The Famous Grouse
Member
A business contact of mine has been over from Europe several times and I've gotten to know him a little. His parents are still farming in Ukraine, his father is only 65 and farmers don't really retire in Ukraine because this area is very, very poor by our North American standards. They use equipment until it's dead, then they piece it back together and use it more.
They are using a pair of ancient Deere 55 combines, one is an open station. I believe he said they have 2500 acres if I'm converting hectares correctly of small grain, so combining takes a long, long, time apparently. They also do a neighbor's land. I don't know what a Deere 55 covers in a day, but I'm guessing it's not 200 acres. Breakdowns are frequent, repair parts do not exist. The engines have been replaced with some type of Soviet-era diesel, the fact that they accomplished this repower is a testimony to their powers of bush engineering.
Anyway, this guy was wondering how I found my old Deere tractor for my hunting property and I unwittingly introduced him to the wonder that is Craigslist.
He has been surfing it for the past year or so and he is astonished at the equipment that is being "given away" over here. Combines with less than 5000 hours for less than $7000. This is unheard of in Ukraine where working used machines are almost never sold at any price. He showed machines to his father and it's absolutely killing both of them, so he looked into the cost of shipping whole combine and to be honest I was surprised at how cheap it was. $5000-$6000 will get 'er all the way to Odessa from the US east coast.
He's looking at 6620, 7720, and 8820 Deere machines, so total outlay to get the machine to Odessa with a grain head and spare parts would be somewhere around $18,000 - $20,000.
I think he's crazy. His father says that these machines are ultra modern by Ukraine standards.
So my question is:
Were these really good and reliable Deere machines? Any major issues they should know about?
Is this crazy? I mean, be honest. Shipping a combine this far to be used by someone who's never driven a hydro machine and never worked on anything newer than what, 1960 or whenever the last Deere 55 rolled off the line?
He's so serious about this that he's looking at bringing his father over this summer to "go shopping". His father has never left Ukraine. This guy makes good money as an engineer, so he's going to buy the combine for his dad for a birthday present. I just would hate to see them go through all this trouble and expense and get a bum steer or worse.
What do you guys think of this idea?
Grouse
They are using a pair of ancient Deere 55 combines, one is an open station. I believe he said they have 2500 acres if I'm converting hectares correctly of small grain, so combining takes a long, long, time apparently. They also do a neighbor's land. I don't know what a Deere 55 covers in a day, but I'm guessing it's not 200 acres. Breakdowns are frequent, repair parts do not exist. The engines have been replaced with some type of Soviet-era diesel, the fact that they accomplished this repower is a testimony to their powers of bush engineering.
Anyway, this guy was wondering how I found my old Deere tractor for my hunting property and I unwittingly introduced him to the wonder that is Craigslist.
He has been surfing it for the past year or so and he is astonished at the equipment that is being "given away" over here. Combines with less than 5000 hours for less than $7000. This is unheard of in Ukraine where working used machines are almost never sold at any price. He showed machines to his father and it's absolutely killing both of them, so he looked into the cost of shipping whole combine and to be honest I was surprised at how cheap it was. $5000-$6000 will get 'er all the way to Odessa from the US east coast.
He's looking at 6620, 7720, and 8820 Deere machines, so total outlay to get the machine to Odessa with a grain head and spare parts would be somewhere around $18,000 - $20,000.
I think he's crazy. His father says that these machines are ultra modern by Ukraine standards.
So my question is:
Were these really good and reliable Deere machines? Any major issues they should know about?
Is this crazy? I mean, be honest. Shipping a combine this far to be used by someone who's never driven a hydro machine and never worked on anything newer than what, 1960 or whenever the last Deere 55 rolled off the line?
He's so serious about this that he's looking at bringing his father over this summer to "go shopping". His father has never left Ukraine. This guy makes good money as an engineer, so he's going to buy the combine for his dad for a birthday present. I just would hate to see them go through all this trouble and expense and get a bum steer or worse.
What do you guys think of this idea?
Grouse