Tale of two combines

I hear a lot of the same story, comparing red, green, yellow, and galvanized combines. Geese always land in Farmer Joe's field because there grain to eat there.

I don't think there is that huge of a difference in combines. I think it has more to due with how they are maintained, setup, and operated. Are the operators going fast to get done and throwing grain out the back? Are they getting out and checking the ground for lost crop as conditions change? Makes more difference than the combine in my opinion.

I'm going to go with the improperly set notion. If properly set, a big combine should be able to cover some acres without throwing over. With my N6, I have to keep it full, or it will throw grain out the back. Out of all my wheat fields that I have combined this year, the only green streaks I have from throwing over are on the hills where the wheat was thin, and with only a 24 foot header, I couldn't go fast enough on the hills to keep the machine full. I use the boost pressure guage as my speed guide. I run it right around 12 pounds of boost, and that's where it does the best job. Darrel

I will say both were harvesting good bottom ground and the corn in my area looks really good, so I am sure they are pushing 180 to 200 an acre.  The JD owners do like to run fast, they put out about 15,000 acres but it is spread over a large area, they spend alot of time on the road.  Once they hit a field it is peddle to the metal.

When he says "JD Owners"  I believe he was referencing the specific JD owners from the original post (and he reinforced that with the 15K acres comment) vs. the N7 Gleaner owner.   I didn't read it as ALL JD owners.   Mike

STS means straight thru seeder, just go take a look and you will see it yourself! Tracy

darrel in ND wrote: I'm going to go with the improperly set notion. If properly set, a big combine should be able to cover some acres without throwing over. With my N6, I have to keep it full, or it will throw grain out the back. Out of all my wheat fields that I have combined this year, the only green streaks I have from throwing over are on the hills where the wheat was thin, and with only a 24 foot header, I couldn't go fast enough on the hills to keep the machine full. I use the boost pressure guage as my speed guide. I run it right around 12 pounds of boost, and that's where it does the best job. Darrel

it's not go fast Creston, it's keep full! I had same problem with my "G"s, if crop was thin, it would throw some out the back (not shell out as good) keep the combine full inside, and threshing is lots better. mostly any combine is like that! but over speed can do a lot of throwing out the back too! not giving the grain enough time to shake out of the trash inside.

I can say when I see them running they are going faster than most people in the area, or JD combines just blow alot out the back, never ran one, did run a few old IH's.  I just know you can go to every field they shelled after a good rain and it is totally green over the entire field like it was sowed.  The old man that runs the gleaner has very little sprouted corn, mostly on the ends and corners but not much down the row, and the farmers closer to town run Case IH and they have very little sprouted.  So it is either the machine or the operator.

I set my deere combine to do just fine. It takes a few trips out of the cab, but my fields don't show a lot of volunteer anything....wheat, corn, beans.

I know I'll take a bashing, but my take on it is, on the older machines, Deere had a HP advantage over an IH, and sheer numbers in the market over Gleaner. So you could push the combine beyond ideal load without killing the engine, so people tended to push into operating bands where they shouldn't have been. And you just plain hear more about them because there are more of them. Truth is somewhere in the middle of it all, but pretty much anything can be set to do well if you take the time.

The thing I don't get about "Gleaner people", is they're all about how awesome the combine is, followed by: Hyper mod this, remove that, add this, take out that.....

I had Gleaners, brother has had IH and now Deere's, I think the biggest thing with any is setting and operator.

Butch, I hadn't heard that one. Gonna borrow it 

I've owned and ran all 3 brands thru the years! my very first was a JD 45, and that was one great little combine. small, but did a good job, and the only thing faster about it was we didn't hafta build corn piles to shell out later! and as we didn't have much on farm storage we were forced to only combine when the elevators were open! one day combining soybeans, a bearing froze up or shelled out, and while I was combining saw some smoke pass me in the cab, looked out back and saw nothing but flames! I pulled out (was alongside the highway) of the field and semi driver was running towards me with his fire extinguisher and me getting mine out....was to late! then bought a 4400 JD, and no matter what I did to that combine, could not get any clean grain in the tank. that combine was the whole reason for buying a grain cleaner as the elevators were docking us big time for dirty grain! and one day combine corn every once and a while I could smell something (in between the dust in the cab) and was trying to place what that smell was, when then the engine started to choke, pulled off ona grassy area, stepped out that little right hand cab door and saw the paint bubbling on the engine cover....yep....engine fire! didn't have gloves with me and the cover was to hot to open. and it finished burning right there! for some reason....I wasn't real sorry about it! I called the dealer and they sent me out a 6620 so I could finish (and for a possible purchase). that machine was way underpowered and told the dealer that. they said I was wrong, that that machine is a way better machine than anything on the market anywhere! well you know what I was thinking about that at the time! I kept calling the dealer telling them there is something wrong with this combine, it wouldn't handle a 4 row head! they sent out 2 guys from their service department and off they went thru the field without me. when they came back, they said there was something really wrong with that machine! LOL! they worked on it 2 days (rained anyway) and they couldn't get it to perform any better. (prolly why it was traded in by PO)! it also would/could not put out clean sample! Dad had an old IH 403 combine, and even tho it was also slow, did a great job of harvesting, and catching most all the grain  for the grain tank. and changing heads was a BI*CH! I then went to a Gleaner "G" combine. and what a difference (BIG DIFFERENCE) that machine was over all the green machines and that red machine! dad rode with me once and he even noticed within a few minutes! one day doing oats, the header sickle drive exploded on my "G", and it was sposed to rain the next day. Allis dealer brought me out an N5 to finish up. and I said WOW! but I couldn't afford that machine at the time! that was one sweet machine! and did a terrific job of harvesting and with a great sample and couldn't see anything from out the back! my "G" had a few problems as any used machine will have, but was easy to work on, lots easier than the previous colored machines i'd owned. then one night I hit a sink hole while doing corn. and boy....did it sink! the head was all the way up and was sitting on the ground, I walked from the cab and made one small step down to the ground! took 2 Mack wreckers, and a road grader for a dead weight to pull it out, and that was after we dug down a dirt ramp with a loader to pull it out gradually. was real careful (we thought) but we still sprung the machine and it just would not stay together after that! even after like $2500 in new parts! (that was a lot back then). a friend was selling his "G" combine to buy a newer "N" series, so I bought his "G", and used my other one for parts! the newer to me "G" never really needed any new parts. I wanted to change over to 30 inch corn, but didn't have a corn head for 30 inch, and kept my eye out for one through the years, the ones I found were either completely wore out or bent up! then one year my buddy called, we were expecting a huge snow storm and he wanted to know if I could help him harvest his corn before the  storm came in? (I was done harvesting) I told him put the coffee in thermous's and i'd be out! he put me in his IH 1460 with a 4-row head, and he hauled with his 3 M&W 375 bu. wagons to the grain bins. I could fill those wagons faster than he could empty them, and he only had a 1/4 mile to go to the bins! he had 2 bins and 2 augers set up! that was one corn eating machine! he told me what gear and speed to go in, but as I got down thru the field, the corn was way heavier and i'd have to cut down a gear. we got done about an hour before the snow came boiling in! I then found an IH 1440 with a 6-30 head and bought it. was sad to leave the "G" just sitting there, I had been planting my beans in 30 inch rows for many years, and now could plant my corn the same! been with IH ever since. the first 1440 blew a hole in the block after 3 years of no break downs! then bought a 1460 to finish up that same year. we had cleared some land and somehow ran a chunk (BIG chunk) of concrete up into that 1460. that  made that combine explode inside! just flat ruined everything inside. an IH service tech stuck his head in there to write up an insurance quote....all I heard was HOLY CHIT! he put down "totaled". insurance paid real good, and I bought another 1440. still have that 1440 and was used in 2015, then bought another 1440 (cheap) off big iron, and also ran it in 2015, one on corn, one on beans! (nuthin lazy bouts me....huh?) lol then I retired in 2016! still have both 1440's (the working ones), still have the other 1440 and 1460 for parts. (used the rear tires and wheels on the front of my 7080 and 7010 (the wheels fit). still have both the "G"s. oh and I have a little "K" that I bought thru the years as a backup machine in case of any breakdowns on weekends! the old lady....oooops....I mean the loving wife claimed it as hers as I bought it on one of our wedding anniversaries! and she went out sometimes and combined with it! o-k....this is a condenced story on my combine adventures thru the years! any questions or references...copy this off, cuz I ain't gonna type it all out again! lol     

Up here it doesn't matter what brand of machine you have, there's a difference between an operator and a driver. Alot of them up here and most I see in fields as I am driving around are just drivers. Only concerned about the number of Acres they get through the machine not caring how good of a job the machine is doing or how much is going out the back.

That's how most operate nowadays.

To the OP, in good flat ground, in the combines mentioned, any loss should be due to operator.

In hills, loss behind the Deere is a characteristic of the machine, a machine that wide was known to shovel it out the low side.

For newer combines, I feel the JD rotor is an extremely flawed design, and in all crops except for soybeans, it does not seem to do a great job.

All combines have their flaws, but IMO Deere has many more than others.