Combines tip for all mf owners

The 860 massey was 1 of the best combine made we ran one against our cousins deere 8820 the deere might have went a little faster but it sure didnt do as good of job especially in barley downtime was about the same

I started out on an 82 Massey Harris with a water pan in the top of the cab and a blower motor that blew the moisture on your face for some sort of cooler temp when cutting wheat. Each night you could take the paint scraper and literally peel a layer of grime off your face. But I have to agree. That was not that bad of a little combine and it served us well and we still have it with a pickup head on it now to be used for harvesting alfalfa seed. When we bought the 410 with the straight 6 gas chevy engine is when we started noticing the downside to massey as well. One thing that can never be argued though is you could buy a comparable massey to any other color for a fraction of the price and they weren't as crude as say a belarus Don 1500 by any means. I've argued for years and hold still to my belief that masseys biggest fault was thier darn poor quality control. They were building and selling combines so darn fast they didn't care and the daily bugs to be fixed in the field that took alot of time from engineer stupidity design of placement of things hurt. When we got rid of that 410 (with that big barn door on the cab) and traded for the 750 we thought we had the world by the horns. Again, endless repairs. First year alone after harvest the machine went back in and they literally had to put in half the bolts in the machine to hold it together. Whether they fell out or were just never there I don't know. Something that if they had quality control would of solved. I graduated from the 82 into a 6620. I ran it for 10 years and then I traded it for the current 9600 I run now. I see things on that maximizer deere copied from massey and improved on. While massey was crude on some of the developments of the machine I think, they still did a fair job (750 gray cab I'm thinking of writing this) of making the machine look and feel somewhat modern for the time. But, I do have to say, I would take a reverser any day over a High inert cylinder. Plus, a perkins diesel is the lowest power plant on the totem pole in my books. I spose all in all a guy shouldn't gripe. We ran the MH_MF insignia for 30+ years and are still in business of farming. They definitely helped us get where we are. That and a determined father that is tight with his money......*grin* Don't care what color you run. They all have thier quirks and problems as some know. Just to me, seemed like the masseys we owned sure wanted to have more than thier fair share.

Over in these parts we all know why Deere combines are green,so that they can hide in the ditch and watch a real combine at work.Nobody really buys green on purpose around here.

I agree. There downfall was quality control. Our 760 was a grey cab and it would eat grain like you wouldn't believe when it was running.

Your reference to what "MF" stands for implies that combines are males. I've always thought of them as females because they're so complex etc. The secret is to pay close attention to them, listen to their every whisper before it becomes a scream, go over them carefully and lovingly on a regular basis, etc. etc. Whatever you do, don't ignore them or you'll be in the dog house. To me, something simple like a plow is male. P.S. Is this conversation starting to sound like the new Red Green ShowIJ MF vs JDIJ

Hey Cookie, if you are close to south Kansas, would you be interested in selling the old 90IJ I would love to find a running or restorable 90. The Model 90 was the very first combine I ever rode or had anything to do with for some time and I have many good memories of them as a child.

I'm a long way from Kansas - just north of Toronto Canada. Unfortunately my old 1956 80SP special is no longer in working condition. I gave up on it once I got my MF750 going, and sold the motor out of it. So now I have two 80SP parts machines, as well as new and unused traction belts etc. Doesn't seem to be interest in them in these parts so they'll be heading out for scrap soon.

Well, before you just scrap them, you may want to contact the Massey collectors club in Iowa. They have a lot of members in Canada as well as the US. It's called Wild Harvest, but I don't know if they have a website or not. I thought in your first post, you mentioned a 90 Special. The one I rode on, was a 1954 model, which was the second year they were made. Still try to contact the Wild Harvest club. Once the old Masseys are gone.....they are gone forever!