TR98, most capacity per dollar, reliable and balanced very well. Need more time in the 9080's to get a good opinion on them.......**** rain!!

 

I concur, we still have a TR88, has great capacity considering size, especially for what it cost new, bulletproof, and a very smooth runner, and makes an exceptionally clean sample. Can even do it without throwing half your yield out the back. Kind of wish we could get another new one. :/

 

Gleaner L3.

 

9600 hands down, for the time it was the biggest baddest machine around. And it has lasted the test of time, still on the harvest run, still being sold for higher then 2188's that are 5 years newer.

 

9600's were far from the biggest or baddest of it's time........anyway I'd have to say Gleaner L/M series, probably the 2 or 3 series. Simple, reliable, and did an awesome job, even by todays standards.

 

Ih 1460

 

yeah i think youre onto something dano 9600 not massive capacity but will go day in day out for years

 

i have to agree with some others our 9600 we used to have was probably the most reliable machine we ever owned had good capacity and just seemed to go and go. it kind of reminds me of the energizer bunny on tv it lasts and lasts. kind of wish we had it back some days when were working on the newer ones

 

Claas 106 DOMINATOR we had one with 3000 hrs on it that old beast would just keep on chugging until it was worn out then the problems started or TX's were good too

 

JD 9600's, we still have 2 of them and have never had anything major go wrong with them, if something does go wrong its usually back in the field in a couple hours.

 

Hands down-TR 96's and TR98's....most trouble free and good capacity (in their day)combines we ever owned.

 

Yah I would agree on the 9600s, with regular winter maintenance they would last entire season without breakage and if they did you can go to your dealership or combine wrecker and parts availability is never ending. Its a shame Deere doesn't try and make combines like that anymore, I guess its not good business for them to make a combine last for 10 years or more.

 

Love my Case IH 1640 with hydraulic auto steer, Yield Monitor and AFX Specialty Rotor.

 

I'm no longer on the farm (dad retired in 2000), so I'm a bit old school. The best combine on our farm was easily our old IH 1480, a few squirts of grease in the morning and run all day every day. Our Gleaner L was a good machine too.

 

hands down 9600
would have 3 if i had the people to run them.

 

MF 760 Model 1 with the red cab yellow wheels, guess it just holds special memory for me as a young boy back in the 70s as I got to ride and drive the first one that came to the UK

 

what about the predessesor to the 9600 the 7720 or 7721 . this combine found its way into alot of quonsets of different colors. the 9600 was just the blown up perfected version of these, or maybe the 6601 was the start...or the 4400...

 

I grew up on a Gleaner L. Like most on this forum I didn't have a lot of experience with much else. Having used both I would say a Gleaner R is a better wheat combine than a 9600. Don't know to much about other crops. However, there are a lot of 9600's around that are still chugging along just fine and they seem very reliable.

I think that this thread should be titled best combines of their time. Because its hard to compare them when they are from a different time period. For instance in my opinion. The Gleaner L and L2 were the best of their time. When the 9600 came out it was the best of its time. I think a 2 series Gleaner became a better combine.... but just like everyone else around here, I have a bias.... Everyone will go with what they know...

Here is my list.... I do not know much about New Holland or Massey Ferguson so please forgive me. I am just going off our area.

Massey Harris 21-A
Gleaner A, C2, G
John Deere 95
Gleaner L,M
Case IH 1680
John Deere 9600
Gleaner R72

And I think its to early to tell on Deere 9870, Case IH 9120 and New Holland Equivilent, Gleaner S77, Massey/Gleaner/Challenger Axial.

 

JD 9600/9610.....bullet proof as they come

 

The 9510 JD wish i still had it instead of this 9770 JD seed sower

 

I'm sure you'd be able to find a 9510 owner that would be prepared to do a straight swap

 

CR 960 - 9060 great comfort, very reliable. Trying to remember how good the JD 9600-9610 were had about 5 of them, they were twice the combine the 8820 was.

 

Never owned one but if thread were titled most reliable I'd vote for the 95/9600 Deere.
Whenever you asked an owner the starting conversation was not what great capacity it had but how reliable it was.
Always seemed to be a recurring theme.

Don

 

Have to say the original 1480 axial flow for the revolution they caused; then the cts for marrying the two concepts of conventional thresh and rotary separation to harness the benefits of both. In our area the early 480cat claas machines were the first to significantly increase capacity in all crops.

 

Tr 70?

Don

 

Would Have to say... been in farming whole life and my dad has had a Late model Gleaner L over 20 years.. with regular keep up ( grease, belts, oil,etc) it fires up every year and will keep up with some new combines.. yes it outdated to todays standards and were looking at upgrading to R series but shes ready every season no matter what... think we have about 4800 hrs on it and going strong

 

My father-in-law had a JD 7700 that he bought new in ???. That machine just kept going and going. It did wheat, beans and corn for years. Finally, when he was 75 and felt he wasn't able to keep it running he sold it to a salvage yard. It had 6800 hrs. on it and it really bothered him as he watched it being hauled down the road. He said it felt like he had lost a friend. I'm sure many of you can relate to that.

 

The best ever made for reliability, ease of operation, simple to work on has to be the G Gleaner. Simple design, plenty of power and large capacity for it's day.

Best ever built would be the 1972 G Gleaner with Hydro drive.

 

The 2388, lots of updates that made a great machine greater. They are very reliable and extremely simple to work on when you do have to. You also still see them on the custom run. The AFX rotor made a real beast out of them and got rid of the "solar powered combine" montra. Hour for hour the bring as much as a 9600 or 9610, but offer higher capacity in many crops.