Deere 3300

[Ryan GA]

Hi Guys,
I"ve been searching this site for a while and finally have a few questions to ask.
I"m in the market for an older small combine. I"m wanting somthing that I can use for no more than 100 acres per year. Mostly corn and some beans. I"m not looking for a perfect machine, more of a project that I can have fun with.
I had my heart set on an old Ford, like a 620 or 642. However, I"m open to others.
I found a Deere 3300 for sale an hour or so from me. The guy said it "needed work" and for me to make him an offer on it.

What I"m asking here is a 3300 a reliable machine? Will it be more of a head ache to work on? I believe the one I found has a 344 head on it, will it push a 444 in 100 bpa corn? Should I look futher into this machine or look for another one. I have spent time on many combines and know a little about them, is a 3300 the machine foe me?
I"ve come to the conclusion that my purchase will be pretty much limited to Deere or IH. Out of the two I"d rather run a Deere.
Thanks for your help,
Ryan

 

[Anonymous-0]

3300 is a decent machine, but small and not fun to work on. i have a 4420 which is very similar to 3300/4400. might look into a 715 ih, they are a good machine if u find a diesel that is better yet and they are easier to work on.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Ryan,

I was in the same boat you seem to be in last year. In terms of getting something to use and work on, a 6600 would be better than a 3300 or a 4400. I say this because there were many more made and parts are much more plentiful. I ended up buying a 6600 and a 444 head and I love it. Way more combine than I need, but it handles the head with ease and parts are easy to come by from Deere, Parts Yards, and Aftermarket.

My Experience.

Chuck

 

[IaGary]

444 would be too big and too heavy for a 3300.

You want at least a 4400 for a 444.

Gary

 

[paul]

You run into color biases real quick with a question like that (Chevy/Ford/Dodge kind of question....) so don't take any replies too close to heart, including mine.

JD built a good machine, but it is not the easiest to work on if you want a project that needs work.

If you have a real job and are farming 100 acres around a 9-5 schedule, I would look for a 4-row machine. A 4400/4420/6600 JD, or a Gleaner F/F2/F3, or IHC 815 or something like that.

A 3300 is a 2 row machine, maybe 3 row but in today's corn yields, that is a real struggle to put through.

I've found parts support from local Gleaner dealers to be very good on the F series. Some things are obsolete but you can find ways around that.

I hear JD is not supporting the 3300 so well any more - and dealers don't stock parts for them. I donno - just what I hear?

I hear Massey & JD combines are kinda harder to work on - lots of belts on one shaft, things burried behind other things, and so on. If you buy a near-perfect combine, either will work well & good. But if you want to do a project & work on it a lot - they are going to be more work.....

Take that for what it's worth, I started with an old JD 45 combine, there was a MM Uni on the place for a short time, and ran 3 Gleaners since then. I might not know a lot about the other colors and can be wrong.

But I'd look for a good 4 row machine in your shoes, not a 2 row. That I'm pretty sure of. Back in the day of full time farming with family around to help and 50-100 bu corn yields, you could run 400+ acres with 2 row equipment. Today with 150-200 bu yields and only part time around a real job, even 100 acres is a real challenge to get done with a 2 row setup - you spend 1/2 your time hauling grain away, combine idle.

--->Paul

 

[Tim(nj)]

How many other 3300s were in the area? Are there salvage yards with 3300s to pick parts from? They weren't widespread in the corn belt, so Deere doesn't support them as well anymore as some of the other combines of that series. 3 row head is about all she'll want, especially if it's got the flat-screen radiator and gas engine. Overheating is common with that setup. As the others have said, try to find a bigger machine, like a 6600, that has more easy-to-find parts, and has extra capacity should you ever need it. I run a Gleaner K2, good machine that currently works fine for me on 30 acres of small grains and 10-15 acres of shelled corn, but when I was doing 80-100 acres of soybeans a year, I often wished I had gone with a bigger machine to get done faster.

 

[sws55]

You may want to check how big the grain tank is on a 3300, it's pretty small. Dad and uncle ran one in the 70's and I think the grain tank was only about 60 bushels without extensions and somewhere between 75 and 90 bushels with the extension.

They had to be careful opening larger fields as you could not make a full round before the tank was full. Yields have increased a lot since then too.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Ran a 4400 years ago. Nice combine to run compared to our 403 IH. However it wasn't very fun to work on. We cussed out the design team numerous times. You needed to be 5'2" with an 7' wingspan and able to bend your arm in ways it wasn't meant to be. I would look for a 4400/6600 or 715/815. Seems to be alot more JD in the salvage yards.

 

[Anonymous-0]

as others have said a 3300 is very small, if you want a green one buy a 4400dsl, cheap on fuel and can be bought right ,a 6600 wouldn't be too big and you would find some 4400/6600 parts donators and virtually no 3300's, we ran a 715 IH for several years, not without trouble but pretty simple and dependable and can be bought cheap but are more unstable on side hills

 

[Vernon in Ks]

"I"m not looking for a perfect machine, more of a project that I can have fun with."

Any combine you get will be a "project". To have fun with, well you have some strange standards.:>)
Just kidding! All combines are money pits!

 

[MCL]

I was parts man for a Deere dealer in central IN from 1996-99. Had one 3300 in the area I knew of and had some problems getting parts then. A lot of 4400's still running then and I could get anything I needed for them. I don't know how it is now though.

That Deere gig was tough for an Oliver/White guy whose dad wouldn't own anything Deere.