BLACK COMBINE

[junkandcattle]

https://www.yellowswirl.info/414978414

[hardtail]

My buddy ran a 510 for years, never saw him smiling like Mr Carroll in the 410...a few inconsistencies in the article but overall well done, link to go the 2nd part of article on the rotaries didn't work and current state of the fancy 860, they did have some innovative features

From the other thread on V8's pretty sure MF produced the highest hp 2wd non fwa tractor also

[Delta Dirt]

Thanks for the M-F report.  Lots of good reading there.

Makes me want to see if I can dig out one of my old  red M-F caps from the 70--80s.

We swore by and swore at the Masseys-----but, still believe they were top of the line for the Delta area pre-rotary combine era.

We used to kid the M-F dealers and factory boys that M-F did not stand for Massey-Ferguson!!!!!!!

That black/gold color scheme looked good------give us a report on it if more information becomes known.

DD

[JaredT]

A guy 20 miles away has at least a dozen Massey 850?? combines and a bunch of them are black. They drug them out to the road after they burned and started robbing parts.  Not the neatest operation. 

[junkandcattle]

We were sort derailing the v8 thread about that combine so I posted what I found. We sold that but evidently I suffer from CRS can't remember shi!

And Delta you are correct I had a 300 a 510 and a 550 the 550 wasn't quite the mfer the others were.

[Big Bud guy]

Kinda of shame really reading the article because their performance was unequaled in the 70s.  But that was only when they were actually running.  Tom Carroll gets the credit for the modern SP combine but JD taught him a few lessons with the 55.  

[Dirt_Floor_Poor]

Yes, we were derailing the V8 thread. My apologies to @Big Bud guy. Has anyone laid eyes on this machine in the last 25 years or so? I heard it was in northeast Kansas somewhere. Possibly the Atchison, Ks area. A guy just down the road from me in Smithville, Mo purchased it new. 

[poor farmer/logger]

I’ll always have a bit of a soft spot for them as it was the first combine that I ran by myself and basically learnt on. We still have the 850 but it doesn’t get used as much now with the newer swather and the 2188 working good. For now we have the shed space to keep it so it stays in the corner behind the 2188.  Still does a few acres every year to keep it limbered up. 

[Gearclash]

Looks like a John Player Special F1 car wannabe.

[Wes806]

Thanks for sharing. Sure was good reading plus I learned more then I knew about their past.

[Steve C.]

We had a Massey dealer in our town when I was a kid.  Don't remember anyone who had a Massey tractor, but he sold lots of 300s, 410s, and 510s.

[Diesel Doctor]

Brings back old memories.

My Dad and Uncle went south in 49, 50 and 1951 with Massey Harris 21A's.

They put the 21A's on top of a 48 Chevy truck and headed south.

What an adventure.

Dad done a lot of work after he then got back to South Dakota each year.

That was the first combine I ever ran and I still have the original operators manual for Dad's 21A.

I later owned an 82 Massey and my brother got into a 410 and 760.

These were very good machines,

Sad to see that Massey went down in about the same way that IH did.

 

[junkandcattle]

11 hours ago, Big Bud guy said:

JD taught him a few lessons with the 55.

Yep don't put in a rattle chain

[junkandcattle]

31 minutes ago, Diesel Doctor said:

Brings back old memories.

My Dad and Uncle went south in 49, 50 and 1951 with Massey Harris 21A's.

They put the 21A's on top of a 48 Chevy truck and headed south.

What an adventure.

Dad done a lot of work after he then got back to South Dakota each year.

That was the first combine I ever ran and I still have the original operators manual for Dad's 21A.

I later owned an 82 Massey and my brother got into a 410 and 760.

These were very good machines,

Sad to see that Massey went down in about the same way that IH did.

 

Massey had a promo video that showed a fleet of combines for wheat harvest. Company owned machines I think but I don't remember the year or model

[hardtail]

My buddy used to haul grain for a couple brothers that farmed a lot of zoned land around the city for real estate speculation, they ran 2 760's for years and then finally stepped it up to a more modern Gleaner sorry can remember the model but a few classes up, when he asked them how that was working they said on paper it looked good but it didn't do the acres per day the 2 760's did, sadly one brother was electrocuted to death moving a grain auger on an unlit yard shortly after 

[Big Bud guy]

3 hours ago, junkandcattle said:

Yep don't put in a rattle chain

I only said what I said because Tom Carroll himself took a 55 for a joyride back when they first came out.  And it was to see some of the features his combine didn’t have.

[Big Bud guy]

11 minutes ago, hardtail said:

My buddy used to haul grain for a couple brothers that farmed a lot of zoned land around the city for real estate speculation, they ran 2 760's for years and then finally stepped it up to a more modern Gleaner sorry can remember the model but a few classes up, when he asked them how that was working they said on paper it looked good but it didn't do the acres per day the 2 760's did, sadly one brother was electrocuted to death moving a grain auger on an unlit yard shortly after 

Our 760 was a POS.  Great design with few exceptions just cheaply made.  However it did manage to out cut a gleaner N7 back in the day which speaks volumes on how poor those combines were. 

[Dirt_Floor_Poor]

7 minutes ago, Big Bud guy said:

Our 760 was a POS.  Great design with few exceptions just cheaply made.  However it did manage to out cut a gleaner N7 back in the day which speaks volumes on how poor those combines were. 

Gleaners used to be very popular here. They were manufactured about 30-35 miles from where I live. The N series was a little before my time, but I don’t know of anyone that actually had one here. Most of the combines here have been almost exclusively John Deere for decades, even before they came out with the STS models. 

[Big Bud guy]

3 minutes ago, Dirt_Floor_Poor said:

Gleaners used to be very popular here. They were manufactured about 30-35 miles from where I live. The N series was a little before my time, but I don’t know of anyone that actually had one here. Most of the combines here have been almost exclusively John Deere for decades, even before they came out with the STS models. 

Conventional Gleaners were popular here.  They might have even outsold JD.  But the N series cured everybody of them. If the N series was a product of JD they would be the market leader today.  It wasn’t just problems with the combine itself that doomed the N series, it was the fact AC themselves didn’t back them up and provide the service/suppprt to keep them going like JD would have.  Our custom cutter at the time who got started with gleaners in the 60s went bankrupt over some N6s.  He told us one time he would have been better off dropping them off at the nearest dealer, taking the hit and moving onto something else.  He started over again with Massey and then finished his last 20 years of cutting with JD.  He even admitted later the Gleaners are good combined now but still ran JD because he was never more then an hour away from parts.  AC left him and high and dry back in the day.

[Dirt_Floor_Poor]

1 hour ago, Big Bud guy said:

Conventional Gleaners were popular here.  They might have even outsold JD.  But the N series cured everybody of them. If the N series was a product of JD they would be the market leader today.  It wasn’t just problems with the combine itself that doomed the N series, it was the fact AC themselves didn’t back them up and provide the service/suppprt to keep them going like JD would have.  Our custom cutter at the time who got started with gleaners in the 60s went bankrupt over some N6s.  He told us one time he would have been better off dropping them off at the nearest dealer, taking the hit and moving onto something else.  He started over again with Massey and then finished his last 20 years of cutting with JD.  He even admitted later the Gleaners are good combined now but still ran JD because he was never more then an hour away from parts.  AC left him and high and dry back in the day.

I was always fascinated by the amount of custom harvesting in other areas of the country. That was never a “thing” here. Is there still a lot of acres custom harvested or guys that don’t have a combine there?

[766 Man]

1 hour ago, Big Bud guy said:

Conventional Gleaners were popular here.  They might have even outsold JD.  But the N series cured everybody of them. If the N series was a product of JD they would be the market leader today.  It wasn’t just problems with the combine itself that doomed the N series, it was the fact AC themselves didn’t back them up and provide the service/suppprt to keep them going like JD would have.  Our custom cutter at the time who got started with gleaners in the 60s went bankrupt over some N6s.  He told us one time he would have been better off dropping them off at the nearest dealer, taking the hit and moving onto something else.  He started over again with Massey and then finished his last 20 years of cutting with JD.  He even admitted later the Gleaners are good combined now but still ran JD because he was never more then an hour away from parts.  AC left him and high and dry back in the day.

  The Series II and III conventional Gleaners did very well here.  Some lll's got sold to guys who did not take an immediate hit after the 1980 grain embargo.  Anyways, AC ran only 2nd to JD around here.  AC in general was strong here in NY with some capable dealers.  Probably 3rd only to JD and IH.  

[ChrisNY]

Always thought that Black Massey was super sharp looking. Wonder where it is today. 
Guy here had a 760 he used to do a lot of custom work with. Seemed to be a good machine. Couldn’t quite hang with the 1480 though. He would help us out some falls if we got behind. Had a set of steel tracks for it as well for those wet falls. 
The conventional Gleaners did fairly well here, still a few around running. Had better dealer support for AC than Massey in this area. IH and Deere dominated the market though. 

[Big Bud guy]

51 minutes ago, Dirt_Floor_Poor said:

I was always fascinated by the amount of custom harvesting in other areas of the country. That was never a “thing” here. Is there still a lot of acres custom harvested or guys that don’t have a combine there?

Most guys around here have their own combine but still hire cutters to speed up harvest.  Only have two neighbors that don’t have combines.  One we cut for about 1,500 acres.  The other is two brothers that seed around 8,000 acres and have all it cut by Farris.  

[Big Bud guy]

16 minutes ago, 766 Man said:

  The Series II and III conventional Gleaners did very well here.  Some lll's got sold to guys who did not take an immediate hit after the 1980 grain embargo.  Anyways, AC ran only 2nd to JD around here.  AC in general was strong here in NY with some capable dealers.  Probably 3rd only to JD and IH.  

I think Gleaner if anything had the small combine market cornered with the F and K series.  

[dale560]

16 minutes ago, Big Bud guy said:

I think Gleaner if anything had the small combine market cornered with the F and K series.  

Dad had a gas F gleaner he ran day and night. My moms dad bought it new. The f was his only combine and he was farming over 3000 acres. He had some custom combining done in wheat harvest but would do more custom acres later in year to help offset money spent.  I remember dad working on it changing rasp bars and then reversing them more than a few times. The neighbors that combined for him had 2 750 Massey’s then traded a few times into 3 85 model 850s. I think they even had 510 Massey a before the 750s.  Around here Massey had the market , gleaner F ,G, M, L and John Deere 7700 but IH had almost as many 914s 503s around area as Massey’s. Some of the IH guys ran 503s a long time into the late 90s before they traded to modern combines. One guy had 3 503s then bought a new late 2388. My buddy ran 503s  until 94 then a L3 gleaner 3 years a caseih 1480 one year then he bought a 94 jd 9600 . Ran three 9600s then traded for a 9870 and 690 he has now.