how far would you drive your combine ?

[rustred]

that tractor post got me thinking about the guy that drove his massey 760 combine from dawson creek BC to ottawa about 25 years ago . he was protesting grain prices. which were very cheap then.it took him like 6 weeks to drive , that was like 2500 miles to drive a combine in winter. he had a big sign on it called the " Prairie Bell " and flags. and some people worry about a 10 mile drive

 

[scootergmc]

 

[Curt Cooke]

Can't really answer the question as asked. Had you asked, how far would you LIKE to drive your combine on the road, I would answer, NO DISTANCE. Years ago I had beans 13 miles from home and drove the 715, with rice and cane tires, all the way there and back. I will die happy to never do that again. Between auto drivers willing to risk their lives, my life, and others on the road, and the shaking and vibration, not a fun trip at all!

 

[rrlund]

How far would I? Depends on why I had to. To tell the truth, I've pulled a pull type behind an Oliver 77 farther than I've driven a self propelled. I bought my K2 about 85 miles from home and had that hauled.

The first self propelled that my uncle had was one of those old Internationals with the hump back and the small drive tires with duals. He drove that one home over 60 miles. I don't think they even had much of a road gear.

 

[urbancase]

For the past few years I been looking at buy another farm, around me a 21 acre field came up for auction I bid 15500 and winning bid was 24500. So looked out and a 86 acre farm a little over 20 miles south showed up and got it but and my age I looking to turn stuff over to the kids in the near future. That said that was the thing kids didn’t want to do, I had enough equipment to to have tractors and planters but not a combine to grain bin so I kind of left it go. For me 20 miles or around there would be it.

 

[rrman61]

that tractor post got me thinking about the guy that drove his massey 760 combine from dawson creek BC to ottawa about 25 years ago . he was protesting grain prices. which were very cheap then.it took him like 6 weeks to drive , that was like 2500 miles to drive a combine in winter. he had a big sign on it called the " Prairie Bell " and flags. and some people worry about a 10 mile drive

How far would I? Depends on why I had to. To tell the truth, I've pulled a pull type behind an Oliver 77 farther than I've driven a self propelled. I bought my K2 about 85 miles from home and had that hauled.

The first self propelled that my uncle had was one of those old Internationals with the hump back and the small drive tires with duals. He drove that one home over 60 miles. I don't think they even had much of a road gear.

Back in the 80’s every summer me and my dad would drive on mostly state 2 lane highways,a 503 with a 14’ header and a pickup pulling 2 empty grain carts.it was a 75 mile trip taking at least 5 hrs.then 3 weeks later it was 75 miles back to the other farm.my boss was too cheap to hire a truck to do it did that 7-8 years straight 16 mph.would not try that today with todays drivers that drive too fast and seem to have a completely different attitude

 

[rustred]

when dad bought his super 92 massey in 1973 i was in grade 10 and drove it home about 40 miles or so. when i bought my massey 750 in 1996 i drove it home about30 miles. one time i drove the minneapolis 4292 60 miles one way there and back. ooh and forgot a also drove uncles 542 cockshutt think it was over 50 miles home for him and he followed. geez i forgot i have so much combine pavement road experience. dont even want to think how much field experience.

 

[NY 986]

As said above no distance. The county when it paved my home road did not bring the shoulder up at all. Just one more thing to worry about along with idiot drivers. NYS is supposedly trying to reform lawsuit payments from driving injuries but it seems like at present it will not happen. Not that I get much out of the evening local news but the commercials run heavily with law firm ads.

 

[TomA in CA]

I remember hearing of guys in my area towing their combines backwards when custom cutting 50-100 miles away. I remember seeing a drawbar used for this purpose.

 

[DanielW]

I think that would depend on the combine and the roads. I drove a Gleaner F I bought last year a little over 4 hours home (just under 100 km). That'd be nothing for a more modern combine, or even an old F that was regularly used and in known condition - especially on quieter roads. A guy around here who does custom work with his Lexion goes as far as the Kingston area - about 200 km. And thinks nothing of it.

With my Gleaner, if I were doing it again I'd probably get it floated. If it was my own unit, where I had a better idea of the history/condition, or had back roads to go down, I wouldn't hesitate to do it again: A 4 hour drive is really nothing. But this one was one I bought on a whim for $390 that hadn't run in 25 years, and had a lot of unknowns. I threw a carb kit, battery, a boat tank, a new Delco 10SI on it and did some minor tune up and hit the road. For part of the trip I was heading along the Trans-Canada where it's four lanes, and it was a busy tourist weekend with lots of goofball cottager traffic from the city. Didn't make too many friends that day. When I turned off the Trans Canada and headed South up a long, straight side-road, I could see the Trans Canada in my mirror for ages. I was probably able to see it for 15-20 minutes in my mirror, and by the time it got out of sight the line of traffic I had been holding up still hadn't had a chance to get up to speed and was still bumper-to-bumper.

 

[flying belgian]

I drove my 410 Massey 110 miles down to an Amish guy (he wanted the little Perkins diesel) I believe it took me 9 hrs. No heads so I could stay mostly on the shoulder. I really didn't think nothing of it as many times I sat in that thing 10 hrs a day combining beans.

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

I don't drive my threshers anywhere. Them steel wheels are a little hard on the 'rhoids.

Mike

 

[Texasmark]

I responded to a post something like this before. My memory I think missed the model number....I think it was a 760 too. The 24' header was on a trailer pulled by another vehicle. Nice machine with AC and good riding seat and convenient controls. I posted that I drove mine 80+ miles from South of Dallas to North of Dallas and then some on both ends on a Saturday. Other than that......what's going to become a problem didn't occur. It went well considering.

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

Not my drive, but the local dealer used to send out a crew to Moline to drive the new IH combines all the way back here. Think it was a two day trip.

Mike

 

[scootergmc]

Apropos to nothing:

 

[flying belgian]

I don't drive my threshers anywhere. Them steel wheels are a little hard on the 'rhoids.

Mike

Didn't Case make the last thrashers with rubber tires?

 

[DanielW]

Didn't Case make the last thrashers with rubber tires?

Not sure who made the last/first/optional ones. Both our McCormick and Goodison 28" cylinder threshers have factory rubber on them. The manual for the McCormick shows them as something like a $8.00 add-on extra.

 

[Gambles]

About 50 years ago, my uncle told me this story and how many years previous this happened, I don’t know.
Anyway, he bought his first self-propelled combine and he had to drive it a good day and a half to get it home. So he took along a blanket or a bed roll to spend the night along side the road wherever he could find a good spot to stop. It was dark and he then found a spot a few rows in a corn field to spend the night. Awhile later, two cars pulled up and stopped. Out came about a dozen teenagers and they just had to inspect his combine. They didn’t know he was in the corn field. He said they all gave it the good once, quite a few of them relieved themselves by taking a whiz. He was about ready to come out of the corn field to tell them to “hit the road”, but they did no damage to his combine and they eventually left. He then went back to sleep and they never knew that they were being watched.

 

[flying belgian]

About 50 years ago, my uncle told me this story and how many years previous this happened, I don’t know.
Anyway, he bought his first self-propelled combine and he had to drive it a good day and a half to get it home. So he took along a blanket or a bed roll to spend the night along side the road wherever he could find a good spot to stop. It was dark and he then found a spot a few rows in a corn field to spend the night. Awhile later, two cars pulled up and stopped. Out came about a dozen teenagers and they just had to inspect his combine. They didn’t know he was in the corn field. He said they all gave it the good once, quite a few of them relieved themselves by taking a whiz. He was about ready to come out of the corn field to tell them to “hit the road”, but they did no damage to his combine and they eventually left. He then went back to sleep and they never knew that they were being watched.

You tell a good story. I can picture that in my mind.

Back in the 70s the farmer I worked for hauled corn to the barges 75 miles away.

His son hauled with a sleeper semi and I hauled with a tri-axel. We would go up the night before to get in front of line. I would sleep in a sleeping bag on top the tarp.

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

Didn't Case make the last thrashers with rubber tires?

Not sure. That would be a good question for the Case board. Would be interesting to see what they say. Case was one of the first, if not the first to convert their threshers to steel around 1900. Not sure when rubber was an option.

McCormick would have had rubber on the All-Steels around 1932 or so. It was around the same time they changed the skenes over to axle ends & added roller bearings. The steel wheels changed up to the ribbed-face "tire" at the same time. That line ended in 1956. I'd wager Case wasn't to long after, if they didn't already discontinue production of them by then.

Mike