displayed at the show in Richfield for several years. Recall seeing them in various stages of assembly. Haven't seen him
in the last few. Don't know what happened to him. They did make three of those tractors. If memory serves, they opted out of further production,
deeming the market to be too flooded to have any success. Think there was also a concern of safety with the big drive wheel in front of the operator.
Should be in the Gehl 150th anniversary book.

Mike
 
Born and raised in Barton, if you know where that is. My dad did a lot of business with the IH dealer in Newburg.
 
I've been eyeballing a Papec forage harvester on Tractorhouse for a while now. The paint is nice, but it could just be a rattle can resto. That & the guy selling it used a couple pictures of my hay conditioner for one he had listed on eBay, a few years back & gave me no credit. Didn't respond when I contacted him through eBay & eBay wouldn't do anything about it either. I don't care that someone uses my pictures, but what he did to try & further a sale listing is just dishonest & hiding from me is just being a donkey.

Mike
 
No kidding? My great uncle Joe is the one who ran it for a good many years & my second cousin Mike is running it currently. I've known the rest of the staff there for 40+ years. Well, there've been a few staff changes & it's Kubota now. Having an IH dealer in my family is what kept my tractors red. Subsequently, all my vehicles have a blue oval on them too.

Did you used to live on one of the farms on the outskirts of Barton off of D?

Mike
 
Farm was just north of the city on what used to be Highway 45. Across from the Tech school. Dad's name was Clarence. I'm known as Fr. Al.
 
On old 45 across from the Tech school. Was that the farm that sustained damage from the tornado in the early 80s? Fr. Al sounds very familiar. Were you at St Mary's? My aunt & uncle attended there for a good many years.

Mike
 
The farm was pretty much leveled by the 1981 West Bend tornado.
Our family were members of St. Mary's for many years.
 
I recall hearing about the sheep that ended up over by the Tech school. Were those yours? Did you move to the Fond Du Lac area right after the tornado or did you rebuild & stick around for a while? Always heard the farm just west of Greentree Rd. lucked out & insurance covered everything. Was wondering how much creedence there is to that?

If this is all still a sore subject, forgive me. I'm just curious but don't mean to be a bother. Learning local history always has fascinated me. That tornado is also the reason why I trained to be a storm spotter 20 years ago.

Mike
 
No problem, just ask away. The farm was completely rebuilt after the tornado. My folks had excellent insurance, and worked the farm until my father passed away in 2016. The place was recently sold to a developer. I am retired from the ministry and now am lucky enough to do a little farming on my own place, which is south of Fond du Lac.
 
Did everyone come out of the tornado ok? Fairly certain that the three people that lost their lives were in the apartments that got hit. Glad to hear the farm lived on for a good many years. It's unfortunate that the developers got a hold of it. I don't know when people will get the idea that there's only so much good land to raise food on & you can't eat a house. Say, was there a McCormick threshing machine on that farm or was it the next one over? I remember seeing one from time to time sitting out around mid summer, but it's probably been about a decade since I've seen it last. Always wondered what happened to it. It looked like one of the newer, post war IH machines.

My mother is curious what church you were at. Fr. Al sounds familiar to her, too. We went to Cabrini, until my grandparents passed in '94. Now that I think of it, I have no idea why we stopped going. I ended up going to church, myself, just a couple doors down from the house here at St. Peter's. It was built by my family & one other local family in 1861. Services are only held there on July 4th & November 2nd. Not sure why July 4th but All Soul's Day is self explanatory.

Mike
 
If you ever head back this way & it's in September, you should check out the show in Richfield. It's decent sized & very picturesque. Downright photogenic in spots. Several retired Gehl employees visit the show & Terry Lefever is essentially in charge of the Gehl tent & display. There are demo's with a decent amount of equipment & we still have cheese & beer, too! Even a polka band. :vD

Mike
 
Everyone in the family survived the storm, which was a miracle in itself. The tornado went through right around midnight, when all six family members were asleep. The bodies of the people that lost their lives were found under rubble in one of our hay fields.
You're right about the McCormick thresher being used on that farm. It too survived the storm and is currently parked in my machine shed. Dad was going to send it to the scrapper a few years ago, but I volunteered to take it off his hands. It's a very rare 20 inch (cylinder) model, and is still usable.
As far as myself, my first few years of ministry were in Milwaukee and Fond du Lac. After that I was the pastor of St. Lawrence, St. Lawrence (near Allenton) and after that at churches in Neosho and Rubicon.
 
It is indeed a miracle that your family survived that storm. Glad to hear it. That tornado was one mean hombre. There were warning signs that the storm was worse than anticipated. There was a blowdown in Clyman & a funnel cloud was reported near Hustisford, north of Rubicon & south of Allenton. The radar at the time was showing that the storm was weakening, so only a severe thunderstorm warning was issued. It still boggles my mind that there was no tornado warning issued. I suppose, in this instance, hindsight is perfect & it did happen nearly 40 years ago. An army of storm spotters was almost unheard of around here at that time. Down around Oklahoma & Kansas, the idea was just beginning to gain popularity. It's really something to think how far we've come, in terms of storm tracking. Forecasts still seem to be a lot of guessing, but it's getting better. That thresher really has quite the history behind it, being a survivor. I hope, when it gets handed off to the next person, that they know of it's history & your family's history of survival. I don't know if you still use it, but if you need parts or anything, just let me know. It would be an honor to help. It's also been a great honor talking to you. Did not think I would be communicating with someone from that eventful night, much less someone from that farm.

Kind regards!

Mike
 

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