26 replies to this topic

[Michael Halsall]

Tractor mounted corn pickers, of which I know nothing about.

There was a " 2-MH" which I assume means "2 row for Farmall M & H" and a later Model 234 which loooked similar.

Was the 234 an update of the 2-MH or was it completely different?

What was the latest model tractor that would fit the 234?

How was it driven? PTO?

Apparently these old corn pickers are now quite collectable!

Regards from Michael H

[eieio58]

I have ran both pickers. Both are PTO driven. The 2 MH was a good picker but the 234 is a great picker. The 234 is similar to a corn head with stripper plates and knifed rollers. Once you have the belly and axle mounts on your tractor a 234 can be mounted or dismounted in a matter of minutes. I believe the 66 series are the last to be able to mount a 234. Husking bed, shelling, ear corn grinding, sweet corn and seed corn units were available for the 234. I have the husking, shelling and grinder.

[George 2]

I think they could be mounted on the 686 and Hydro 86 also

[randy hall]

the 2MH was built during the 560 era. it's design started as the 2M picker during farmall M production. then the 2ME came during $)) production. the 2MHD was a largerv capacity picker with a twelve roll husking bed. the 234 picker was a clean sheet design and would fit a farmall m up to a 1066 with a narrow front end. all of these pickers drove from the pto. the model 24 mounted picker drove off of the belt pulley drive.

[Michael Halsall]

<sub>I assume there was a TRAIL BEHIND version of the 234.
What was it called?

I assume you drove the tractor into the picker to attatch it.
How was the height adjusted for different Farmall models?

Regards from M.H.</sub>

[Dr. EVIL]

IH's pull-type pickers were the 1-PR, - one-row pull picker, 1-PRS - same thing but without the husking bed so corn still had the husks on, and the 2-PR. Pull type pickers fell out of popularity really fast when mounted pickers became popular, but there were people who liked them so IH built them up till almost the end... think around 1974 according to CH Wendell's 150 yrs of IHC when they stopped making them.

On the 234 picker, the height differences were aloowd for on the main mounting frame attached to the tractor before the picker was installed, the M held the adapter higher on the tractor, and the 1066 would hold it lower so the picker sat at the same level.

[1468 Chris]

I can get the wheels slide out and the the brakets on my 400 and the 234 picker installed by myself in an hour and ready for the field if i work steady. Its amazing how easy they are in get on the tractor. My good friend has a JD 227 mounted on a JD60 and it takes the 2 of us a good 4 hours to get his on and operational. I love the old 234 pickers, there the coolest things to run and they always draw attention. Im tryin to find a sheller unit for mine but can't seem to find one. Were the sheller units more "rare" so to speak? And does the sheller take much more power to run then the husking bed? Ive never been around one.

Chris

[234-IA]

the sheller itself doesn't take more power... but the wagon loaded with shelled corn will take more power to move around, especially in hills. there used to be a fair amount of shellers around here, but most who hung on to 234s did so for ear corn.

they did a nice job, sort of a prototype axial flow... i remember hauling corn to the co-op when we were still using ours, and the long-time employee who ran the grain dump asked, "are you using a picker-sheller?" i said, "yes", and he said "thought so - the guys who used them always had the least damaged corn"

[dumbfarmer]

sounds like when we hauled in corn from the 1660 after using a 750 massey for years, the unloader guy says "did you get a different combine? wheres all the fines?"

they did a nice job, sort of a prototype axial flow... i remember hauling corn to the co-op when we were still using ours, and the long-time employee who ran the grain dump asked, "are you using a picker-sheller?" i said, "yes", and he said "thought so - the guys who used them always had the least damaged corn"

[TP from Central PA]

Can't speak for a IH shelling unit, but a NI definitely took way more power to run than a husking bed.............