I know where you are coming from. We ran a couple Gleaner F's and I could do as good as job as the newest combine on the market. But no matter how fast you pushed it you still had a limit before throwing the crop over the sieves and not doing a nice job. My dad loves the F's. The F is comparable to the JD 95. We updated them and keep them in tip top, even though it adds up sometimes and it seems like they are nickel and diming you to death, especially when you have to get new walker crankshafts and such. But if you figure how many acres and hours it took to wear them out it would work out. Still though it seems like the next guy is getting more done quicker. Thanks to me begging with my dad, we recently got a used Case Axial Flow though and there is no comparison. It's alot better on your health (less noise, hardly any dust, easier controls, and A_C!!!) My dad agreed with you but now that we have used this machine I think he would rethink that! This new one doesn't have unecessary gizzmo's and gadgets, just the ones needed. Plus you can get any parts for it and the newest updates and no matter how much you update an F it's not going to increase the capacity that much. They aren't worth a lot though and my dad wants to keep them but I think he should sell at least one to give us more room. I think these old machines were the best in their day and today there are machines that have everything short of a coffee maker in them that is just plain nonsense. I do believe that everyone has to look at their operation to decide on what to do and I think that updating (at least to 89') for us, was the right move!
