Waste of a day

Found a Fox 3000 around the Dells/Reedsburg area, guy was asking $650. I got him to send me a few pictures, and from those it looked pretty good. "Just need to grease it up and oil the chains and you could bring it to the field..." he says on the phone.

Dad and I took a 2 1/2 hour drive (in my car thank God...)to go look at it, only to see the knives were just as shot as ours, the shear bar was worse, and there were several other things that didn't impress us. Got there 1/2 hour sooner than we had planned so I gave the gent a call, got the voice mail, but said we found the chopper and we're there looking at it. Called me 10 minutes later and told me he was moving some bales and he'd be over in a little bit. 20 minutes later he calls, says he's just geting to his place and that is a good 20 minute drive away yet.

He asked if we were planning to take it with us today, and told him no, we came with a car just to look at it. Asked him what the bottom dollar was, he said $500. Told him with all that's wrong with it, our price would be a max of $300. Said he'd think about it and call me if he decides to take it.

In all honesty, even if he does call back I doubt we'd take it because just to get it home I'd have to go down with 2 better tires, repack the wheel bearings and come up with 1 dust cap for the missing one on the chopper, plus a few other parts that it would need just to be safer to pull 130-160 miles home. Plus, it's a much older 3000 than our own so lots of parts are different and wouldn't even work with ours. Sometimes it'd just be better to stay home... Doubt I'd go that far again for a peice of equipment unless it's really, really nice.

Did I mention on the way home the GPS took us a completely different route and another 30 or so miles? Dad hates rolling back roads so he was about to turn green by the time we hit some flat roads again.

Donovan from Wisconsin

sorry to hear the bad news, as hard as you work you would have been better off with a day of rest.,that is too far to go back even if he lowers the price

I'm just glad we didn't kiss my brother's @ss to use his F350 to go down with just in case we would have bought it. My truck isn't insured right now so that's a no-go, and my dad only has a Tacoma, so nowhere near enough truck to do the job.

The guy called me after we had been on the road about a 1/2 hour to see if we were actually coming, but yet he couldn't even plan right to be there at 1:30 when we said we were gonna be there. Instead, we would have been there for a full hour before he would have even have gotten to us.

Oh well. Gonna go to a local bone yard to see if they've got a good blower band and a few other parts we can use for ours untill we can find a new chopper. Preferably not a Gehl and JD and NH don't have too close of a dealer to us either. I guess that leaves us with Hesston, Case IH, Claas (yeah right), and Massey. I think maybe Dion too but they'd be way too new and expensive yet.

Leaning towards a Hesston if anything other than another Fox.

Donovan from Wisconsin

"my dad only has a Tacoma, so nowhere near enough truck to do the job."

That sure doesn't sound like the Tyvoda commercials my son is always raving about!

Couple weeks ago I looked at out local bargain paper and found a New Holland 479 Haybine listed at $1200. Headed out at 7:00am to see it about 30 miles away. Just decided to drive the Jeep Grand Cherokee as I figured it was another salvage yard refugee. Got there before anyone else was there and it was a pretty decent machine with good rolls and cutterbar, and 1 chain idler with bad bearing. Decided to buy it and unhooked it from his 806 and hooked it on the Jeep and towed it home. That 9 foot cut and narrow county roads was a challenge, but I got it home without taking out any mailboxes or bridge abuttments... Gene

Hey Don, don't feel to bad! I just spent a two day vacation in the hospital, and two days before that hardly being able to move, well exept to the bathroom every half an hour! Didnt expect that at 27!
I live over by Prairie du Chien, WI, and I found a MF260 in the agri view, but it was at Dewitt IA. And my truck at the time was a 77 dodge 1/2 ton, with a 360 and full time four wheel drive. That is a two hour drive with a truck that only gets on highway about 8 mpg! It got me there ok and the chopper was in way better condition than I had ever anticipated. The guy had it in the shed with both heads, and the hay head still had the original paint on the pickup and the auger! The price he asked was 1000 dollars, what a steal!
If anyone in the Dewitt area knows a Roger Green, give him a hello and a thank you for me!

Tom

Thats why I think the picture thing everyone wants these days is way over rated,I'd much rather talk with the seller for about 20 minutes and ask specific questions about the condition of a machine.Pictures show the paint job and thats about it.

I would not be afraid of a 3900 series (that is 3940,3950,3960, or 3970) Deere chopper. However, I would say a good IH chopper may fall more in the price range I think you are looking for. Probably could find a pretty decent IH 720 with heads for around a thousand bucks. Used to be able to find them readily, now you have to start looking a few months ahead of when you plan to use it. Gehl, we know the problems there. Badger/MF, good machine but same issue as Gehl. Hesston, I've heard price and availability issues on parts. The only NH that is not overpriced from what I have seen is the 770 and I don't think they are worth bringing home.
I know new is out of the question but if I were to get back in the cattle business and could go new I would go NH 790. Deere 3955 is pretty good, too.

Don,

You might try NH anyway. If you are looking at CaseIH choppers built after the merger they'll be exactly the same as the NHs. Parts are easy to get.

I'm probably too far away for the 3000's I know of to be of interest, but I'd be willing to ask the owner if you want...
He's my cousin't FIL, semi-retired, doesn't fill the silos any more. Has a pair of 3000's, one was used I think 3 years ago, but that's all I know offhand. He's 2 miles east of Conrath (about an hour north of Eau Claire).

What is wrong with gehl? I will put mine up against any pull type on the market.

I was referring to the parts availability issue (based on what Gehl owners have told me in the last couple years) and that some dealers have dropped Gehl from their lineup. As far as the products themselves I always thought Gehl had a pretty good lineup.

Short term after the merger the choppers were built by New Idea (who had just a few years before bought the rights to the IH chopper and was already contracting with IH before the merger). A few years after the merger the choppers came from Hesston till several years ago. Hesston is a good chopper but I have heard parts have gotten expensive and availability issues are increasing with older machines from people that own them.

Glad to hear what others think are good choppers. We just don't want too many peices of Gehl equipment on our farm as the parts availability thing is a huge factor. If Hesston choppers are hard to find parts for as well, maybe we'd reconsider our options.

The closest NH dealer is pretty proud of everything they sell, the other is probably another 10 miles away from the farm but closer to my house. The second dealership is Reisterer & Schnell, who is all JD exept this one dealership that also sells new NH equipment. Kinda odd seeing both brands on one lot.

The closest dealer to the farm is a Case dealership who does have pretty good parts people most of the time, and they also still sell Fox parts as well as Gehl.

We'll patch up our 3000 for now, and probably run it for a few more seasons, but we're keeping our eyes open for other options. Should probably go to a few late fall and winter auctions.

Donovan from Wisconsin

If ya got to spend a day with your dad it is far from a wasted day. Lots of folks would love to get another day with dad.

Yeah, but we could have been golfing or something else instead of looking at another man's junk.

Probably would have spent atleast 1/2 the day with him anyway on the farm. Probably coulda got the corn sprayed atleast....

Donovan from Wisconsin

I have a gehl 1275 with a kp and I have never had trouble getting any parts.But when I do I will have to go with another brand.