Combines How long should you keep a combineIJ

Well, in your case, 7720 values have fallen off the end of the earth in the last couple years. It used to be, in the summer of 1998, 7720 TII combines would bring $25000 in poor condition, but now, nice ones wont bring anything more than 30000, and average ones struggle to stay above $15000. Titan 1s dont bring more than $12000 unless it is a particularly good combine, which it sounds like yours might be. However, even if your combine is worth, lets say, $15000, in another 1000 hours, it wont be worth much more than $8000. To a dealer, that combine isnt worth more than $8000 right now! My suggestion, run the wheels off of it and by the time you do, you should be able to buy a 9500 for less than $20,000. In the event that something major breaks on your 7720 (engine failure, major walker damage, hydro goes out),you may just want to throw in the towel and trade at that time, because throwing $10,000 in a motor job wouldnt make the value increase by $10,000. like I said, by the time that combine dies, 9500s will be CHEAP. Keep on trucking, because those 7720s are darn good combines. My 2cents, feel free to disagree.

Trade as soon as you tear a hole through the plastic covering on the seat! Just joking! I would say for us about every five seasons which would be pretty close to every 1500 hours. The last machine we purchased a few years ago was an '82 8820 with 2290 hours and in a few years, when we get about 1500 more hours on it, we will trade it for a 9600 hopefully. Right now we are looking to sell our other combine a 7720 and upgrade to a TII 8820 or a earlier model 9600.

Run her into the ground and park her in the field when the field gets green no one will see it,it's an old trick I saw our neighbors do. Come to think of it I saw one setting on a rock pile near Hazalton,ND not long ago.

I would keep on running that 7720. It is worth more to you than it is to someone else, because nobody is going to give you what it is worth. You say it is in excellent condition, so it is probably better than most of the later model stuff you will find used. I have been looking around, and a lot of these shiny late model used combines on dealer lots have been ragged by guys who knew they were not going to keep the thing long enough for it to fly all to pieces so they didn't half bother to maintain it. If you can see beyond the shiny green paint they usually have some problems. I have a 4400 with about 3,000 hrs on it that we bought new in 1979, and I have yet to find a later model used machine that is in as good of condition as mine. I would like to have a bigger combine, but I am not about give away my machine that I have kept in excellent condition, and buy one that someone else has ragged just because it is newer and bigger. I would rather just harvest slower, and take a few days longer to finish.

In Central Indiana, there are more combines than active farmers, so the market value on yours would not be very good. That 7720 is a strong machine. You should beable to get 5,000 hours out of it easily.

A farmer I know just west of Indianapolis quit farming over the winter. His 1978 immaculate 4400 diesel with 3,000 hours (engine almost brand new) sold for $2,500. The 4 row cornhead and the 15 foot grain table sold for $500 each. His 6600 sold for $5,000. The 6 row cornhead sold for $1,500.

RED!!!!!! Good to hear from you again, what has been going on in IndyIJ Take Care, 95man

Not much. I am in the process of trading the 4400 for a 1942 Farmall H. We drove the 4400 25 miles last Saturday to it's new home, Groveland, IN, which is west of Indy. THE MOTORISTS WERE RUDE AND ANGRY. We couldn't use 4th. gear because the belts were too loose. So we limped along at 7 mph in 3rd. The first 10 miles was western Indy suburbs with a lot of traffic. That 292 gas engine ran strong all the way. The gent, John Nichols, (he reads this board and will have questions) has access to two parts 4400s. He can get it field ready far cheaper than me messing with it. He has rebuilt a Gleaner A2 that was in much worse shape than this 4400. Hopefully he will be running it this fall. Thanks for asking!

I'm in the same situation. I have a nice 7720 (1981 model _ 4200 hours). Its worth maybe 10K. The way I look at it, the cost to run a 9600 is approx $80-$120 per hour. For every hour my 7720 runs, I figure that its 30 - 45 mnutes that my 9600 won't have to. So it should last longer for meIJ If I have a major break, I will just park it and part it outIJ Fortunatly, I have a person to run it.

Yeah you can't hardly give a 4400, or a 6600 away around here. The dealer told me a while back that he would give me $3,500 on trade for my machine if I bought a used 9400 he had. The only reason he was going to give me that much for it was because he knew some peanut farmers who were looking for a 4400 or 4420 to pick a few acres of corn. One of my neighbors is retiring, and he has a 73 4400 that is in nice shape, If I can buy it from him pretty cheap I am going to put one of the kids that works for me that machine picking corn so I can get done faster. I don't know whether I trust that kid to combine beans though.