Combines Hillside Combines

Not since the MH 3. Some of the old MHs running are older than the operators, but there are no replacements. A lot of Gleaner rotarys are being used on all but the steepest ground. Dual them up, and sometimes add rear wheel assist to help keep the machine tracking on the hills. Heard Hillco is making a leveler kit for Gleaners similar to the unit they make for CIH. See the attachments section of the CIH page on combine talk. The only full "hillside" combine available is a 9600 Deere that has a leveler put under it in Spokane Wa by RAHCO. last I heard it was over $250,000 for a new one.

Here's a rotary hillside picture for you. This N7 has rear wheel assist and duals on front. My neighbor says the N7 stays on the hills better than the MH2's you saw in the other photos. It will also outclimb an MH. I was riding with another farmer the other day on his 9600 equiped with leveling. He also has an R-60 with rear wheel assist will go places the 9600 won't. I am working on getting some more photos together for a screensaver. I will post the link when I have it finished.--Ray

if i a,m right harvester pioneered the hill side machine with the 127 back in the 50,s,hard to belive that after allmost 20 years after the harvester empire self distructed pepole are still worring aand scared of there machines, seem,s that new holland seen some of the ember,s still burnig wen they bought IH remember one thing they bought them for the combine and tillage stuff, any one can build a tractor look at all those old junk challmer,s out there yet today,new holland has one thing on there mind NUMBER ONE

Give lenny Hill a call or send him an email and aske him. I am betting Hillco's deal with CIH has ruined any Hillco deal with JD. Or maybe JD has a contact with M Squared_Rahco.

this may change drastically soon, as Deere's leveler for there sidehill machine which only levels to about 18% is now about the same cost as a hillco, which is about 30 grand. I know which one I would rather have, and it doesn't have pivot bushings, cables, etc. I wonder if Deere will buy out Hillco to shelve itIJIJ Wouldn't be the first time. GS

Who cares what John Deere thinks of HillcoIJ John Deere Credit will finance a JD combine with a Hillco leveler. Even though RAHCO is the only JD authorized leveler, you can still buy the hillco parts as well as the entire leveler at most JD dealerships in the northwest. I believe the availability of Hillco on a JD combine has helped to keep JD in the hillside combine market. (Just my thoughts)

Hillco, a major maker of hillside combine leveling systems used to have a little program or guide for computing the cost of using a non-leveling combine on hillsides in terms of crop loss and production loss on their site. I can't find it now, but the link has some info and I am sure that if you sent Hillco an email they would respond to you.

That sounds like a quite a math problem. I can maybe make some simple comments on hillside combines most of which I'm sure you;re aware of. One of the problems without a leveller of course is uneven side to side distribution of grain on sieves. Grain piling up on the shoe used to be a problem going down hill. At the bottom of the hill, you could throw out alot of grain. This made IH 4 way levelling popular many years ago. If you're talking Gleaners, they're the only level land combines commonly seen on steeper hills where mostly hillside combines are sold ( slopes probably up to 35 percent ) The accelerators on the Gleaner cleaning system allow full use of the cleaning area of course. We have neighbors with N7 and R 7's. I haven't noticed much difference in speed on the hills in grain unless the upper wheels on the uphill side start spinning out. One neighbor traded for an IH about a day after I saw him spin out the upper duals on a steep hill. In the lower country a dealer told me they put fluid in the tires. I don't think the guys I know have done so. Safety and traction are also reasons for levellers in my opinion. My uncle demoed a 1480 IH without a leveller in wheat about 1980, he said going around the hill one way would save grain. The other way would throw it out due to the direction the rotor was throwing. This may have been corrected with cleaning attatchments that came shortly after that. I've never seen a Gleaner rotary in grass in N Idaho_E Washington directly south of Spokane, WA where much blue grass seed is grown. That doesn't mean there aren't any. That area is populated by green and red machines due to stong dealers, and with the somewhat more level land there are more non hillside machines used in those areas. I'd ask the guys on the Case board if you haven't already about grass harvesting. All I know is our neighbor used to grow grass before the burning ban and they crept through the fields with their conventional hillside JD's as with any combine of the time.

Don't know much about "hillside" combines but from looking at some of the pictures I have seen of "hillside" machines working in N.America, I would say that some of the hills could not be physically harvested unless the combine was a "hillside" conversion.The combine just would'nt have the grip to harvest up or across these steep hills even with RWA and duals.We run three RWA combines and here in Northern Ireland we harvest some hilly ground that they will not climb before "spinning" and then the steepest part has to be harvested all downhill only!!!

I think if your trying to justify a hillside machine over a flat land machine you need to look at the percentage of the ground that has a slope versus looking at slope equals loss. In our area we have some hills that slope up to 35% but it is only on about 7% of our ground. We do not have levelers because we can't justify them for that little of our ground. However, I have friends that farm in area about 40 miles north of me that have slopes up to 45% and 75 to 80 percent of their farm is tilted. The slopes also are the better ground on their farms than the flat areas. These guys do have levelers on their machines because the percentage of their ground that is tilted is so great. Just my humble opinion Dean