Combines 1620 advice

I wouldn't touch a 1620. The 1420 and 1620 are really orphans as they have only a 20 inch rotor and are limited to a 15 foot head in wheat and even then it is slow. A few parts are the same as a 1640 but there are a lot of unique parts and most dealers don't stock them. Ask Becker's in lucknow about them. He never sold any as most people preferred the 1640 and 1660. I personally like my 1660 as it is able to take the 17.5 foot head at 3 mph in wheat. The other part is the 1620 is usually pricey. There are lots of Navistar equipped 1660's that are getting cheap. Even Cummins equipped ones aren't that dear any more. There are some of them around for sale in this area

Thanks, George, the farmer is asking $45,000 with all heads, 12 years old. I know Chuck Becker, he is 8 miles from here and just got a 4WD 1640 in the yard; havn't looked at it yet, It's a bit bigger than I need, I just felt the 1620 was cheaper than a 6620 JD of the same condition and probably a bit better machine than an M3 Gleaner of similar capacity. Having a look at it tomorrow, got an axial flow checklist from a fellow on line that looks very helpful. Ben.

There is a real nice 1660 at Huron Tractor in Exeter. It is Alma Villa's (at Clinton) old combine but it doesn;t have a chopper. I suspect it can be bought right and Becker could get a brand new Case Ih chopper put in. I put a new chopper in a 1460 a number of years ago and they cost about $7000 to put in. Bryan's Farm supply have an early 1660 at a very attractive price. On it you need to check if it has a chopper, feed reverser, and specialty rotor

Well, we looked at the 1620 today--it is near Mitchell too,Brodale, had a real good 16' flex, but the rest of the combine was not in the same condition. Snouts on the corn head had suffered considerable in last year's downed corn, and there was a fair amount of black oil leaking from the exhaust pipe_manifold connection in just 5 minutes running--bad rings or valve guides_sealsIJ-- had IH engine, and mice had done considerable damage to the cab interior.Otherwise, it ran very smooth, and was cleaned up, oiled, few smalldents---but on the way home, stopped in a Hackett's in lucknow Agco dealer at one time-just got in an M3 from Iowa with 800 hour--looked like brand new- for about the same money. So, its back to the Gleaner site for advice. Thanks all. Ben (Hi Dave)

I also came from a Gleaner background (K-2) and went to red. looked at 1620 and realized it was too small. Ended up with a nice 1440 .... 15' GH and 6 row corn head. Although I have put about $6,000 in the machine in four years, much was "mid life" (2,500 hrs) normal maintenance.