Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Upgrading to a mo' fly ride

I traded off my 1984 International Harvester 1460 combine today for a 1995 Case IH 2188.

The old girl went down on me yesterday; I was harvesting corn near my house when all of a sudden the corn head and separator stopped. I pulled out of the rows, stopped the combine, and got out to check what was going on. My first sign that something was not good was a rattling sound coming from near the engine. The sound of a bearing that had gone out on the PTO transmission coming from the engine. The second was a steady dripping of oil coming from said PTO transmission. Not good.

As luck would have it, I had been in talks with the local dealer about trading combines anyway. They were able to locate a couple of machines, one in Mt Ayr, the other in Nevada, that might be suitable. So, Dad and I took a roadtrip to Nevada yesterday to look at this 2188.

Now, for those of you not familiar with Case IH combines, here's some basic info: A 1460 is like a Chevrolet Monte Carlo from the mid-80's - pretty neat stuff at the time, and while it will get you from point A to point B today, it is getting old and prone to break downs. A 2188 is like a mid 1990's Chevrolet Impala- Not the shinest, but still pretty decent, and light years ahead of the 1980's technology.

Except a 1995 Chevrolet Impala doesn't cost more than a 2006 Mercedes E class, as this 1995 Case IH 2188 does. The 2006 combines cost as much as a Lamborghini. I kid you not.

So, with having the 1460 repaired at the dealer, I'll trade it in, along with a subsoiler tillage tool, and some cash for this 2188. And payments for the next five years. It is a bigger combine, so I should be able to get through my crop faster, disregarding any breakdowns (which should be fewer, I hope). I should be able to combine corn at 5.5-6 mph instead of 3-3.5 mph as I do now. In layman's terms, that's like going from 55 to 90 on the interstate.

I should get the machine on Thursday - on which day it is supposed to rain, and can't harvest. Hmmm.

The Old:













The New (with my father checking out the donuts):

11 Comments:

Blogger The Publican said...

Soooooooo, can I drive it or what?

9:37 PM, October 24, 2006  
Blogger noneed4thneed said...

And harvest all of that corn out in the suburbs?

10:01 PM, October 24, 2006  
Blogger bgunzy said...

If you can stand to drive a 2 story garage while scooping the loop, sure.

It does have a buddy seat and a stereo (AM/FM only), you know, if you want to cruise for chicks. If you find more than one, the grain tank does have a 300 bushel capacity.

7:11 AM, October 25, 2006  
Blogger Jeremie Jordan said...

My most of my Mom's side of the family lives near Nevada on farms...although they just rent their land out now.

9:43 AM, October 25, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

A very handsome ride ! So many of my friends who farm always seem to trade at harvest time after a mechanical failure and the dealers seem to know this...

10:41 AM, October 25, 2006  
Blogger Jeremie Jordan said...

"And harvest all of that corn out in the suburbs?"

Just the type of comment I have come to expect from the 4th Need...

Whatever the hell the 4th Need is?

1:44 PM, October 25, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fire, water, air and nookie.

2:45 AM, October 26, 2006  
Blogger Jeremie Jordan said...

The 4th Need is nookie?

6:38 AM, October 26, 2006  
Blogger noneed4thneed said...

Not quite, the 4 stands for "for".

7:16 AM, October 26, 2006  
Blogger Jeremie Jordan said...

So, it's:

no need for "th" need?

What is "th" then?

9:50 AM, October 26, 2006  
Blogger The Publican said...

"And harvest all of that corn out in the suburbs?"

Since I have a corn field directly across the street from me in my suburb....yeah.

12:51 PM, October 26, 2006  

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