Here's a pictoral short history of the evolution. 1. Horse drawn combine 2. Cat D5 and John Deere 36B 3. Quad Trac and Hillside Case International
Caterpillar Hillside Lexion Combine Hillside Lexion , was part of Claas, now part of AGCO . The industry sure moves fast these days. Corporate mergers, spin offs.
Wow that last one is fancy.
great pictures
The Lexion is still part of Class, but the challenger brand of Cat is now AGCO. The A85 Gleaner, the Massey, and the Challenger are all the same combine but with different motors and different paint scheme. No other combine can compare in productivity to the Lexion 595r.
Claas Lexion 600 I will add some pictures of our Lexion 600 for you, a great machine! I will add some more as soon as i can.. Thank you for a great forum!
What are those poles sticking up on each side of the small grain head on that Lexion?
Welcome to Heavy Equipment Forums Christian! :drinkup
thats an auto pilot system commonly found in europe.
I don`t understand why i doesn`t get miniature pictures in my replys, why do i only get a link, and not a picture?
IMG code is turned off on the forums for various reasons. IMG code is what turns a link into a picture. To get pictures up you must upload them using the attachment feature in your reply. Check out the second red link in my signature for help with that.
we started with a allis pull-type model 66, then got a oliver 25 sel-propelled, moved up to a deere 45 eb for a few years, had a '76 3300 gas for about 20 years and our last was the '73 6600 diesel. wish more could be done with the 6600 than harvest. awesome motor, hydrostatic drive, working a/c. weve only had it about 4 years. check this out, was taking off corn across the road. its got a homemade reel to rake the corn in with, had some heavy winds a few weeks ago that downed alot of corn.
:laugh:laugh ointlaugh You perhaps haven't heard that now the New Holland CR 9090 holds the the current Guiness Record for most tonnes harvested in 24hrs.....beating the Lexion. http://www.newholland.com/cr9090_minisite/index.html In all seriousness though they are all pretty much level pegging in terms of performance, a lot depends on the operator and the field conditions
nice vid thanks richard
Vintage Harvest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBhved_BkyY Heres a video of a Vintage Harvest a bunch of us "Experienced Operators" (Old Guys) hold every fall the weekend before Labor Day in Eastern Wash. This was in 05 and we have 7 machines now with tractors and trucks to match. Just found a 36 John Deer that was stored in a shed for 50 yrs. and ready to go, new drapers and all. Just have to find a place to store it now. We started this to show the grandkids how we used to do it and they really jump in and help us now. Do it as a fund raiser for the Historical Soc. but it's free if you don't want to donate. most do. These old machines really do a good job, maybe better than the new ones just not as fast but very steady. They used to cut about 2000 bu/day and do a good clean job. Video dosn't show it but these are hillside machines and will level about 45 degrees. Come and join us and get a little chaff down your neck, we have a ball and you will to.
That is a really good video, crayton. For their time, those old machines were quite large capacity. What brand of engines drive the harvesters and were they petrol/kerosine or diesel? There were what we called engine functioned harvesters here, that had Hercules petrol/kerosine engines driving them. They were originally pulled by horses and later by tractors, then they were phased out by harvesters driven by the pto shaft from the tractor. I never saw or heard of those type of harvesters in the video, come in to Australia and the machines here were quite a bit smaller. The following pic is not real good quality, but it gives you the general idea. This machine is a Sunshine No. 6, engine functioned harvester. Here it has a smaller pickup on it for harvesting ryegrass seed, normally it would probably have a 10 foot comb for grain. Rn'R.
Interesting video! The second machine has the same basic shape as more modern harvesters. The old Chevy truck is a nice touch! How many men are actually required to operate?
Here's a few out of the album.....its the evolution of corn harvest(or barley or small grain I think you call it over on the other side of the river) here on our family farm over the years....... So to start with its an Albion binder pulled by some horses - I'm guessing in the early '30s....but don't know what make the horses are.....then when they got tired of trying to catch the horses every morning they upgraded to a Standard Fordson in the middle/late '30s - My Uncle is at the wheel - probably came home from school early that day Then you have my father's first combine a Massey Harris 726 bagger - he's the one sat on the rail on the left - he bought this one in the early '60s then right up to date our latest - a '83 New Holland 8040
The engines an all these machines are JXC Hercules and are gasoline engines. International used their own engine a Black Diamond. Northart, your #2 picture is one of ours and that is a 9U D6 instead of a D5. The red combine is a Harris and is pulled by a RD6 3 lung-er. The orange one is a Case V2 and one of the last pull machines built. They were just a little late with this model as the self propelled combines came out shortly after that. They had a lot of neat things, Zerk nipples all plumbed to central location, electric start on the engine, power header lift etc. Harris was the first to build a hillside self propelled that really worked. They were built in Stockton Calif. and not related to Massy Harrris. By the way that is a 35 International (McCormick) pulling the orange Case. Been back sooner but Grandson had water pipes freeze last night, 6 degrees and 20 mph wind. Brrrrrrrr. Here's another one you might like. The last shot is of me at about 13 learning to run combine from my dad about 1945. It was a Rumbly 12 ft cut with a 4 cyl Wakueasha engine. Put in about 60 harvests since then and it's still fun. Worked on a Drill Rig that had a big Wakueasha engine on the mud pump and it had a little 4 cyl like this for a starting motor. Driller was impressed that as young as I was that I knew all about that engine. Guess it pays to teach em young. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci3KnAxdISYhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci3KnAxdISY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci3KnAxdISY Sorry that was wrong./ Try this please
Steve, forgot to answer your question. When the pull machines were first built it took about 5 or 6 men to operate, A driver for the horses, Headerpuncher, the guy that raised and lowered the header to cut grain, a machine man who leveled the machine and looked after it and a sack jig who filled sacks and got them ready for the sack-sower. Then things got modern, the jig and sack-sower were replaced by a bulk tank and auger that offloaded the grain into a truck or bulk wagon. Of course the tractor replaced the horses. Later the headerpuncher took over for the machine man and did both jobs. About WW2 a fellow in Spokane Wa. invented the Hanson Automatic Leveler. It was a mercury board powered by a 6v battery that operated two solenoid valves that operated a vacuum brake can off a truck that moved the lever back and forth to control the leveling gear box to keep machine level. You may have heard of him, R.A.Hanson, He got the idea from the Auto Pilot on Bombers and he built it for his dad who was having trouble finding help during the war. Went on to be a manufacture of large canal digging machinery etc. He stopped by a couple years ago and said "boys,he's 80++, you have got to get those automatic levelers working and buy the way the guarantee is still good". We did and they work as good as new. From this stage with just two men the headerpuncher was replaced with a hyd, cylinder run off hyd from the cat and in effect became a one man operation. Used to operate the unloading auger and straw dump with ropes to the cat. One busy guy I'll tell you. Never could cut as much that way as it took a long time for one man to service both cat and combine and get anything done but help was hard to find so we did it anyway. Some farmers rigged up to operate the cat from the combine using flex cables adjusted so when the steering clutch was pulled part way it released and pull it further it put on the brake. also throttle, clutch and gearshift were operated this way. Some of those guys got pretty catty and it was a sight to see that outfit going across the field with nobody on the tractor. The guys that started this originally did it with just ropes to the steering clutches and would lock the header and jump off and climb on tractor to shift gears to pull a hill and then climb back on the combine again. One day he slipped and fell down and the combine ran over his leg. That stopped that BS. Like I said help was hard to find and we were fighting a war.Necessity is the mother of invention.
Well given the technological evolution over the past 80 years I wonder where we will be in food production techniques within another 50yrs? Driverless combines, satellite controlled (which we more or less already have), on board crop processing (drying to given moisture content) perhaps?? Hope I live to see it......then turn around and talk about the 'good old days' when 'summers were longer, sunnier and happier' and the fiver in my pocket bought a gallon of petrol, or two pints of beer but wasn't quite enough for a pack of cigs
nice pics