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ontario | I always hear of how popular they used to be and alot of people had them. Now there isnt many around and people usually talk negative about them. Does anyone here still buy and run Massey? I personally had a Massey 165 but just sold it in the fall. I have always steered away from 550-850 combines. |
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| 2000 series tractors hurt them a lot |
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Sunburst Montana | Combines were hit and miss after the Super 92s. We had decent luck with the 510s but then when we went to a 760, that turned us green. The 15/1800 series 4x4s seemed to have a poor reputation and poor engineering even though we had good luck with ours. I've heard and read right here on Agtalk the 2000 series were horrible. The ones before seemed to be alright at least ours was. We had a 1150 that worked fine but it got traded off for a JD 4640. Everybody makes a bad product or a lemon once in awhile but it seemed like Massey made too many at the same time and went broke and lost their dealers. I have a relative that worked as a salesman for the local Massey dealer on the side when he wasn't farming. Even he didn't run Massey equipment but was happy to sell us a 510.
Edited by Steiger Man 11/4/2015 18:54
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| Massey had the combine market back in the day. They were a low profile combine back in the fifties an sixties when everybody including JD an International were really tall . They had a swingout grain auger on there grain bin before anybody else did. I think IH had one next an John Deere never had one until the 6620s came out. The 510s an 410s were really ahead off everybody at the time. About everybody around here had a Massey combine back in the sixties. The tractors weren't very popular but the combines were. |
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Bremen, KS | Just about the way it was around here as I recall growing up. The first combine I remember dad having was a Massey 300. My uncle had a 410 and later a 750. In 1970 dad traded it for a new New Holland 975 (same dealer had MF and NH then). When we were looking to upsize from that in 1981 the dealer tried to deal us into a 550 but 50k or there abouts as I recall was just a bit steep. We went across the street where NH had its own dealership and dealt on a used NH 1500. I now wish we'd never seen that pile of yellow parts! I led us to a 6600 in 1984.
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NW Pa. | Agco. |
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Sunburst Montana | I've started a combine collection which does include an old Massey 90, JD 55, IH 151, and Case 600. We also have a late MF 510 too. I like all of these combines but they have some interesting differences. You paid a price for that low profile design with everything being hard to access and hard to work on. Just to check to the oil you have to squeeze yourself between the wheel and feederhouse. I can take two steps up the ladder on the 55, reach over to the engine, and pull the dip stick. Can't imagine how fun it was to do a engine tuneup on a Massey. Everything on the 55, 600, and 151 are on the sides and easy to get too. Only thing I liked about the Massey design was the easy access to the cylinder. Reason Massey was so popular is cause they got a head start on everyone with the Harvest Brigade and the publicity it got. The first SP combine a lot of farmers saw was a Massey and that is what they bought including us. And Case combines had everything that Massey had before Massey except the turret auger. They were not that far ahead of everyone.
Edited by Steiger Man 11/4/2015 21:35
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| My tenant has several new MF tractors used in farming a couple thousand acres this year.
Gerald J. |
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| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84ZkNkdPLMU&t=1m54s
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Shelby, MT | pretty much the answer was DEBT...... They weren't worried about all the debt they had and interest rates were too much when the farm crisis was in full swing...
the product issue was there but the still had a good market share... they bought the White rotary and were going to take off with it but the debt got them before it could happen... |
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| Part of the success of the massy 410 at our house anyway was the fact that about 3 wrenches could take anything off,,,you get it fixed and back together with 1/2,9/16, and 11/16 I think,,,maybe a 3/4 cant remember that bigger one cause didnt use it very often on it.
At one time we were running 2 410's and a 300,,,got LOTS of wrenching time on them,,,they were all shot three times over. The combines themselves werent as much trouble aas those darn 44 corn heads,,,course it would have helped to buy stripper bars once in a while so weeds and shucks didnt roll them up tight when tough,,,lunching out those double angled welded sprockets they 'thought' was a good idea. Maybe was in clean 60 bushel corn ,,,but bad in weedy, or heavy yeilding stuff.
plus we never had one with a quick attach head either which was a pain to change. |
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Ludington/Manistee MI area | What do you mean what happened to Massey? Agco is plastering that name on everything grrr. |
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| AGCO didn't come along until 1993. |
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Hazelton, Kansas 6.75 miles N of Crowbar | That had a thing about CAT. Bought a european company Hanomag that made crawlers etc. Made the boast that they would bury CAT. Robbed all the r&d money from ag side to swing the deal. History. Related to me by a retired Massey district manager. True or no, it makes a good story. Dirt |
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Alberta, Canada | What happened to Massey (a Canadian by the way) Ferguson was E. P. Taylors purchase of MF stock and subsequent appointment to the board of directors in the mid 1950's. He had borrowed to buy the stock and therefore needed dividends to pay off the loans. Money that should have went into the product was diverted to the shareholders pockets. The tractors and combines suffered but E. P. prospered and soon bred Kentucky Derby winner Northern Dancer (1964). So I guess it is a matter of priorities.
Rome's most famous circus lasted for 128 days according to history. Ours has been going for a lot longer than that but it hasn't been because of Massey Ferguson. |
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deep SW On. | The Canadian media guy (conrad black) / investment guy ( think maybe it was called something like argo) bought massey maybe late '70's early 80's , pension fund had excess money ,he took it, labor unrest, nobody cared,poor in house quality.... at that time and maybe still these invest groups would buy companies having cash reserves/extra pension money,ect....grab everything they could out of it then either sell off or bankrupt the company.... a foreman at there Ontario plant said he was embarraed in early '80's with junk they were shipping , we got new MF 550 in '79 and first time across field the cob rakers went through chopper and cross auger fell out of tank,just the start of 11 yrs. of "life experiences" |
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S.C. Wisconsin | I heard that they made the decision not to test the 2000 series tractor in the field. The bench test were good enough. Besides it saved the company money and they were able to get the product on the market quicker.
Sounds like a typical bean counter making a decision when they don't have clue about anything besides figures. Same as the GM Oldsmobile diesel. |
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NC Indiana | A couple guys still running new Massey stuff here. Some of us still running old Massey stuff. |
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Hazelton, Kansas 6.75 miles N of Crowbar | Hanomag happened in mid to late 60s. Dirt |
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Carroll, OH | We traded up from an AGCO with failed transmission to this 7622. Used for pulling wagons and the sprayer. Very nice so far.
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Seaforth, Ontario | Black was chairman of Argus. He took the pension fund among other benefits. There were Federal and Provincial bailouts somewhere in the timeline.
I admired Chretien for his opposition to Black seeking peerage in England. Chretien's ego was bigger and more powerful than Black's. |
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Newfane NY | We bought a two year leftover 7619 with CVT and just love that tractor. Planted corn with it this spring and burned .26 gal per acre with a 12 row White. |
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Bremen, KS | I got my Olds Diesel in an '81 Cutlass to run like a striped ape at 40 MPG plus running to KC for electronics school late '89 through mid '91. That was the only car I owned, the only one I'll likely ever own and had a lot of fun with it. The only engine trouble was the shaft that drove the oil pump rounded the corners enough so it lost pressure at low RPM. Local wrench fixed it up and I ran it some more. It's long gone but have good memories.
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CO, NE | 
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ND | We had a lot of Massey stuff back in the day--MH 21 & 21A, Super 27, MF 410, 510 was a very good combine traded for a 550 & it was bad-sold it & bought 7720. Had MH pull type swather, MF 1100 & 1135. Everything gone now but still have quick hitch off 1135, & recently bought a used MF 260 Field Cultivator made by Wilrich. The 410-gas & 510-dsl were very good combines, the tractors were good till about 2000 hrs but in no way compare to John Deere tractors, tried to cultivate with 1135 & the front end could not accommodate 30" spacing-maybe there was a diff front axle offered but did not get-cab wasn't too bad it had some nice features elsewhere on the tractor. Never had the pleasure of a 2000 series because the former series had mechanical trouble at 2000 hrs on both the ones we had but they were put thro the paces in tillage & did not hold up. |
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What happened to Massey Ferguson?
