the first one I have ever seen

Allis Chalmers corn chopper.

http://madison.craigslist.org/grd/5890019100.html

They were a good chopper in their day.     MACK

I've got 8 of them. I'm trying to figure out how to get corn through them better.
Joe

My dad had 3 at one time, one of them was bought new and was our first chopper. It seemed that the corn was either too tall or too short for it to work right. We spent a lot of time "walking the plank" to unplug the dang thing...no wonder they put a hinged cover on it LOL. We even had the dealer put the update kit on it which was a couple more rollers on the bottom to try to get it to feed better. Another problem was most of the material was cut in one area of the knives, so when you used the on-board sharpener you had to grind down the edges to get the worn spot in the middle sharpened...took a lot of time. The sickle drive was also a problem, not a good design. Gehl and New Holland made much better machines....

Like most machines people have a love hate relationship with these. My Grandfather bought one in the late 50s with both the windrow pickup head and the corn head. We switched heads until the mid 80s when we bought a second chopper with a corn head and just used the two individually. I was lucky to be too young with the head exchange. The hay head machine was used for three crops of dry hay plus straw to be blown up in the barn. We used that machine until 1995 when we got a 770 New Holland. The corn head machine was used until somewhere around 1990 when we got a 707 New Holland. Although the 707 made a good product I liked the A-C better. Had better capacity and plugged less. We never really had much for feeding problems other than the first load was always a bit of a bear. The later machines had adjustments on the axles to raise or lower the unit. That can help with feeding. Also removing or adding the spring helps, I have had luck changing the head speed as well. The last few years we chopped we used a 780 AC. That corn head didn't feed the greatest either. One year we had to chop the neighbors at one row at a time because we couldn't get it to feed with two. Some people didn't like them because they didn't chop the corn leaves up the finest either, when the 50 offered the six knife option that helped things out. I laughed a few years ago when a dairy feed specialist told me that a longer leaf corn silage is better for the cows digestion ending in a lesser chance of a twisted stomach.

All in all the chopper had plenty of great designs too. We really didn't see much capacity change when we went from using the D17 and the A-C to the 190 with the New Holland 770. With the 707 we went backwards in capacity. The wide cylinder spread the material evenly over the three foot wide cylinder taking a lot less horsepower. One memory I have is at our local show I was chopping some corn with my 1953 WD, the person planted the corn and didn't cultivate it, I ended up chopping two rows at once that were full sized ears and 12 inches apart. It was a good growing season, the WD just barked and took both rows. Setting up the shear bar is really easy also, the cylinder was on an eccentric, with a wrench and hammer you can set the shear bar in minutes. To sharpen was a very easy task also. We still have both of our machines as well as a 50 and a couple 780s. AC built a decent number of them and I used to see a decent number of them around. I have bought and sold a couple and parted out 3 of them.

Jim

Joe Graunke wrote: CrestonM wrote: I ran one for a bit this summer. They have a bad reputation, since the crop has to go up, then turn, kinda by itself. If everything isn't super shined up, they just plug up.  I hope we can get to work this coming June! Joe

I agree with JIMIA. Dad bought one in about 1955 or 56. Used it on a straight WD first than later a D17 And finally a 180D. They took less horse power than some other makes. In a lot of ways were ahead of their time. Used it until about 1982 when we got a 782 new Holland. The Allis always seem to work well for us. The heaver the crop the slower you went. But that was expected. The New Holland took a lot more HP in comparison.

Boy Jim, now that's performing under pressure!

Or is that having the pressure to perform?

Edited by Tbone95 - 02 Dec 2016 at 5:58am

Joe(OH) wrote: I put an engine fire out on a K Gleaner the same way....

Sheesh! Good thing it wasn't an electrical fire, huh?!

I'm one of those that has stage fright at a crowded place....not sure I could put out a fire on demand! Now, if I were drinking Bud Light while I was combinin', that would be a different story. That chit multiplies. Gozouta = 1.5 x Gozinta

Tim NH wrote:  Picture is from Hutchinson 2015. They were trying to blow a little to wet alfalfa in that wagon. It was nice to watch for a few minutes. I liked your story Jim.

Joe Graunke wrote: Tim NH wrote:  Picture is from Hutchinson 2015. They were trying to blow a little to wet alfalfa in that wagon. It was nice to watch for a few minutes. I liked your story Jim.   Cody and me got the bugs worked out!