My father was a Gleaner fan because of an excellent dealer, so I grew up around Gleaners.  The first one I ran was a CII model probably around  64 or 5.  At about the same time, I had an opportunity to run several 95 John Deeres.  I liked the Deeres better at that time as I thought they were a little nicer to operate and possibly more reliable.  My fathers last Gleaner was a LII that he and I purchased new in 1980.  It had a lot of nice features, but the iron just wasn't there to make the combine reliable. Probably the biggest joke on that combine was the new Hugger 8 row cornhead we purchased at the same time.  It was simply terrible!    Our Gleaner dealer finally folded and the days of seeing Gleaners in our area is almost over.  Several hold outs that I know of, but they are driving 60+ miles for parts or service.  JD is in almost every town now and have the local market basically sewed up.  Quite a change from 50 years ago when Gleaner was probably at least neck to neck with Deere in sales in SW KS.