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Beaver Dam, WI | NOT TRYING TO START A COLOR WAR!!!!!!
I own and operate a john deere combine .
I have watched the gleaner combine road show that was put out when the new s series combines were released a few times now. I've been pretty impressed with how they work, I however have never ran one or been really around one to judge one.
I know this question will probably spur alot of different answers but I think it might be geared a little more to the custom guys I think.....? Based on all the demo info that they promote like lighter, easy serviceability, and such is there a reason why more are not used on the harvest run or dominate custom harvest acres. I don't know maybe they do..... I'm just curious , one of the neat things that comes to mind is the rotor can be out in a real short time to be serviced. I don't know anyone that runs the new s series gleaner so I really haven't had a conversation to compare notes per say. Again not wanting to start a war and I don't know maybe gleaner has alot of the sales or market now I don't know just seems like that would be the combine to take out and do alot of custom acres? |
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Paris, IL | they are a good combine and they are still a minority of the market share. and the biggest reason for that is in the first line of your post, COLOR.
whether it be good or bad experiences, family history of brand preference, or peer pressure, the majority of green and red guys will always be red and green guys no matter how much better or worse a gleaner is. |
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Strathcona, mn | I'm biased, I have gleaner combines, lol. I run a r75 and a r76. The last of the r series. Both have the 8.4 sisu non def engines. I think they are good machines. I will say the propaganda that they sell in the roadshows is true. Again I'm biased but they are easily servicable machines. I did have the engine in my r75 go down this year. I bought it used and and with owning it less than 80 hours the temp overheated. Still not sure what happend but two of us had the engine out in under 4 hours. I can pull a rotor out in 12 minutes. Most belts, bearings, and drives are accessible from the ground. The weight savings is substantial. What gleaner is missing is a good dealer network. There are pockets of gleaner combines surrounding good dealers. There just is not the dealer network like with the other color machines. Even with an engine going down I have yet to have a gleaner service truck on the farm. I have always been able to fix everything myself on the combines. I've harvested 11 different crops on my farm with a gleaner and have never had to change concaves. It only takes basics setting changes btw crops. |
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| Gleaners favor wheat, miserable in green(wet) beans. Trade in value not as good? Parts distributors not as widespread?
Ran a 9660sts for a harvest crew (wheat)...missed the 62 back home. Serviceability wasn't an issue as everything was "under warranty." Even the chains that they never bothered to oil. |
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| Gleaner and Massey owned the custom business back in the day...but Gleaner brought out the N series a little too soon. Had major issues with reliability, engine failures in the N6 iirc, due to just pushing too many horses. Stopped production of the L hurt market share, too.
The final blow was that In the early 80's, factory put huge discounts on the new machines, making them cost about what all the just traded for machines did. They financially ruined a big part of their dealer network, which has never recovered. Lots of customers lost their equity overnight, too.
Today, they have a refined machine, for the most part, but do not have a very good solution for data collection, steering, etc., having been through a couple of different partners over the years.
A little fact, a little opinion, but that's how it seemed to unfold here. |
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central ohio..between Springville and Millbrook. | We have a small custom harvester in our area that runs 3 john deeres. I asked him once why he doesn't own any massey or gleaner machines and his answer suprised me but made senss.
He said it had NOTHING to do with the machine and he would be happy to own another color but it was his customers perception that held him back. He said most customers know nothing about any other brand as most grew up playing with John deere toy combines and that's just what they expect to roll in the driveway at harvest time. He said if he bought a massey, CAT, or Gleaner he was worried he would have to explain and justify his descision to every customer before he took off their crops because they would be leary of any other color. Not worth the effort in his mind!
Josh Moorefield
Edited by HeyhayJCM 1/6/2016 04:55
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| HeyhayJCM - 1/6/2016 04:52
We have a small custom harvester in our area that runs 3 john deeres. I asked him once why he doesn't own any massey or gleaner machines and his answer suprised me but made senss.
He said it had NOTHING to do with the machine and he would be happy to own another color but it was his customers perception that held him back. He said most customers know nothing about any other brand as most grew up playing with John deere toy combines and that's just what they expect to roll in the driveway at harvest time. He said if he bought a massey, CAT, or Gleaner he was worried he would have to explain and justify his descision to every customer before he took off their crops because they would be leary of any other color. Not worth the effort in his mind!
Josh Moorefield i can appreciate where he is coming from, and that is a very logical theory. I'm not color blind, and believe Gleaner has a great combine. Still hard to overcome perception, as the above poster stated. |
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Oakdale, Il. | My family ran Gleaner combines from the "E" series all the way through the "R" series. It just came down to dealer service and parts availability. I run a small combine and it needs to be operating every hour when needed, my local Deere dealer and parts depot are far superior to the Gleaner dealer. |
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Garrett County, MD | I think it comes down to perception and dealers.
My view is Agco doesn't have as good of a dealer network and parts availability.
We run gleaners and have a good dealer.
Also many people like to run all of the same color, doesn't mean anything to me but... not sure how many people are open to agco tractors. |
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Francis Creek, Wi. | About 6 years ago, the owner of our grain elevator told me I was consistently bringing in the cleanest grain, and asked what kind of combine I was running. When I responded, "An F2 Gleaner", he turned to the other 3 farmers standing there, 2 of which had newer and bigger JD's and 1 C/IH, and said "I think all of you should get Gleaners".
I've got good friends that run all different kinds of combines, and I've worked on all different kinds of combines, and when it comes to service, they are all a nightmare compared to a Gleaner. |
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So. IL | Agco was on a big kick to close dealers down and end certain brands, now they want to sell products? I don't see how the damage they have done can ever be reversed, other company products have showed up on about every farm that ran agco products at one time. |
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Ontario | i'm not really hooked on any colour but my local AGCO dealer is pretty horrible so unless a new dealer pops up i will never own any of their equipment. that said my local red dealer has pissed me off to the point where i'll be adding some green to the line up this spring |
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SeMN | Our area must be lucky, we have 3 and 1/2 good dealers within 50 miles of us. The 1/2 dealer is one who was an allis dealer and switched to CIH, but still services Agco. The older Gleaners were easy to service generally, but the newer ones have been improved greatly, with easier access panels and making all grease zerks easy to grease. |
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Denhoff,ND right in the center of the State | We switched from JD 7721 pulltype to late model Gleaner L3. It was easier to service, the grain samples were always cleaner, and nowdays we grow nearly all Glenn wheat witch is really hard to thresh and and clean up with most combines and when I bring wheat to the elevator they always tell me I have the cleanest wheat, actually could throw back in the drill and seed it again, the L3 compared to todays new combines is a toy but in its day was hard to beat, wanting to upgrade combines myself and dont like that there are few dealers around, have lots of IH and JD dealers close by, but when you look at the simplicity of the the gleaner, and ease of servicing, I think i am gonna go Silver again.
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Southwest ND | I'm pretty much green everything here. I very seriously considered a super series because I'm all small grains where I'm told they shine. I know combines don't sell by the pound but would think if the Gleaner is only 2/3's the weight the price would sort of reflect that. Wrong. Can buy green or red for less. Was promised a demo but never heard from them at harvest. Completely lost interest in Gleaner but in my opinion they are the better combine for wheat. |
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NW KS/ SC ID | They are an excellent combine that is pretty easy to repair.
For people that argue simplicity of other colors, take a tally of gearboxes, hyd. motors, etc. that are on other colors. Those do not last forever. shafts, bearings and belts are long life and are pretty cheap to replace, if they need it. I know many of our gleaners still have some of the original belts (obviously not the high load ones).
That said, the reason you do not see them on the trail as much is lack of dealers and a slow to respond company in general.
Gleaner is great, Agco, not so much. :) |
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Grabill, Indiana | GM Guy - 1/6/2016 10:00
.......
Gleaner is great, Agco, not so much. :)
I love this quote and completely agree! We run more AGCO brands than any other on the farm and rely on a network of dealers for parts, only one is local. |
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SC | AGCO has zero presence in my area anymore. One combine dealer 90 miles away. Have good green and red dealers 20 miles away and between the two they have replaced all the gleaner combines mostly. Nearly every farm in this area used gleaners in the past, from E's to L3's and early R's, but since have left the area due to zero agco dealer network or support.
I think the gleaner super series is a great machine built and sold by a company that could care less about certain areas of the farming countryside. Green and red seem to be paying not much attention to the overall weight of their combines |
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Central Iowa | We run an S77. I am very fortunate to have an excellent dealer to work with. My dealer had been selling more New Holland machines until recently, but they have gotten back on the Gleaner bandwagon. To me, the transverse cylinder and accelerator rolls make a lot of sense. All of the grain uses all of the chaffer/sieve area because it all is spread across the front of the shaker shoe. Every kernel, every bean, every grain is given the same opportunity at getting separated and cleaned. I really don't have experience with the other brands, I can only assume they have a lot of strong points as well, because there are an awful lot of green and red machines in the area. The people that have them are respected operators and they purchase what they feel is best for their operation. That said, there are farmers around here that have all green or red machinery but have a Gleaner combine. As was mentioned in another reply, Gleaners got a bad reputation with the early N series. Not because of the concept, but because of some reliability issues. We had an N5 for quite a few years, it would harvest corn and beans effectively and would keep up with or run circles around most any other brand of machine around us-but we had our share of breakdowns. Most of which we could handle ourselves, but we had an excellent dealer with a very good parts inventory and excellent mechanics when needed. My father got started with Allis Chalmers with an All Crop combine relatively early in his career, moved to an A2 when it was time to go self propelled, had a G, an M2, an N5 when I got started farming, an R62, R72, and now we are on our second S77. The S77 is a very good machine. For it's physical size the capacity is impressive. The Sisu engine doesn't have to take a back seat to anyone. We run a 35 foot draper head in some pretty tough soybeans and can stomp through a lot of acres and do a good job. A 12 row cornhead is a very nice fit, too. For many years our main tractors were all orange, now we have a hodge-podge of colors for tractors. I like to joke that it looks like the circus is in town when we go to the field, but the work gets done, and it works good for us. I will save my rant on losing the orange tractor brand for another conversation. |
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Rivers, MB | This idea of lower dockage always confuses me. Does it really matter to a farmer if their combine gives them 1% dockage or 2% dockage. Its looks only. Both samples get paid for the same amount of clean bushels. Unless your dockage is cracked grain from the combine that is contributing to dockage.
As to the original poster, I think its a combination of factors. We run green. Good friend runs Gleaner so we often compare. Seems like a good design. Think the N series did more damage to Gleaners reputation than many would admit. A lack of dealers and Agco style parts support kind of kills the resale and appeal to own them for us. that being said, good friend who runs gleaners is close to 2 or 3 dealers. Works well for him. At a lower purchase price than any other color.
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Ontario | unless there's some small hidden dealers i've not found the only AGCO dealer within 50km of me is part of a chain and i had some issues with them when i bought an old IH disk. few neighbours also had issues similar to mine, seems they just aren't very organised and have communication issues. my closest Case IH dealer doesn't actually sell equipment but just does service and parts and my family has dealt with them since the 50s without any real issues. the dealer that actually does sell equipment is where i bought my combine they screwed me over fairly well so i will not return there for anything unless i absolutely have to. JD dealer i've not had much experience with but one of the salesman is a friend and i'm sick of Case jacking up parts prices so i've been in talks with them about getting a smaller tractor to replace my dead one, we'll see if i end up being happy with them or not |
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Liberty, MO | Redline is that dealer at Marshalltown?? If so I went to HS with him , and have bought 2 combines, 1 sight unseen, just like he said it was ready to go, replaced a burnt combine, had it the next day. |
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| I have heard that same thing from the guys who work the elevator pit ( they can tell what we are using). When I was a kid (60s-70s), AC/Gleaner dominated the area where I farm. Its hard to find an AC in the fields now.....they are still out there you just need to know where to look. Very few progeny of the AC (DA or Agco) are working....it is more aprt to be 80 or 70 series tractors. It sounds like (from talking to other farmers) the folks that run the combines are well networked regarding parts. From what I gather, farmers who need a certain part are more likely to call other farmers before calling the dealer. This kind of supports the: Gleaner=good, Agco=bad take away point. |
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Clarke county, IA | If there was a dealer closer to me I'd look into gleaners more. Know a guy who had a S series for a couple years and ended up trading it for a red machine. They couldn't get it to stop grinding corn no matter what him or the dealer did. |
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| We run a all the colors on our places but the Gleaner is the only combine that will be in our shed.
Always have had good luck with them. We fortunate have 2 decent deals within 40 miles.
Liek everything, Dealer presents (parts/ service) are a HUGE factor for most people, its not always about the color.
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Southwest Illinois | Primarily I would say it is a dealer issue. There are some areas in Kansas that have a lot of Gleaners. Here in southern IL the dealer network is pretty poor. Yes we have dealers but generally it is a poorly run dealership or the dealer has other lines they are selling and just carry the Gleaner to get them into something else. We ran them for years generally parts were available without much issue but our local dealer was short staffed in mechanics and didn't have anyone who had a clue about electronics which has become very important the last 10-15 years.
Overall I think the Gleaner product is one of the best in the AGCO lineup, but they don't seem to be interested in doing business in the corn belt because every time a dealer closes its doors, no one takes their place. |
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Sw. Ill | +1. We have a case and a jd dealer within 2 miles of farm but the closest agco (combine) dealer is over an hour drive. I dont know how you can close dealers and expect to maintain sales. They shot themselves in the foot imo. For our area I only see a few gleaners out every year including mine. |
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Central Iowa | Yes. Bill is still involved, but his sons are taking over the business(es). They have the Marshalltown store-Central Iowa Farm Store and also a store in Webster City-Casady Bros. Implement. I know they are not the cheapest dealer around, but you can always depend on them when the going gets tough. |
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Texas/New Mexico Stateline | Family has ran Gleaner since the Baldwin/Gleaner pull combines in the 1940s. Then A, then C, G, and L, and finally R72. The L was the best combine of the whole bunch. Wore the silly thing out 3 times from 1985 to just a couple years ago. It was finally time to get something bigger and gambled on an R72. Much bigger, gets things done so much faster, but harder to set and get the sample and loss to suit me. The L was always so easy. I say gamble because we have hardly any dealer presence, one good dealer 40 miles away, and the next one is about 150 miles I would guess. Only 6 Gleaner dealers in the whole state of Texas, and that is shameful for a company that is pushing to sell machines. No way you are going to get guys to switch colors when all the parts have to come UPS with a day or two wait. 
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Central Texas | We're pretty lucky here, we have a very good Gleaner dealer about 20 miles away. We have had breakdowns where if he didn't have the part, he'd take it off a used machine to get us going. I really like out R62 and am glad we have the luxury of a pretty close dealer. |
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East Central Illinois | Ran s670 new and new s78 being honest Deere is about production, acres in a day. Gleaner is quality U won't find a better bean sample great for seed beans probably doesn't through over as much. Deere has a cab that is simple to operate. Gleaner simple cab but very low tech but the new model for 16' is more high tech. I don't think I would want to rely on just one combine to do 3000plus unless it was a Deere. It's hard to explain but the Deere just does it easier and it's pretty easy to set in it all day long. I never wanted to like a combine as much I wanted to like gleaner. Still smile about some features on gleaner |
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NW KS/ SC ID | tw35 - 1/6/2016 11:28
If there was a dealer closer to me I'd look into gleaners more. Know a guy who had a S series for a couple years and ended up trading it for a red machine. They couldn't get it to stop grinding corn no matter what him or the dealer did.
probably was equipped with reverse bars. If the dealer knew what they were doing, probably could have swapped all to forward bars and eliminated the issue entirely.
Some of this could probably be blamed on Agco training dealer personnel, if they are new to the brand, can't expect them to know how to dial them in. |
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NW KS/ SC ID | in my eyes, it is more profitable to be running a Gleaner in small grains where you are docked for any cracks or FM. Now in corn, you can run anything you want, as most places allow up to 5 percent before dock. We probably screw ourselves, but we like to get the corn sample perfect as well. :) |
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Central Iowa | Did they check to be sure the concave was level? I think they had a few get out that weren't level and needed worked on under warranty. I am pretty sure I remember the mechanic studying our latest machine very closely. We run the reverse bars. We have even added extras in some cases. They are helpful in some conditions and not as evil as many make them out to be. I always open the concave extra wide on corn and then close it in small increments until it is getting all the kernels off of the cob and grinding the cob as little as possible. This setting varies by corn variety and moisture levels. The new machines are more forgiving than our N5 was. It ground all the cobs no matter what you did, and then you sorted them out at the chaffer the best you could. When I looked over the fence at the neighbors corn stalks I would get "cob envy". |
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Southeast Washington | mennoboy - 1/5/2016 20:13 This idea of lower dockage always confuses me. Does it really matter to a farmer if their combine gives them 1% dockage or 2% dockage. Its looks only. Both samples get paid for the same amount of clean bushels. Unless your dockage is cracked grain from the combine that is contributing to dockage. In our wheat dockage can make a huge dent in the bottomline. Not only are you docked pounds but also cents per bushel that keeps increasing for anything over .2% dockage which isn't much. 1% dock would be $.10 per bushel discount to the clean weight while 2% would be $.23 per bushel discount to the clean weight so yes dockage really can matter. http://www.whitgro.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/WhitgroDiscountSchedule.pdf for a discount schedule for wheat in our area. |
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Clarke county, IA | I don't know how they had the rotor in it setup. He told me they had the dealer and I think people from gleaner in the field with him and they still couldn't get it solved. I'm just going off what he told me so there may be some pieces of the puzzle missing. |
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gleaner combines
