Finished wheat last day of June. 4400 acres with 3 JD rotarys. Little rain since.

Darrol D8H, It is great to be done, when did you start, what kind of yield and how did you manage to dodge all the rain? Three big JD's should knock it out in a hurry:lol: Tad

Tad, Started the 12 of June, lost 2 days to rain and had smooth sai ling since. Yields were in the middle fourtys. Was better than we expected. Have not much rain since.
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I have been doing a bit of harvesting myself. Here is the old 453 IH I bought when I was 19, that was 35 years ago, a year old then, and still has the original engine, I don't know how many hours now, it hasn't been used much since CRP came out in "85" but I try to run it every year if I can. It's pretty tried now. For Jeff, there is a picture of the wide rear axle and bigger tires that you wanted, if one looks at the grain in the far background in the center pic, below Castle Peak, that is White Ranch, I believe there was a picture on here of an CAT 8L pulling a Yielder no till drill, that field and the summer fallow next to it is where it was used. My crops are not very good here this year, everything grew but what was supposed to, like the old timers always said about Shandon, " this is the best next year country there is"
Anyway the old combine still makes it's way around, it is at the stops on the leveler, it gets a lot steeper over the hill in the Barley. It is not to hard to tell where the crows made their nest, I haven't got to a spigot yet. Tad

This thread has some talented photographers who double as farmers! Tad you should post the 453 pictures on Red Power too.

Great pictures, I wish I had some pictures of my old Super 92 before it went for scrap.

We just cut hay on the coast last week.

Are you saying that you can "make" Black Walnuts become English Walnuts?
"newly planted potted black walnuts that are now in the process of being "June budded" to English"
Can you briefly explain how?
Thanks,
drujinin

Tad, the old girl looks like she still has some kick to her and will get the job done. Lucky you don't have the gas version--exhaust horizontal out the back right in your face, didn't take long to elbow that up. I lost steering gear on a hillside leveled all the way over, made for a nice ride. Neighbor lost his moving down the road, lived to tell about it. Be sure to check your frame bolts sometime!

Swathing grass seed and an out of control 1st cutting alfalfa crop right now. Stretched some plants upwards the other day that came up to my shoulder top! Weather is hot and good haying forecast for the next few days. By the way, nice millwork on that TA sleeve--wish I had the knowledge and equipment to do that.

Iron Appraiser, Posting the pictures on Red Power is a great idea, I might do just that, I finally got posting privileges over there, it took a bit of perseverance to get it done. You are right about the pictures posted by NIF, 98J and all the others, it is great to see how it is done elsewhere, same equipment but worlds apart.

8C 361, Great videos, I don't think I have seen a side knife on a Cat before, what kind of oats? What do you bale with? One of the first combines I ran was a Massey Harris 90 hillside.

Bleedinred, So far I have been very lucky with these machines, the one major mishap I have had was I broke a drive line u-joint on a 403 coming off steep hill, boy was that a ride, the Left hand brake works great and the Right hand brake is almost non-existent (I think every 403-453 was the same way) I can tell you I was making little volcanoes in the seat upholstery for what seemed like an eternity (pucker factor was off the scale), fortunately I found a place to land it with no damage done other than my faith in a piece of iron. It is unbelievable just how fast those things can get going in a short period of time. I also broke a main drive axle on my 453 once, of course it was on a steep down and it started to take off but the tire and axle came out of the final and the machine went to the ground and stopped it, but that is not say the tire stopped, oooooohhhhhhh no no no, it went clear over the header, didn't hurt the reel but it did bend the auger drive shaft shield a bit and rolled and bounced down the hill, faster than a speeding bullet, between the grain trailers, service trucks and vehicles, jumped a barbed wire fence and stopped dead on the other side, didn't hurt a thing. Soon after that, IH came out with a replacement axle, they knew they had done something wrong in the manufacture. The real pleasure was trying to jack up the combine, R&R the final drive and handle a tire that outweighs you by about what seems to be a factor of 10 on a hillside that you could barely stand up on (I am sure all you hillside guys have been there, tires never seem to go flat on the easy stuff), fortunately the grower had an HD 15 so we buried the blade in the ground and with chains and binders secured the machine from falling off the the hillside, kinda humorous now, not then. Thanks for the compliment on the TA sleeve, I have not installed it yet, it should work. This is what I like to do in my spare time, the second thread is rather long, but there are pictures all the way through. Tad


www.smokstak.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55632

www.smokstak.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56956

Yeah, gravity takes over quickly. A few years ago a bank out cart wheel broke off the studs and flopped down the hill side. Driver was going at a pretty good clip and when the axle hit the dirt it left a trench like a meteor had just hit. Of course it was the downhill wheel and the only way to unload was to back a truck underneath and dump it real slow. I happen to be closest to a truck so I experienced the pucker factor that day. We unload almost always on the go and often on hillsides way too steep to feel comfortable, kinda like pouring wine from two feet above the glass...

Regarding your engines and combine project, you, my man, are an artist!!