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.