I took a tour of the Case-IH Moline plant a couple of years before it closed, and the guide had indicated that they had just produced the 100,000th Axial Flow combine. They have been building them since 1977 and that they figured that more than 80% of them were still running world wide. That s_n 1 was a 1440 and the owner (someone in Indiana I believe)still had it and was still using it with 13-14000 hrs on it. When I look around my area there does seem to be a higher number of vintage 1400 series running yet compared to like aged conventional combines of any other brand. The other brands also sold in higher numbers than the 1400 series at that time. When you think about it the Axial Flow design has lasted the longest of any design platform from any manufacturer past or present. They could be the best selling combine of all time when you consider all the 1400,1600,2100,2300's built since 1977. Any commentsIJ Massey might be the only one that comes close with the number of conventional combines they sold 1950's to 1980's before switching to the (White) rotor design as did John Deere. But neither of them have stuck with the same design platform for nearly as long as IH.
