Combines JD 3300

I have a 3300 that I use strictly for play...because that is all it is good for. It scoots along fine with a 3 row cornhead. If the corn is wetter than 16% or so it will work the combine harder than if it is drier. The 3300 is underpowered really. I grew up on a 3300 that my grandfather bought new in "72 and still has. 13 foot platform is all it will handle...tough going if the beans are weedy tho. I SPEAK FROM EXPERIENCE...this cobine is for hobby only. I would suggest a 4400 DIESEl not gas...it will kill you in gasoline. The green gas engines love their fuel! Make sure you get a later model combine with the rotary screen to keep the radiator cleaner...otherwise with the old flat screen as I have, the fins will clog in the radiator and cause the engine to run hot. All this will happen before lunchtime. Figure on 1 acre per hour with a 3 row cornhead...first gear is what you will work in. Ask any jockey.....these combines are not bringing hardly any money. Especially if it is a flat screen gas. I will say tho that my 3300 cost me 550 dollars and I have put no money in it other than general maintenance and a couple of bearings. I pick 50 acres with my machine and you could do 90 acres...but it would take alittle while. You also need to check the sheet metal...has the machine sat outIJ...30 years of time causes the metal to get thin in spots. I have gotten alot of enjoyment out of mine....and it is a well built machine for its size. bottom line: look for something alittle bigger...like a 4400, lots of them around. get one with a rotary screen to keep the radiator a bit cleaner. make sure it is a diesel....gas models will kill you have your crop custom harvested...$20.00 per acre around here gets you custom harvesting and hauling to the local elevator. see my posts in the forum from a couple of days ago.

Years ago when my father purchased 80 acres he was considering buying a 3300. This was in the late 70's when a 3300 was not even that old of a machine. The advice from the old timers then was to wait and get a real machine, meaning a 4400. Some went as far to say that a 3300 would do little more than the 45 he already had. Not getting the 3300 was one of the best decisions he made. We have a 4400 diesel. I will say that it will be difficult even finding a good 4400 at this stage in the game.

They were available as a production combine. See a few of around here, not very many though. Comprable to a MF 300 or a Gleaner K I would guess. Don't look like much of a machine. I guess if you were doing just test plots it would work though. YoungFeller

They were built from 1970 untill either '75 or '76. This replaced JD's model 55 combine which untill the mid to late 1960's when the model 95 and 105 were introduced was JD's "big" machine.

We saw one in Minnesota on a JD dealer's lot going home from a family reunion. Being from the big wheat farms out west we decided we had to get one. The dealerships in my area didn't even know JD made a 3300. We called the dealer on the one in Minnesota but it was sold to an University for a plot machine. We found one in Iowa with a 343 corn head and brought it home. Now we use it to show off to the nieghbors because they have never seen a combine this small. I can't see how anybody can get anything done with a 3300.

Have to remember that in this era, the 60's; crops were thinner and farms were smaller than now. Boom in 70's put an end to these size operations.

We still provide parts for a number of 3300 machines. last one was a couple months ago and the operator is located in Muhlenberg Co. KY. Operators in hilly areas keep them around to harvest smaller acreages where a larger machine won't fit the terrain. The characteristic which makes them a good plot machine is that they feed in a very even patttern across the threshing area and the spread is consistent across the shoe and straw walkers, as well, even on normal hillsides.

Very true. Its just that it took as over a day to harvest 30 acres of 60 bpa Montana corn. I can't imagine how it would be in 150 bpa real corn.

I work at a dealership in Nebraska and we have a few here for test plots. If fact we installed an AG-leader set-up in one a few years ago for a seed company. We figured the Ag-leader cost about double what the combine was worth but the seed company was very happy with it.

nascarfarmer,