Vintage Ads

[Big Bud guy]

4 hours ago, Loadstar said:

Bob, thanks for that info on the Massey return mod. I had never actually heard from anyone that tried it or how well they worked. I wondered about the drive too but the 90 degree gearbox makes sense. I didn't know if a hydraulic drive would handle an auger in tough crops with a lot of return flow. 

Here is another view of those Massey combines featuring the very popular Melroe pickup with rubber belts. Hydraulic drive too. Appears to be picking up flax swaths. How on earth did they put flax through that paddle feeder system without wrapping straw on every paddle?

The combine might have a regular feederhouse chain.  The paddle idea was stupid in my opinion. 

[dale560]

Neighbor used to go south and combine with masseys. Think they started with 510 and ran 850s up until the mid 90s .he combined all types of crops and I know he ran paddles. Traded the 850s for used 1688s and has ran ihs since. He did lots of acres maybe 10,000 or more a year with 2 then later 3 combines. I think the last ones he had were actually new in 1987 but had sat a while maybe made a few years earlier.

[A554]

In 1979 I worked on a farm in Manitoba on an exchange program. They had a brand new MF 750 and an older 760 combines and I recall the problems we had with crops wrapping on the paddle feeder system.

You can see in 2 of the photos the inspection/access hatch is open so that the operator can check to see if wrapping has started. We found that we had to stop as soon as we saw it starting to wrap and cut it off the paddle.

The combines are working in Birdsfoot Trefoil and it is combined at about the same stage as it would be baled for hay so it is still green and was prone to wrap.

MF had a kit that was designed to reduce wrapping and we fitted a kit to the 750. It consisted of sheet metal bolted onto the shaft/paddles to increase the "diameter" of the shaft and thus reduce wrapping. We lost a fair bit of knuckle skin but it did improve the performance but the trefoil and flax still wrapped regularly.

[Loadstar]

5 hours ago, Big Bud guy said:

The combine might have a regular feederhouse chain.  The paddle idea was stupid in my opinion. 

My MF brochures show only the paddle feed. No mention of a feeder chain option. The smaller 550 and 540 had chains. 

[Loadstar]

46 minutes ago, A554 said:

In 1979 I worked on a farm in Manitoba on an exchange program. They had a brand new MF 750 and an older 760 combines and I recall the problems we had with crops wrapping on the paddle feeder system.

You can see in 2 of the photos the inspection/access hatch is open so that the operator can check to see if wrapping has started. We found that we had to stop as soon as we saw it starting to wrap and cut it off the paddle.

The combines are working in Birdsfoot Trefoil and it is combined at about the same stage as it would be baled for hay so it is still green and was prone to wrap.

MF had a kit that was designed to reduce wrapping and we fitted a kit to the 750. It consisted of sheet metal bolted onto the shaft/paddles to increase the "diameter" of the shaft and thus reduce wrapping. We lost a fair bit of knuckle skin but it did improve the performance but the trefoil and flax still wrapped regularly.

 

 

 

 

That sounds all too similar to combining flax. Soon as a wrap starts better stop and wait to see if it will clear or else get out and start cutting with a saw. Good to hear from you and the memories of working the Masseys. I have no experience with that paddle feeder system as my 510 and 550 were all feeder chains. 

[Fred B]

i ran a very used 750 for a few years in milo the paddles worked ok, i still didn't like them,i put new rubber paddles on, i thought they were too expensive, so i had some made locally. kinda a bear installing.

[Ron Cook]

My family had the 750, several 760, and an 850.  All with paddles I believe.  I don't recall any complaints.  Corn and soybeans were the crops.  The 750 did not stay around long as the Chevy V8 did not have enough power to unload corn on the go.

Ron

 

[Delta Dirt]

I had an 1977+/- model M-F 750 with the paddles in the feeder housing-----------then a second 750 (purchased 1980+/-) with the feeder chain as a special option.

To tell you the truth------------it was about 6 is 1;  half a dozen the other.  True the paddles would tend to wrap in green morning glories (vines, etc.);------------but the chain in the big 50" feeder housing was heavy and tended to cause alot of vibration that was never felt in the paddle machine.  I do remember having the chain out of the feeder housing once or twice for repairs.

Seems like we added a second set of paddles to each shaft that helped with the wrapping situation (four paddles per shaft)???  (anyway--------did something that helped greatly).

Glad I now have certified medical records saying that I have had two strokes-----------------and can't remember all of those days!!!

 

DD

[Loadstar]

15 hours ago, Delta Dirt said:

I had an 1977+/- model M-F 750 with the paddles in the feeder housing-----------then a second 750 (purchased 1980+/-) with the feeder chain as a special option.

To tell you the truth------------it was about 6 is 1;  half a dozen the other.  True the paddles would tend to wrap in green morning glories (vines, etc.);------------but the chain in the big 50" feeder housing was heavy and tended to cause alot of vibration that was never felt in the paddle machine.  I do remember having the chain out of the feeder housing once or twice for repairs.

Seems like we added a second set of paddles to each shaft that helped with the wrapping situation (four paddles per shaft)???  (anyway--------did something that helped greatly).!

 

DD

Interesting to hear you had the feeder chain on the 750. I have not found any brochures yet that mention it. 

Here is a page showing the 550 and 540. I did not even know MF offered a 540 as they were never seen around here. Too small for most people. By that time even the 550 was considered a small combine. I think this was from a late seventies brochure. 

 

[wheatking]

them old massey threshed a pile of grain in this neck of the woods almost every second farm had one and the other half was the IH,

 

Neighbour had a 760 burn down he figured a bearing went up inside and got a little hot and there was nothing he could do it went up in smoke fast and replaced it with a 1480 pretty much all the massey combines I've seen out there has over 3500 hrs on it

[poor farmer/logger]

Still run our 850 every fall. It runs pretty faithfully too. Used to do 100-130 acres a day with it. Never managed a complete quarter though.  We've had it since 94. Had 800 hours on I think when we got it.  I can't really say a lot of bad things about it.  In heavy crops it doesn't put as much grain in the hopper as the 2188 but I think that can be said about any conventional combine.  It will combine flax beautifully when its fit. When it isn't though it wraps o everything.  One bad thing on it is the straw chopper. It doesn't cut very fine or spread very far.  It is a pain to work on too. Always something else you have to take off to get at the part you want to fix. Guess I can say a few things I don't like but overall through the years its been a good old combine for us.  Worst job by far I had to do on it was change the concaves. There's a hex shaft in there that is a real pita to get out. 

[Loadstar]

On 1/24/2017 at 5:53 PM, poor farmer/logger said:

Still run our 850 every fall. It runs pretty faithfully too.  Guess I can say a few things I don't like but overall through the years its been a good old combine for us.

They were sure popular around here in their day too. More so than IH ever was. I don't know of many still in the field at harvest time though. They'd be getting pretty old by now. 

Here is another harvest themed ad. Old binder and maybe a Fordson? tractor. The name Johnie Walker might be familiar to some. That binder is really kicking out the sheaves. 

 

[Loadstar]

Here is an ad for an oil brand I have not heard of in a long time. I recall  buying Veedol snowmobile oil for my first snowmobile way back in 1975. This ad from 1949 features a Massey Harris 44. One of the more popular tractors here (in wide front  version of course). 

 

[Loadstar]

From my 1952 Kern Farm Equipment catalogue. Here are a couple of the many interesting accessories that they sold for the farm.  My dad bought one of the Joy Rider seats for his John Deere D.

[Loadstar]

Popular tractor from Case in 1952. My dad had one for a while. I've got one out in the shed that hasn't run for years. 

[twostepn2001]

Just noticed it's been several weeks since anyone posted here. Thought I'd post a Case ad to go with the others and bump back to the front page.

[M35A2]

Was this a Case-built unit or an OEM re-badge?

[Loadstar]

7 hours ago, twostepn2001 said:

Just noticed it's been several weeks since anyone posted here. Thought I'd post a Case ad to go with the others and bump back to the front page.

 

Yes, I've been slowing down at posting ads lately. Not  that I'm running  short of ads but not sure if there is much interest in them anymore. 

I've never seen a Case cotton  picker ad and can't even  see  a name on  that one.Definitely a Case tractor. I'll have to look through my 30 series brochure to see if they show one. 

Here is a 30 series Case ad showing the new  improvements in the 7 and 830 models. I did not get the date bult guessing earlly 1960s, possibly 1965. 

[Sledgehammer]

14 minutes ago, Loadstar said:

Yes, I've been slowing down at posting ads lately. Not  that I'm running  short of ads but not sure if there is much interest in them anymore. 

I don't have any sort of add collection but I can tell you I do always enjoy looking at this when a new one is posted. 

[new guy]

Keep em coming!

[twostepn2001]

About the 221 cotton stripper, I wouldn't swear to it being a Case. Looks like halfway up on the elevator there is a decal that LOOKS like Case....?

There are a few of these Hesston's sitting around in the weeds. They were pretty popular when they first came out back in the late 60's-early 70's.

[Fred B]

you don't see too many of those rickers he's dumping into (the yellow cage). they didn't necessarily  pack the cotton, you just keep pulling it forward. it made one long stack of seed cotton. had to come back later with a front  end loader, with suitable clamping device to load the seed cotton on a trailer for transport to gin. the ricker came out in late 60's, a short time later the module builder appeared, and the ricker was history.

[TroyDairy]

Really enjoy the ads!

[Loadstar]

Well I am learning a little more about cotton farming from the last few posts. Have to say that Hesston rig looks like something you would not install in less than a day. Would probably be on there for the life of the tractor. 

I checked my two early sixties Case brochures and could find no mention or photo of any cotton harvesting equipment.  Plenty of corn but no cotton. I did find a lot of potential good vintage ads to post here when I get around to it. I always liked this Case-o-matic ad from 1958. 

 

[twostepn2001]

Fred B, you're right about that being a ricker instead of a module builder. Lot of the time, they also had a "tamper", a hydraulic contraption that mounted on the side of a tractor and went inside the ricker to tamp the cotton tight.

   Loadstar, once they got a lot of the brackets mounted on the tractor they could leave on and it not interfere with using it for other things. The biggest problem with a basket stripper is having a overhead hoist tall enough mount or remove the basket. Some farmers built their own, but most gins built a hoist that their customers could use. But usually two men could install or uninstall a stripper in half a day or less.

  Here is a another pic of a earlier model Hesston stripper. It dumped from the front instead of the side. It didn't go over too well because once you raised the basket you couldn't pull forward or back to help spread the cotton in the trailer or module builder.