Pictures- older JD hillside combines in action

[NIF]

Pictures are of our combines over the years. We have some 40% slopes but I dont have any pics of them leveled over that far. We are at the southeast edge of the palouse and the hills are not as steep but we have long slopes leading into the canyon. We used to run the 95-H combines (67' and 68') then upgraded to a 6622(80') and 6602(71') and then just two years ago added another 6622(82') to replace the 6602. Our 22s are upgraded with all the features of later models with titan II fan blades, reinforced torque tubes, 222 headers and new style feeder houses, etc. In typical wheat we can cut 700bu/hour (includes stopping to unload) with the combines if the trucks can keep it hauled away. It sure is more economical to run the 22s versus newer combines for a small to medium sized farming operation.

Hope you enjoy the pics, questions/comments welcome.

 

[Roger - Kansas]

Thanks for the pictures. I really like seeing the hillside combines. I would love to have on for my collection. The price of the combine doesn't keep me from buying one, the cost of hauling it to the Kansas plains does. I am told there are hillside machines in Northeast Kansas & Iowa but I have not found one.

 

[olgentdc]

Thanx for the Tour !!! . and be careful onthemTHAR'HILLS'' our hills aruond here can be steep , but survivable , not so Sure about some of the PALOUSE hills... . wish to get out there to see that Country someday , I know i flew Over it when going to Alaska Via Tacoma WA., But it is not the same.. FYI ,, 908 Harris posted on You TUbe , Farming on the Palouse in the 40s....jh

 

[1206SWMO]

Great pictures.It must be a real treat to farm in an area with scenery like that.We were out that way in late July 2001 but harvest had barely started.We came thru Lewiston,Idaho and spent the night at Walla Walla,WA while on our way to Vancouver,B.C.On the way home we came by Mt St Helens,thru Portland,The Dalles,and spent the night at Redmond,Oregon.

My bucket list includes riding in a hill side combine and hiking up to Mt St Helens,but due to my wifes poor health neither will ever happen.

 

[jwal10]

Love the pictures. I went up into the Palouse on a trip north from Joseph Oregon this summer. Spent the day right at harvest time. Great country. Last trip was in 1985....James

 

[flying belgian]

Not familiar with a hillside. How does that work? Do you manually adjust it by watching a level bubble or does it do it it self on newer machines or what?

 

[old harv]

Great Pictures. Love the combines and the scenery.

 

[Moline_guy]

Those 20 series combines are great machines, does Deere or IH even make hillsides anymore?

 

[Bob Bancroft]

Very nice. Thanks for sharing the sunshine!
That's the first I've ever seen of a hillside machine in down grain. Are those flex heads? It sure looks like it must be in the pic running on the ground. I assume you normally have them locked up? Is it all wheat?

 

[NIF]

Thanks for the comments/questions so far guys keep them coming.

I will post some pics of our other farming operations seeding/spraying/tillage etc. in a few days on the tractor talk part of the forum.

 

[NIF]

It does it automatically on all combines since the 50's or so. There is a manual override switch also which is useful for unloading and putting the header on. The JD 6602/6622 leveled to 45% and the 95-h were 42%. The factory sidehill used in hilly parts of the midwest such as a 6620 sidehill were only to 17%.

Here is a pic I borrowed from a guy who posts on several other forums I post at. It shows the parts of the leveling on a 70 series IH hillside combine of the 80's. It is very similar to the setup on our JDs.

The radius arm(others call it a torque tube) attaches to the combine frame aft; it serves to keep the final drive, wheel & tire parallel
to the separator body. It is linked to the main axle by the "dogbone" link.
The cylinders that move the main axle up & down are out of sight in this shot.
The platform cable attaches to the main axle as you can see here ( one cable
for each side) .....the other end of the cable attaches to the platform. When
the machine levels, cables move the platform to keep it even with the ground
contour. The platform angle basically mirrors the angle of the main axle. Also
you can see the drive line coming out from the tranny to the final drive.

 

[NIF]

Yes I agree the 6622 combines are very good machines.

All the hillside combines now are not made from the factory the leveler is added later usually by hillco that does a 27% leveler for the newer machines. It does not keep the tires vertical like the older machines of the 80's and earlier. That full leveling setup got too expensive on bigger machines though JD did have rahco put the full levelers on 9600 combines until the late 90's.

 

[NIF]

Actually those are regular rigid headers with flexible pea bars on them. Here is a picture of one they flex with the ground so we can cut dry peas and lentils right off the ground. The palouse grows lots of the dry peas, lentil, and garbanzo beans in addition to wheat and some barley. There is one picture of cutting peas in my original post and one of cutting weedy lentils as well. One of the 95s is cutting garbanzo beans.

On our farm we do a rotation of winter wheat then spring wheat then legumes. We have grown canola occasionally but dont make much money with it. Many operations nearby just do a two year rotation of winter wheat-then spring crop. Not much wheat on wheat because of disease problems. With a good rotation we have an average winter wheat yield of 80bu/a and have done over 110bu/a before.

 

[Paul from MI]

We drove thru the palouse last October-tool alte for harvest but very beautiful country.

 

[Moline_guy]

Another question for you, how come hillside combines always have knobby tires? Around here all combines, even the older ones have tractor lug type tires, I have always heard knobbys are worthless in mud, but do they hold the hills better?

 

[BlaineF]

Those are some great pictures.We run the 6622's and 95H's as well.Never get enough of the pictures of the Palouse.Very nice looking machines.Looks like you have alot of steep ground on your farm.I'll post a few more of our combines in action.Thanks for sharing the country side with us.Have a Good Turkey Day! BlaineF(WA)

 

[NIF]

The knobby tires which are mainly what we call diamond treads are used on all the older style levelers because they work better to keep the combine on the hillside and have a bigger footprint when the tire is vertical on a hillside. The newer machines 90's models and newer mainly have dual tractor treads but some have diamonds or plus tread to keep combine from sliding off hills as easy.

 

[oleclint]

Wonderfull photos , A huge thank you.
I was in the Moscow, Id - Pullman, Wa. area in 1960 at harvest time. Got to operate a J D 55 manual leveling combine , had to watch the bubble on the level on the hand rail .No cab on that great old 55. That was a very interesting expierence, A little scary for a young guy from the flat midwest.Got to operate a crawler plowing with 2, 4 bottom trip lift plows . Was told to Never jump off if it started to slide down the hill !They supposedly never roll over. clint

 

[NIF]

We are about 40 road miles east and south from Moscow. Ran a 55H for several years before a 95H. Though most farms use rubber now we still use 3 steel track cat crawlers for farming. Pics of them on steep hills coming soon in the tractor talk section.

 

[NIF]

We just have one running 95H left that sits in a shed, haven't used it in several years. Maybe in a really short lentil crop we will but otherwise there is no need. I agree there is no such thing as too many palouse hillside pics.

 

[55 50 Ron]

What is done to prevent erosion of soil on those steep hills? Seems it would be a major problem.

 

[NIF]

Erosion is not as big of deal as many would think. The reason is because of the rainfall pattern. This area does NOT get big rainstorms that drop several inches of rain in 24 hours. We get a lot of smaller storms that put down a little precip every day allowing it to soak in. We no-till some of our fall seeded crops which prevents erosion but have not had luck with spring no-till so everyone around here does fall tillage on ground that will be spring seeded. Even with tillage erosion can be reduced by leaving as much residue as possible on the soil surface, seeding and doing tillage on the contour, and uphill moldboard plowing. Strip cropping on the contour is also popular in some areas of the palouse where the slope is divided into different rotations so ditches cannot run the whole slope.

The first pic shows ground that was tilled and planted to wheat and did not erode a 40% slope. (the snow was melting in this pic which is one of the most erosive times of here and there was a lot of water moving down the creeks)

The second and third show some of our no-till crops winter wheat and winter lentils.

The fourth shows uphill moldboard plowed ground which reverses the tillage erosion of implements pulling soil downhill.

The fifth shows contour chisel plowed ground.

The last shows a strip crop in the palouse this fall with winter wheat across the slope and plowed ground that will be spring crop above and below.

 

[55 50 Ron]

I'm in Southern Minnesota where there are some hills, but not as great as what you have. Here there are some manmade terraces where erosion has been a problem, and also fall tillage is done mostly with chisel plows and disc rippers to leave mulch residue on the surface.

Are you in the Orofino, Idaho area? Many years ago we traveled on US 12 across Idaho on a family vacation and went through Orofino. I remember seeing fields with a considerable slope right next to the highway and having a small cliff-like edge where a combine or other machine would land right on the highway if it happened to slide sideways just a few feet and go over the cliff. Very scary looking!!

 

[amnion]

Great photos! And thanks for elaborating on your methods of controlling erosion.

 

[NIF]

Yes Orofino is the nearest town to us. We are above the canyon rim for the most part but one of the pics where you can see the river highway 12 can be seen in the pic.

 

[Anonymous-0]

we own a 6620 hillside. we live about two miles north of blaine ks

 

[NIF]

41s- I think Roger was meaning a true hillside combine such as my 6622 which levels to 45% rather than the 18% sidehill 6620s found in the midwest, east, and plains states.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Thanks for posting these photos,My grandpa just bought a 1981 John Deere 6622 from Columbia Tractor down at Tekoa in February,2011. He had it overhauled and it was delivered to us up here in Spokane in July. After he got started using it,a hydraulic pump went out in the rear a coupleof hours later, so he couldn't steer! He was at the bottom of a hillside and his IH 1600 was at the top,so he had to walk up there,which by the way wasn't easy since he broke his hip in March!