Combine Weight & Towing

[DanielW]

This may belong down in the 'Combine' sub-forum, but as it's also a general question about opinions, weights, and towing, I thought it might be better here:

I'm (finally) looking at joining the 1960's and getting a full-sized combine. We don't do many grain/cereal crops: We're really just a cow/calf operation, and the only grains we do are what we want for our own cattle. At most 25 acres a year, and most years far less. We're rather antiquated: Up until my grandfather died in 2004 we were still binding/threshing all our grain. Since then, we've been using an All-Crop 66 and 90. Both are not ideal: The 90 is beyond worn out, and the canvases of the 66 are a real pain because we underseed all our grains with hay, and even if we cut as high and slow as possible, there's always a pile of green material that doesn't travel up the canvas well. If we were in a larger farming area, we'd just get a custom guy to do our grains. But we're about the largest farm in the area - the closest custom guy would probably be about 60 miles away.

About 70 miles away there's an auction with a Gleaner F that ends tomorrow night. I know it's an old combine, but it's superbly solid/tight. No notable rust in the bottom of the augers/elevators/concaves, no notable wear on the sprockets, flighting, etc. These old Gleaners don't usually bring much around here. It hasn't ran in 20 years. Which doesn't concern me, as I know the farm it came from and know it was used and maintained well before it was parked when the father of that farm died. It has the GM 6 in it, and I have loads of parts (and even a running 292 kicking around). My main questions are:

i) Does an F sound like a suitable unit for our operation? Any known trouble spots to check for? My experience in SP combines is limited to a small amount of time helping with a friend's White 7300, so I don't know much about them. Looks like a simple, straight-forward unit to me, but don't want to miss anything.

ii) Getting it home would be the biggest concern. I'm not sure I want to fool around trying to get it running at the auction site: I'd rather do that at home. I once leant my heavier tow dolly to a chap who used it to tow a combine: Propping up the rear axle on the dolly. Lots of threads on here (and other forums) about people who've done this, and seem to have towed surprisingly large combines with surprisingly small pickups. Would I be foolish to think of doing this with my 2012 Nissan Titan? Weight of the combine if I MacGyver the header off would be about 9k lbs. - right on the truck's limit. Which doesn't worry me if I'm taking it easy, but stopping would be more of a concern. New brakes on the truck, but I realize that's still a lot of combine behind a half ton truck.

Any thoughts appreciated.

 

[ss55]

This may belong down in the 'Combine' sub-forum, but as it's also a general question about opinions, weights, and towing, I thought it might be better here:

I'm (finally) looking at joining the 1960's and getting a full-sized combine. We don't do many grain/cereal crops: We're really just a cow/calf operation, and the only grains we do are what we want for our own cattle. At most 25 acres a year, and most years far less. We're rather antiquated: Up until my grandfather died in 2004 we were still binding/threshing all our grain. Since then, we've been using an All-Crop 66 and 90. Both are not ideal: The 90 is beyond worn out, and the canvases of the 66 are a real pain because we underseed all our grains with hay, and even if we cut as high and slow as possible, there's always a pile of green material that doesn't travel up the canvas well. If we were in a larger farming area, we'd just get a custom guy to do our grains. But we're about the largest farm in the area - the closest custom guy would probably be about 60 miles away.

About 70 miles away there's an auction with a Gleaner F that ends tomorrow night. I know it's an old combine, but it's superbly solid/tight. No notable rust in the bottom of the augers/elevators/concaves, no notable wear on the sprockets, flighting, etc. These old Gleaners don't usually bring much around here. It hasn't ran in 20 years. Which doesn't concern me, as I know the farm it came from and know it was used and maintained well before it was parked when the father of that farm died. It has the GM 6 in it, and I have loads of parts (and even a running 292) kicking around. My main questions are:

i) Does an F sound like a suitable unit for our operation? Any known trouble spots to check for My experience in SP combines is limited to a small amount of time helping with a friend's White 7300, so I don't know much about them. Looks like a simple, straight-forward unit to me, but don't want to miss anything.

ii) Getting it home would be the biggest concern. I'm not sure I want to fool around trying to get it running at the auction site: I'd rather do that at home. I once leant my heavier tow dolly to a chap who used it to tow a combine: Propping up the rear axle on the dolly. Lots of threads on here (and other forums) about people who've done this, and seem to have towed surprisingly large combines with surprisingly small pickups. Would I be foolish to think of doing this with my 2012 Nissan Titan? Weight of the combine if I MacGyver the header off would be about 9k lbs. - right on the truck's limit. Which doesn't worry me if I'm taking it easy, but stopping would be more of a concern. New brakes on the truck, but I realize that's still a lot of combine behind a half ton truck.

Any thoughts appreciated.

I would tow a 9000 pound combine with no brakes behind a 100 plus HP tractor rather than behind a 5000 pound half ton pickup.

 

[DanielW]

You're right. Just popped by to look at it again on my way home and think about it some more. I've hauled my share of overweight contraptions with no brakes, and a decade ago I would have considered it. But I'm past that foolishness now. I posted this after I found another post on another forum about a guy who towed an F2 behind his old F100, so I thought maybe it wasn't that crazy. But looking it over and thinking about it more, I wouldn't risk anything going awry.

Which is a pity - it's nearly impossible for me to get equipment hauled up here (especially something so large), because no one around here does it regularly. Just called one guy and had him ballpark a price for floating it - $1500, which is about what I was thinking it would be. So I doubt anyone else would do it any cheaper. $1500 is not crazily expensive, but still worth pondering, knowing the combine won't go for much more than that (if even that much). And the auction states all equipment must be moved within a week. Haven't called them yet to find out if they'd be flexible on that, but it would be severely limiting on my ability to find anyone to haul it. The chap who I got the price from said he couldn't do it for at least two weeks.

 

[ss55]

You're right. Just popped by to look at it again on my way home and think about it some more. I've hauled my share of overweight contraptions with no brakes, and a decade ago I would have considered it. But I'm past that foolishness now. I posted this after I found another post on another forum about a guy who towed an F2 behind his old F100, so I thought maybe it wasn't that crazy. But looking it over and thinking about it more, I wouldn't risk anything going awry.

Which is a pity - it's nearly impossible for me to get equipment hauled up here (especially something so large), because no one around here does it regularly. Just called one guy and had him ballpark a price for floating it - $1500, which is about what I was thinking it would be. So I doubt anyone else would do it any cheaper. $1500 is not crazily expensive, but still worth pondering, knowing the combine won't go for much more than that (if even that much). And the auction states all equipment must be moved within a week. Haven't called them yet to find out if they'd be flexible on that, but it would be severely limiting on my ability to find anyone to haul it. The chap who I got the price from said he couldn't do it for at least two weeks.

The auction company should have the names of several equipment haulers. Sellers need a way to haul their equipment to the auction too.

 

[paul]

1. Yes.

What year is it actually? Naturally the F3 is a lot better combine than the F from the first year or two of production. They kept making improvements.

I got a 1968 F gas Allis motor machine in 1980, and have run an F2, F2, F3, M3, and L3 since. Had nearly every motor combination except for the Chevy. The F3 green stripe with hyd drive and 4 cyl turbo engine was twice the machine the first F was, but that F combined a lot of crop for me.

2. Knowing my abilities and the roads I would take and the patience I have; would determine if I would tow it with a half ton pickup. I don’t know any of those things about your situation so I have no idea.

If I would try it, I would put some weight in the pickup seriously, and I would disconnect the splines on the drives of course, and I would very carefully consider the roads I can use based on traffic and hills. I don’t mind having a hiccup on such a deal but I don’t want anyone else around. I have a 3/4 ton pickup and some experience with pulling 300bu wagons around the neighborhood (fairly common here on county roads) so that would factor into my thinking on this.

Paul

 

[DanielW]

1. Yes.

What year is it actually? Naturally the F3 is a lot better combine than the F from the first year or two of production. They kept making improvements.

I got a 1968 F gas Allis motor machine in 1980, and have run an F2, F2, F3, M3, and L3 since. Had nearly every motor combination except for the Chevy. The F3 green stripe with hyd drive and 4 cyl turbo engine was twice the machine the first F was, but that F combined a lot of crop for me.

2. Knowing my abilities and the roads I would take and the patience I have; would determine if I would tow it with a half ton pickup. I don’t know any of those things about your situation so I have no idea.

If I would try it, I would put some weight in the pickup seriously, and I would disconnect the splines on the drives of course, and I would very carefully consider the roads I can use based on traffic and hills. I don’t mind having a hiccup on such a deal but I don’t want anyone else around. I have a 3/4 ton pickup and some experience with pulling 300bu wagons around the neighborhood (fairly common here on county roads) so that would factor into my thinking on this.

Paul

Thanks kindly. I'd like to think I'm very careful and cautious when towing, but two factors I can't control in this case are the hills and the other drivers. Not matter what route I take, there are some steeper hills to overcome. And the location of the farm and ours are such that there's always a lot of cottager traffic on the roads: Folks from the city with no appreciation for heavier equipment or momentum. Since about two years ago we don't have any pickups larger than a half ton unfortunately.

 

[cjunrau]

This may belong down in the 'Combine' sub-forum, but as it's also a general question about opinions, weights, and towing, I thought it might be better here:

I'm (finally) looking at joining the 1960's and getting a full-sized combine. We don't do many grain/cereal crops: We're really just a cow/calf operation, and the only grains we do are what we want for our own cattle. At most 25 acres a year, and most years far less. We're rather antiquated: Up until my grandfather died in 2004 we were still binding/threshing all our grain. Since then, we've been using an All-Crop 66 and 90. Both are not ideal: The 90 is beyond worn out, and the canvases of the 66 are a real pain because we underseed all our grains with hay, and even if we cut as high and slow as possible, there's always a pile of green material that doesn't travel up the canvas well. If we were in a larger farming area, we'd just get a custom guy to do our grains. But we're about the largest farm in the area - the closest custom guy would probably be about 60 miles away.

About 70 miles away there's an auction with a Gleaner F that ends tomorrow night. I know it's an old combine, but it's superbly solid/tight. No notable rust in the bottom of the augers/elevators/concaves, no notable wear on the sprockets, flighting, etc. These old Gleaners don't usually bring much around here. It hasn't ran in 20 years. Which doesn't concern me, as I know the farm it came from and know it was used and maintained well before it was parked when the father of that farm died. It has the GM 6 in it, and I have loads of parts (and even a running 292) kicking around. My main questions are:

i) Does an F sound like a suitable unit for our operation? Any known trouble spots to check for My experience in SP combines is limited to a small amount of time helping with a friend's White 7300, so I don't know much about them. Looks like a simple, straight-forward unit to me, but don't want to miss anything.

ii) Getting it home would be the biggest concern. I'm not sure I want to fool around trying to get it running at the auction site: I'd rather do that at home. I once leant my heavier tow dolly to a chap who used it to tow a combine: Propping up the rear axle on the dolly. Lots of threads on here (and other forums) about people who've done this, and seem to have towed surprisingly large combines with surprisingly small pickups. Would I be foolish to think of doing this with my 2012 Nissan Titan? Weight of the combine if I MacGyver the header off would be about 9k lbs. - right on the truck's limit. Which doesn't worry me if I'm taking it easy, but stopping would be more of a concern. New brakes on the truck, but I realize that's still a lot of combine behind a half ton truck.

Any thoughts appreciated.

as for hauling or towing. i would never tow it in any hills. flat maybe. I would think of taking a 5 gallon jerry can of gas and remove the line and put it in the an and see if I could get it running. driving it would be my way of doing it. I drove 3 combines home already that were over 180 miles from home. I still tried to stay off highways, and I would contact the auction about the week as I don't think they can enforce it and always make exceptions.

 

[joeysmith]

Know anyone with a place close by you could tow it to an either wait on a hauler or get it running an drive it home?

 

[centash]

You might be able to get it running and driving, but I would question a 20 year old plus drive belt surviving the trip. It might have hydraulic wheel brakes, do these work?Does the service brake work? We towed an A about 30 miles home behind a 1 ton pickup, I wouldn't want to tow an F behind a smaller pickup like yours. Safety first is always the main priority.
As for the combine itself, check the concave door and concave itself for straightness and evenness to the cylinder. Check the raddle chain for missing slats and the false floor for bellyed out spots. Be ready to change most if not all belts, grease it up good, and let it run for 10 or 15 minutes and hand feel every bearing for excessive warmth.
They are a good machine, simple to set and easy to operate. Don't let anyone tell you different; there is no such thing as a poor combine design, just poor operators....

Good luck with it, imbsure it will do everything you need it to do.

Ben

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Here's a howto video on towing a Gleaner F2. This is in table-flat Ohio, though:

 

[Fixingfarmer]

Flat you would be fine. Steep hills no way.
You aren't much heavier than a car on a trailer really but most trailers have brakes.

Its pretty flat around here you see plenty of 3/4 ton trucks pulling double 1450 anhydrous tanks around 23000 lbs the only good thing about the big tanks is there are way less people pulling up with a half ton to try it than there used to be.

talk to some of the gravel outfits nearby or some of the construction people there has to be someone with a trailer. Your local caterpillar dealer will know names, around here there's a gravel outfit that has a specific guy just for hauling that picks up an odd job or 2 costs about what a load of gravel costs delivered not cheap but causing an accident isn't either with the potential to loose a pickup a combine and cause damage to other peoples stuff or worse...and you need a combine so id consider it the cost of doing business. As suggested the auction yard.

 

[caterpillar guy]

A friend for mine pulled am M or L home with a White 105 or about that size and connected lines from the remotes to the steering cylinders then used them to steer it with a rigid tongue between them for pulling and stopping. Pullng it backwards that way. Seemed to work ok he got it home form 255-30 miles away like that.

 

[m16ty]

No way I'd tow it with a Titan, I'd want a 1 ton truck minimum and even then it could be sketchy going up and down grades. The main issues are you'd have no brakes and little weigh transferred to the truck. The truck would probably pull it fine, but stopping would be another matter.

That old F is getting pretty long in the tooth. I'd much rather have a F2, or better yet a F3. If it's in really good shape though it will probably work fine. Hiring it hauled could be $1,500 or more to go that distance. You might get it done cheaper but it's going to be oversize.

 

[maqbill]

Brother and I bought a combine and just paid the local dealership to get it and haul it home, money well spent! Let a professional handle it.

 

[DanielW]

Thanks kindly for the replies. Yes, after re-evaluating there's no way I'd try it with a half-ton. I wouldn't have even tried it on our hills when I still had my F350.

I did end up buying it. I think it was a good price for a solid, shed-kept combine (as long as I can get it running, but as I have a spare engine and loads of parts I'm not too worried about that). Even if I find something horribly awry, it was $390, so I don't exactly have much invested in it.

Not sure if I'll drive it home or hire it hauled. But I'll probably try to get it running at the site regardless: The location of the barn it's currently in and how it's tucked inside are very awkward for being able to drag it out and get to a spot where it can be loaded. The auctioneer was ok with me having more time to move it, so this weekend I'll head there, spray inside the cylinders with deep creep to let it soak, pull the carb, fuel pump, and fuel tank off. Bring them home, clean up and put kits in the pump and carb. Come back with them, a battery, and a pile of fluids (and a fire extinguisher), and see what happens.

Maybe this is better for a separate post, but would anyone happen to know what carb Gleaner put on the 292's? I'm guessing it was different than the Rochester B's that they had when used in trucks. I stupidly forgot to check when I was there. I'll know this weekend, but if I knew ahead of time I'd order a carb kit now so it'd be a few days quicker getting here. Judging from pictures of the Agco carb kit (which they want over $200 for and three week's lead time) it looks like a Zenith 28. But that's just a guess.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Thanks kindly for the replies. Yes, after re-evaluating there's no way I'd try it with a half-ton. I wouldn't have even tried it on our hills when I still had my F350.

I did end up buying it. I think it was a good price for a solid, shed-kept combine (as long as I can get it running, but as I have a spare engine and loads of parts I'm not too worried about that). Even if I find something horribly awry, it was $390, so I don't exactly have much invested in it.

Not sure if I'll drive it home or hire it hauled. But I'll probably try to get it running at the site regardless: The location of the barn it's currently in and how it's tucked inside are very awkward for being able to drag it out and get to a spot where it can be loaded. The auctioneer was ok with me having more time to move it, so this weekend I'll head there, spray inside the cylinders with deep creep to let it soak, pull the carb, fuel pump, and fuel tank off. Bring them home, clean up and put kits in the pump and carb. Come back with them, a battery, and a pile of fluids (and a fire extinguisher), and see what happens.

Maybe this is better for a separate post, but would anyone happen to know what carb Gleaner put on the 292's? I'm guessing it was different than the Rochester B's that they had when used in trucks. I stupidly forgot to check when I was there. I'll know this weekend, but if I knew ahead of time I'd order a carb kit now so it'd be a few days quicker getting here. Judging from pictures of the Agco carb kit (which they want over $200 for and three week's lead time) it looks like a Zenith 28. But that's just a guess.

Those 292's are rock solid engines. If it's loose, it'll run.