Added a John Deere 18 corn picker

tomstractorsandtoys · Dec 5, 2022

I have been looking for a 18 1 row picker to add to my collection for some time. A friend called and told me about this one on a Big Iron
auction. It was right on the South Dakota Minn. boarder. I also bought a straw chopper for my 105 combine from another person in that area.
Left friday morning and got back Sat. afternoon. The wind sure blew hard and some bad driving around Mankato MN where we spent the night. The
picker is a very early one but doesn't seem to have alot of wear. Seller told me he bought it in central WI a few years ago and now I hauled
it back to southwest WI. Tom

tomstractorsandtoys · Dec 5, 2022

More pics. It is hooked to my 2510. If I just had a few rows of corn left so I could try it out. LOL Tom

rod in nebraska · Dec 5, 2022

I just looked the picker up on bigiron, that looks really nice for the age of it

big tee · Dec 5, 2022

It is almost like a 300 husker--Well it is green and yellow!! Didn't watch it sell-NICE find---Tee

coonie minnie · Dec 5, 2022

How many years was the 18 in production? Seems Deere was much more into mounted pickers at the time??

GermantownGreen · Dec 5, 2022

An awesome looking machine. What years were these sold? Does it share similar parts with the 227?
Thanks for sharing.
GG Wes
Keep that cool air up north!

farmerjason1 · Dec 5, 2022

Very nice looking JD 18 corn picker. I like it. I bought my 18 corn picker 3 years ago. From the photo ads on this site actually. I did some minor maintenance when I got it but my picker really struggles in the snapping rolls with the corn I got. This year I replaced the husking rolls and that helped a lot with clean ears. I can't help but notice in your picture that your picker has what looks like a v belt pulley set up in front of the husking bed and the v belt crosses itself. What is that driving? My picker does not have that. Is that v belt set up original?

tomstractorsandtoys · Dec 5, 2022

They were built from 58 to 66 or 67.

tomstractorsandtoys · Dec 5, 2022

Someone added an extra auger at the end of the husking rolls. A friend of mine had a 18 and sometimes an ear would get caught by the husk and cause a backup on the husking rolls. I guess this was added to prevent that. The husking rolls look very good. This is a very early one that has lug snapping rolls not the spiral style used on the latter ones. It also has the trash fan which is rare. Tom

farmerjason1 · Dec 5, 2022

That is interesting about adding the extra auger to the husking bed. I would love to see that extra auger if you get a chance to post a picture. I think I have a couple issues with the snapping rolls. I have no doubt my snapping rolls are worn I just don't know how worn they are. I will post a picture. Please let me know. I am in central California and corn pickers are rare here so I am not all to familiar with them. The corn I pick is a little block out of the silage field I don't chop just so I can play with the picker. The corn is probably 10ft tall and planted 34000/acre. I am sure it is too tall and too heavy. I'm going to have to plant lighter and try to find some shorter corn next year. How many seeds/acre do you all plant to run your picker through?

tomstractorsandtoys · Dec 6, 2022

Your picker is newer than mine as you have the spiral snapping rolls like the very late 227 and all the 237 mounted pickers use. I am in 200 bu corn so I am sure it will 1st or 2nd gear. The seller claimed he picked 150 bu corn with a 3020 in 3 rd gear no problems. I most likely will only 4 or 5 wagons a year with it. Tom

tomstractorsandtoys · Dec 6, 2022

I have a 300 and a 237 mounted as well.

RBnWA · Dec 6, 2022

Nice looking picker. Tom you and Jon F are having to much fun with old equip lol. RB

Rich'sToys · Dec 6, 2022

The couple times I tried picking corn planted at modern population levels, I could not go slow enough for the picker to keep up. The tractors I was using at the time did not have a creeper gear, which was what was needed. Those machines were not made for corn that heavy.

flying belgian · Dec 6, 2022

Sure wish I new you were in Mankato Friday night. I would have shared a Grain Belt with you. I am only a mile out of town. If you headed west on 14 you passed a quarter mile from my place.
Yes, weather was terrible.
Nice picker.

DoubleR · Dec 6, 2022

I don't ever remember seeing a one row pull type JD picker in my neck of the woods. Allot of mounted and some pull type two row picker JD pickers. Looks like a nice find, It looks to be allot simpler and less complicated than my New Idea.

Leroy · Dec 6, 2022

They never made it to my area as Deere did not start making it untill the market for single row pickers were gone. For some things Deere was Johny come lately as they waten to start making a certain type of product or something untill every other company was selling it or already had abanded that type of msahinery. One big example of things is Deere wating to make gas tractors instead of all fuel tractors. You cannot buy a product if it is not made untill after that product is no longer desired. That is the reason so few of the pickers are out there.

Olyj1947 · Dec 6, 2022

We pick about 20-25 acres of ear corn for cow-calf men to start weaned calves out on. It's an International 560 gas with an IH 234 picker. Run in low gear with the torque back! Don't have the nerve to try the sheller!

NY 986 · Dec 6, 2022

A lot of one row pickers were sold into the 1970's around here. Most were NI but there were a few IH and Oliver's as well. Corn pickers started to fade after 1980 here. As common as 2 row mounted pickers were in the Midwest very few were ever sold around here. The neighbor had one of the very few in a JD 237 which has been gone since 1975.

swindave · Dec 6, 2022

great find, I've always wanted one,
if Deere would have brought that model 18 out earlier, instead of the 101 semi mounted picker,
and turned the elevator the right way on the model 200 picker, they would have sold a lot more,

coonie minnie · Dec 6, 2022

I might have shared this story, but back in the spring of '93 or '94, two college friends and I went to preview an auction on some mountain top farm in Steuben County. We wound up some gravel road to a small farmstead... as one of my classmates wanted to see a NI one row picker that was there. If I remember, it was from the 70's, and had only been used once and had only picked 12 or 13 acres! It was on a small dairy farm, and the guy had purchased it to pick acreage not needed to fill the silo. Turned out that was only one year.

There were a couple really nice low houred tractors there, a beautiful open station 4230, and some red thing

NY 986 · Dec 6, 2022

I did some farm management tours around Steuben, Allegany, and Livingston Counties while at SUNY Alfred. A lot of gems up in the hills. There are some of what are called upland potato farms. Met a lot of interesting farmers. As to the equipment I wish I could go back in time to have snapped some of it up. I remember doing a real estate appraisal lab just east of Cortland with George Conneman. The whole time I was there I could not help but think of what the value was in terms of a ski slope. I bet the elevation changed 700 feet in 1500 feet running. That farmer would have gotten guys like you, me, and Tom all excited as he had a 2510 diesel, two 2520 diesels, and a very late 4020 diesel. He had his retirement auction a few years ago and he had everything other than 1 2520 (I think it was replaced by a 2750).

coonie minnie · Dec 7, 2022

You are definitely bringing back memories.

Added a John Deere 18 corn picker

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