453hs
Hey Jeff, boy it has been a long time since you guys were in the Shandon area, 1978(the year of ditches) as I recall, cutting on the Cammati Ranch for Kent Hansen. I don't know if you remember me or not, I had the 453 that was working with Kent's two John Deeres, We finished up the last field with your 5 or so machines and there was 3 of us, it sure did cut down fast. It is good to know you are still going. Tad Wicks

"453hs" wrote:

my brother and myself dryfarm here in calif. i have been following these posts and really enjoy them. we have used crawlers to farm with for years.i grew up on a hd 9 and a hd5, started harvesting on a 151 hillside. in the early 90s we bought a pair of hd15s then in 2004 we bought a pair of ag6 cats we really like them a lot . we rent a ranch up by antioch ca. that has some steep hills and they are just the ticket.we pull 24 ft towner discs with them. we still have a couple of 453 hillsides but they are pretty tired. we custom harvest with 2 8010 combines with 36ft macdons. i take the combines back east every year to oklahoma and do the midwest run finishing in driggs idaho about middle of sept. them come home and do rice and corn till nov. the havesting is fun but i like the farming more. our one place in hickman is rented out to almonds but we do get to dry farm in antioch although its an 1 and half hour commute. we just bought a d5 in oregon last week looks alot like the one 98j has. our web site has some pictures of the hillsides at work back in the 70s. barnesharvesting.com our ag6s have the update on the shift lever one lever but only 5 speeds. mine has 1thru 5 my brothers has 2thru 6 we have looked at the linkage but cant figure how they're different. well enuff rambling sure enjoy the pics of the northwest though. thanks jeff barnes

Hey there 453! Do you ever cross paths with Frederick Harvesting when you
are back east?? Our son Brad ran combine for them for 4 years.

Your Mac Don's......are they the 36 flex draper?? If so, have you ever had any problems with the reel hitting the grain divider when the ends flex up??



They had to do a major re-vamp on the platform on the one at SRS Ranches:



They really do hog the wheat in though, don't they??



Where did you pick up the D5 from??

Nice website, 453hs, enjoyed seeing the progression of equipment and reading about what you do. Is that a fuel hauler in front of the Gleaners?

453hs- nice website, would be nice to see some pics of those ag6s or other crawlers at work if you get a chance. Just wondering... I take it you get your own harvest done there in CA and then go on the custom harvest run? Down around Driggs is fairly nice country, about the only part of southern Idaho I like.



Does anyone know what years the AG6 cats were built? Seems like they were making the D5Bs and D6Ds up until 1984 or so and they started the challengers in 1987?

gary good to see you here. our area sure has changed thats for sure i miss the beans but not moving that pipe. you and your dad were the benchmark for blackeye farming back then. it made for a nice rotation with the grain but its hard to compete with almonds.
tad of course i remember you. that was a big crop that year kind of fun too when we finished up that last day. i know i was envious because you had a cab. sounds like youve taken good care of your 453 i like to see a picture of those big tires on the rear end. and i remember you talking about your walker blocks, do you have the original walker shafts in that machine?
98j our drapers our 973 non flex but yes the reel ends were hitting we found our problem was in the center reel arm. those two bolts where the center arm pivots are slotted. thats where end clearence is adjusted from. i ruined a set of end sheets before i figured it out . i dont know if that would apply to a 974 though. the d5 came from a farmer south of arlington, seen in the capital press. we are going use it to pull our 620 press drills right now i have 2 14 ft hope to get a 3rd drill going will the d5 have enough to pull 42' it is turboed?
bleedin red if i am looking at the picture of the n6s the first thing was a bankout then a van we kept parts in it took a lot to keep a n6 in the cut.

northern idaho thank you our ag6s are only 4 serial numbers apart my brothers is an 87 mine is a 90. they were both from the rice country north of sacramento. we had heard the reliabilty problems but they were painted up nice and holt had put alot of money into both tractors so we bit. no regrets. i would rather have the frictions in the center but im use to it now . it is a pain to load on the low boy because you have to reach over with your right hand to steer when feathering the clutch with the left hand but its doable. we have a r72 my brother does our calif work with.i try to get out to ok. by the may 20 or so. in years past we would get pounded by rain in ok. and he would be kicking my you know what with one machine in calif. i think he enjoys that.i had a girl from genese work for me for two years she was good help too.
98j ive heard of fredricks but cant say ive seen them and yes the 8010s are hogs

"453hs" wrote:

gary good to see you here. our area sure has changed thats for sure i miss the beans but not moving that pipe. you and your dad were the benchmark for blackeye farming back then. it made for a nice rotation with the grain but its hard to compete with almonds.
tad of course i remember you. that was a big crop that year kind of fun too when we finished up that last day. i know i was envious because you had a cab. sounds like youve taken good care of your 453 i like to see a picture of those big tires on the rear end. and i remember you talking about your walker blocks, do you have the original walker shafts in that machine?
98j our drapers our 973 non flex but yes the reel ends were hitting we found our problem was in the center reel arm. those two bolts where the center arm pivots are slotted. thats where end clearence is adjusted from. i ruined a set of end sheets before i figured it out . i dont know if that would apply to a 974 though. the d5 came from a farmer south of arlington, seen in the capital press. we are going use it to pull our 620 press drills right now i have 2 14 ft hope to get a 3rd drill going will the d5 have enough to pull 42' it is turboed?
bleedin red if i am looking at the picture of the n6s the first thing was a bankout then a van we kept parts in it took a lot to keep a n6 in the cut.

Hey 453: Not familiar with 620 press drills, so I am a little in the dark here.
But I can't imagine that they would be much more of a load than my HZ
split press deep furrows:



This hitch has 4 units as you can see for a working width of 32 feet. Back
when they were more common around here, there were 5 & 6 unit hitches.



I'll bet that you will have plenty of power to pull 42'......how fast do you
travel with the 620's



The HZ's don't do very well on really steep stuff, so I laid off this ridge &
used the JD Model "B" drills.......used to get a lot of red light on this one
in the old 95-H:



As per the 2062 Flex Draper.....a really good platform, but you would think
for the 50 large price tag it would be ready to go from the factory. The IH
dealer was in the dark too. They had another one on a rental 8010 & it had
a real train wreak. Mac Don was zero help. They had the attitude that 'hey
we are Mac Don. We don't have to care' Started to go bad during the 1st
season (05) Our ace foreman is a combine wizard, and he poked all around
the center reel arm & couldn't get any adjustment out of it. Finally had to
lock out the upward flex to finish up in 06. He wasn't about to go through
another season fighting with it, so he came up with his own fix...shortened
the reel bats. Pretty straight forward on the left end. The right end ( the driven end) was another story. Turned out good however; made enough
clearance to put a stop to the problem. We never could understand way it
was built so close in the first place.

When it's up and running right, it really hogs in the wheat. Gets to the separator pretty much all head first which really helps on the capacity;



Check out the multi-tasking here....one hand on the hydro of coarse. The
other is looped over the wheel......answering a call on the FM band. Someone
was calling on the CB & his cell was going off. No rest for the wicked.

98J- just curious since I have never been around them so what is the reason the hz drills dont do well on the steep ground?

BTW I really like that last shot of your D5 and the model B drills.

Non-existant user wrote:

98J- just curious since I have never been around them so what is the reason the hz drills dont do well on the steep ground?

BTW I really like that last shot of your D5 and the model B drills.

The HZ's don't do very well on the really steep stuff; the soil falls into the furrows & buries the seed too deep. So.....I laid off a couple of steep slopes
and seeded them with the 'B's' with the dusting bands on. Can't beat steel tracks on fallowed ground seeding BTW......hardly leaves a track. This is a
fun hitch on the 'B's'. The tongues on the outboard drills were shortened WAY
up. Almost like one 30 foot drill.......makes filling a snap. A different angle on one of the steeper spots;



A peek from inside the cab............



A little touch up with the 'B's' late in the season;

Hi 98J

One of our locals was having the same problems with his press wheel drills. I think he had 56' that he pulled with a TD25. These were combo grain and dry fertilizer with the boxes extended 12" to 18". Any way to keep the press wheels from discing, he built a swinging hitch that was controlled with a double action ram that he could control from the tractor seat. He could keep the drills perpendicular to the fall line even on the steepest hills. I wish I had pictures but that equipment stopped being used with the advent of CRP about 1986.

Casey