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| A lot of people used to say that the world was flat too and that you'd sail off the edge. Fortunately, not everyone listened to them. I can say good things and bad things about every combine, but an MF 8780 is a good combine choice given you already stated you had good dealer and product support for MF. Regarding the parts argument, you're going to find high-priced parts with any of the major colors - it is certainly not just AGCO. Don't be fooled; JD loves to make money on parts too! That said, with the MF rotary, their simpler design is more likely to cost you less year over year than a green one and, by a slimmer margin, a CaseIH. You can stock a few items on your own shelf to have, but there just isn't as much to go wrong with one of these machines and the design is proven and has been around for several years. Most of the wear parts on the MF are built better and heavier also than on some other machines. Regarding resale, it is speculative and in my opinion it is more important to get the right machine than to place too much emphasis on some future value that isn't set in stone. Let's see, spend $15,000 more on a JD now and it's worth $7000 more in a few years and meanwhile you've spent more $$ to keep in the field year over year (hmmmmmm... yea, I'm not seeing the value in that equation either).
The machine is quite easy and simple to adapt to go from corn to beans to wheat. Change a few wires in the front concave sections, changing the chopper speed/knife bar, and front feeder drum is about all there is to going from one crop to another. There are rotor knives on the rotor (21 most likely) than can be added or removed to make the rotor more or less aggressive in separation. The MF is simply a great combine that not everyone has been around. It has a lot of the good attributes of the CaseIH axial flows but is improved in many areas, is simpler in design, and holds up better year over year with longer service hours out of most of the major wear parts on the machine. Unlike the other red and green ones, the MF doesn't have a bed of augers underneath the rotor either. Less to go wrong and the grain pan starts the cleaning process whereas the augers are just there to wear out and also mix grain and chaff, which makes cleaning more difficult.
Now, the first year of the 8780 was 1997. These combines had a red feederhouse on them and still had the older style White header interface. A '98 and newer 8780 or 8780XP would have a black feederhouse and accepts the newer type AGCO heads, which would probably give you more choices in shopping for heads, so I would personally prefer a '98 or newer for that reason. Heads can be adapted to the older style, but it gets pricey fast. Any 8780 is going to be a very comfortable machine with a 6R30 cornhead and a 25' table. 30' will work too but you'll just travel more slowly. Do you need to drop the straw behind the combine in wheat or will you chop it? The MF can put out some nice quality straw as well if that is a need of yours. Oh yeah, those were just some of the highs but you asked for some lows too. Let's see. The combine doesn't have very good hillside capability, meaning if you harvest on sidehills and slopes, you may have to slow down a bit to keep grain in the machine. Then again, the JD and the traditional CIH don't have much to offer in that department either and will be equally limited unless you get a hillside version combine, but those get pricey too. On the relative flat terrain, no problem. Some 2wd 8780s had rear axle spindle issues, but the one you mentioned is RWA, so you wouldn't have to worry about that. Guess that's it for now. Ask any more specific questions you may have. | |
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Massey Ferguson 8780, RWA combine
