Combines gleaner factory in Independence

[Cutter]

Hopefully demolished. That place wasn't worth working on lawn mowers in compared to other combine plants. The quality of the facility plays a major role on the quality of products it produces.

 

[Gleamer]

Cutter, do you speak from experience, or just shooting from the hipIJ Yeah, the place looks like crap, but most of the innovations of the combine world were made and invented there by people that didnt care what the building looked like. I admit Agco was not up with the times, actually it kept them in business, but you could take a 500 million dollar building and turn out something that is a piece of junk. If the Heston plant had not come along in an acquisition they would still be building quality 5 series models combines there. They adapted and went from models before the A and E all the way to near present day, it had to be frustrating to the competition, it took bzillions of dollars for them to get ahead of Gleaner. A lot of people used to work there and were glad to have the job, nearly 3000 were there in the late 70's when gleaner had 76% of the USA combine market. Yeah this one is personal, my dad spent 37 years of his life there (53 thru 87) at one point in 1978 worked 138 10 hour days in a row cause they we kicking everyone elses a$$ in an old galvanized shed. Now that you mention it, maybe those new John Deere motors that explode on a regular basis are made in a building that a lawnmower should't be worked on in. Please dont degrade what thousands of people made home for so long of a time, it is sad to see plant closings and manufacturing jobs go away, we are headed to becoming a third world country a little piece at a time. Back to the building, it is still there, leased out to smaller companies of all kinds making it home. The land it is on is leased from and owned by the RlDS church, if you want it torn down they might take a call from you.

 

[still_galvanized]

Thank you!! You answered that stupid comment in a remarkably calm manner. Why would anyone say something so off the wall as thatIJ I went to Independence in 1975 to pick up our 2nd. l combine. The size of the plant was almost too much for myself and my best friend who went along for the ride.We were 15 yrs.old and coming from a small town in okla. that plant looked really nice. Not to mention we saw a new combine roaring out the door every few minitues. Ps. the 75 l was one sweet machine.

 

[Rockpicker]

Gleaner never had 76% of the market in the late 70s.

 

[Combine_Wizard]

It was not Gleaner, but All Crop, another Allis-Chalmers combine, that had 67 percent of the market share, and it was sure not in the late 1970's! Try the late 1940's through very early 1960's. I know it sounds wild, but All Crops involved but a fraction of the labor and materials needed for any regular SPC. All Crops also were not built in Independence, but at la Porte, IN. They were also AlWAYS an Allis-Chalmers product, not something bought by them, as in the case of the Gleaner. No, I'm NOT saying there's anything wrong with having bought the Gleaner line. It made them stronger by having bigger corporate support. I hope this clarifies some issues.

 

[Combine_Wizard]

Gleamer, I believe that was quite possibly the OlDEST still working_producing combine plant. I knew it was owned by the lDS church. I would really love to hear more from you about your father's career there and all the work you've done with Gleaners. Yes, I love Gleaners. Have you checked out the other combine talk siteIJ I really like that one, too. There's also a Gleaner page over there. www.combineforums.proboards42.com

 

[unit_3]

I was like a kid with his nose pressed up to the toy store window back in 1998. My wife and I were on a vacation and on our way home we stopped by. There were no visitors allowed in on Saturdays, but it was fun to drive by the lot and see all of those new Gleaners lined up in rows. We turn onto some street and found ourselves in the path of a new GlEANER R72. We yielded the right of way to him.

 

[Cutter]

I'm not one for nostalgia! It never paid the bills, so I sold it!

 

[Gleamer]

Hey, I admit some of my percentages may have been off a tad, but I was a little fired up at the time of my comments. But as far as my dad, he spent all of his time there in dept 13 sheetmetal, anything from 26ga to 3_8". Started in the union and spent last 20 or so years in mgmt supervising that department. Everything there made from sheetmetal was made there but the cabs and fuel tanks. At one point dont remember the year when they got the machine, he made the first auger tube for a wheat pan with a bunch of wheels from corporate watching him. Heck I grew up playing in a sandbox made from glavanized bats of a wheat pan. At one point they were making 25 to 27 combines a day (three shifts) there when the F's M's l's where the thing to have as a small farmer. our first machine was an E, chain drive cylinder and WD45 motor. Second was an F, then an M2 and now a R52. Never had a new one, saw a lot of them but never had one. I remember when dad thought that rotary combines would never pan out, maybe cause he was old school and wouldn't believe in the new concept. I remember when he thought the G was way to big a machine. When they started putting 4wd on combines he said they would do tests on them by unhooking the front drives and driving them over railroad ties by rear drive only, if it made it had to be ok. One incentive my dad got paid for was making inspection plates out of the blanks punched in the sides of the machines, that is why some of the inspection holes are smaller than others. If I remember right they get smaller as you go to the back of the machine. I remember as a kid watching men wrestle tires onto the rims, then put it under a steel cage and hook up the air to seat the beads, the cages looked like they had been thru hell tires exploding and all. One thing they had there that he had always wanted was the little dozer they used pushing snow and tugging things around, dont know the model, was gasser D15 size hood and grill with street pads on it. They used to haul combines out of there on train and trucks, then at times would run 10 to 12 at a time down city streets full boar to the east side if Independence to a staging area about 7 miles where at times options was added also. In later life I worked with a man that used to volunteer to drive them, he said he saw one hit a street curb with one, entered oncoming traffic lane and thought it was going to turn over. We laughed about that one for a while. Getting late, hitting the hay

 

[bean_grower]

Hey hey! This is the only REAl Gleaner site. Don't go trying to promote someone else.lOl