We've been busy harvesting and am now checking back in. As far as we are concerned in this area, the best thing that ever happened was to get dual tractor tires on the combine whether equipped with leveling or not to get around the hillsides. They are far superior to the diamond treads on the hillside machines. Do you know what it is like to slide sideways for 10 feet or 200 feetIJ It gets your attention when it stops and you feel the machine sway. Whether it was an MH, MH2 or MH3 we always put log skidder chains on for the steepest terrain. Never had any problem with the duals. Had a buddy making fun of my chains on an MH2 as he rode with me across a hill harvesting bluegrass. I told him we wouldn't be on the hill without them because I tried it once. I had him climb off with his roper boots on and when he hit the ground he disappeared as he slid under the combine. That shut him up. Combines do roll and operators killed so hillsides are taken seriously. I am pretty confident that the duals will hold the hills, although there is always a chance of mechanical failure. Have been in a few situations. Main thing is to be alert, take your time, and know your machine. We have an MH3, R52, and an R72 and not taking capacity into consideration, the R52 toys with the hills that the R72 struggles with. It is just a little smaller that it improves its handling quite a bit. But with the narrow shoe, it seriously loses capacity. It is a great pea machine though. On your ejection toilet seat, if the machine is rolling over would you want to be shot into the ground or should you be flushed so when the machine is upside down you would come out the bottom and end up on topIJ Something to think about. By the way I have climbed up on an abandoned green pea combine that had lost its leveling to try to save it as it was still trying go forward and the wheel was bouncing up and down off the ground. I got it stopped and it decided to roll anyway and I got to jump off and have a close view of what happens. It still sticks in my mind today, although it happened over 20 years ago. Makes you think on the hillsides.
