Cub sized Gleaner?

[DickB]

Travels yesterday allowed a scan of a small farmer's outdoor equipment, shivering out in the cold. There was an Allis-Chalmers Gleaner, a wild assembly of sheet metal and other parts, sitting out. I knew was that because one panel on it said so. While I have absolutely no use for such a machine, it was some kind of very small combine that -- I don't know -- was towed by a tractor. Was there ever a Gleaner (and I had to google the word to learn that it referred to a painting that I knew) for small tractors? I'm guessing Forum members in the mid-west area of the US would know.

This farmer, whom I've met before, is Korean and has a few small paddies of rice. I don't think a gleaner works for rice, but I have no idea. Might just be for rye and wheat?

I sure liked the looks of it, as I like the looks of those sloped sheet metal jobbies that, I think, somehow move mown hay up into the air and dump it into a waiting cart. Need some education here!

Thanks.

[staninlowerAL]

There is information about the machine you saw on the Allis Chalmers forum. The small combine was powered by either a AC G or B, I don't remember which one. Try this link to access the farm equipment page:
http://www.allischalmers.com/forum/foru ... -equipment

EDIT: Excellent reference on Gleaner combine history and development is ALLIS CHALMERS FARM EQUIPMENT 1914-1985 by Norm Swinford. You might find it at the public Library. Information on Gleaner Combines starts on page 300.

[Jim Becker]

"Gleaner" is a trade name, originally owned by Baldwin. The company went into Allis Chalmers and then AGCO. It is applied to combines (or harvester-threshers). Some small tractor-pulled units were made by several companies. If self-powered, they could be handled by fairly small tractors in the right conditions. Typically, a Farmall A, Allis Chalmers B or similar sized tractor. Generally, something larger was required. Trying to use them with a Cub would be pushing things.

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

......... Trying to use them with a Cub would be pushing things.

Or being pushed BY things.

[SONNY]

HEY!!! Thats what I need here to cut my hulless oats,---IF I can ever get them planted this year!---I got 4 C and 2 B Allis tractors! If one of them wont pull it one of the WD-45's would!!!!! OOOOOOPPPSSS----talking wrong color! ---sorry bout that!!!LOL!!! ---WELLLLL!---still got it covered,---the ole Farmall A will handle it! thanks; sonny

[DickB]

Thanks. The A-C Gleaner I saw was probably the tiniest combine I'd ever seen (not many here, and most are large self-propelled units), and yet it kind of looked like you could store a Cub in it. Didn't think for a second it was something the Cub could pull. Looked around a bit on the internet and perhaps it was an Allis-Chalmers 60 or 66. But it got me to wondering about grain, grasses and such and what, besides, cutting & gathering, the Cub could do if it were matched up with a properly sized mini-combine or hay bundler--but were any ever made? I saw, in my internet adventure, yesterday, for example, an A-C tow behind hay baler that, clearly outsized for the Cub, would gather cut hay, whirl it around to make mini-twisted bales (no strings that I could see) and plop them out onto the ground one after the other. These round bales were small enough for a person to lift. Really kind of nifty. Looked to be the size of two rolled bed blankets.

I've been content (and think I still am) with a sicklebar for cutting, a horse drawn hay rake hooked to the Cub for gathering into so-so windrows, a collection of old 3-tine pitchforks and a tow behind the Cub cart for gathering, and outdoor storage of hay that'll become compost. But I'm sort of hopeful that someday that hay might be good enough for the sheep, and I'll be trying this year some mini-patches of wheat and oats just to see how they'll do here. Hmmm, forever fooling around, learning by doing. One year I had a couple of carts of wheat or rye and never did figure how to thresh properly without wacking with a stick which became old news withing a minute. So, extending the conversational base (it it'll bear it) a bit, what might a Cub hook up to that would do more than the 2 mule farmer might think possible with a small field of grain/hay?

[Barnyard]

Here is a Cub pulling a combine at the CI Cubfest.

[Chris in PA]

That video of the 52 makes me want to get my 76 combine out- not with the Cub though. Too big, needs a hydraulic cylinder, and is PTO powered. Dad bought it 30 years ago and it's sat in the back of the barn despite yearly intentions of planting a few acres of buckwheat to harvest. Funny how some of those intentions get passed from father to son and still never materialize.

That 52 sounds like it is as noisy as a corn picker. Are they that loud or is that an artifact of a sensitive microphone? Forgive my ignorance as I've never been around a working combine.

Chris

[DickB]

Got the message: The Cub, back in it's heyday (hay day...) wasn't for combine or hay baling operations. More for what we know about here: small farming in the row cropping mode, work around the barnyard/house. Wondered, given all the implements for the Cub, where the cutoff point was, and I think I got the message. No self-powered micro-combine or micro-baler from the 1940s-50s ever showed up that a Cub could haul around -- a pity today since today there's an interest in small acreage grain and hay production.

BTW, Barnyard, seeing that cut up Cub sitting on that combine looked really sad.But that combine, that Cub power, that Cub pulling, those bags of harvested seed (soybeans?), 4 guys working it and being hauled around...impressive, and looks like fun too. Thanks for that link!

Well, I do like 3-tined pitchforks.

[Barnyard]

BTW, Barnyard, seeing that cut up Cub sitting on that combine looked really sad.

I'm not sure I know what you mean buy cut up Cub. If you mean the engine, that was how it came from the factory. That is a power unit on the combine.

[DickB]

Maybe I've got it wrong, but the video has one title that states that the combine is powered by a Cub, then another title that says it is pulled by a Cub. And then, when I saw the power unit, it sure looked like a butchered up Cub, especially the side view where I could see the exhaust/intake manifolds that look just like on a Cub. I incorrectly thought someone had taken an old Cub and doctored it up for the combine, but now I'm thinking that McCormick might have modified the Cub engine to power the combine. Don't know about it, but it was an interesting video. Looks like the Cub pulled it on flat ground, but I'm not sure what would happen on a hill.

[Super A]

Maybe I've got it wrong, but the video has one title that states that the combine is powered by a Cub, then another title that says it is pulled by a Cub. And then, when I saw the power unit, it sure looked like a butchered up Cub, especially the side view where I could see the exhaust/intake manifolds that look just like on a Cub. I incorrectly thought someone had taken an old Cub and doctored it up for the combine, but now I'm thinking that McCormick might have modified the Cub engine to power the combine. Don't know about it, but it was an interesting video. Looks like the Cub pulled it on flat ground, but I'm not sure what would happen on a hill.

IH used the Cub engine as a power unit on the last 52R combines, from late-ish 1949 until they ended production in 1950. These combines were available standard with tractor PTO drive, the engine drive was optional equipment. As a stand-alone power unit they called it a "U-1" and they had all kinds of uses. The combine engines, baler engines, and regular power units all have separate serial numbers based on the implement they were originally mounted to.

The combine engine had a little different governor setting than the tractor, different radiator, flywheel with no provision for a starter ring gear, and a few more things that escape me at the moment....

I have both a Cub powered and a earlier Continental (model Y-69) powered 52R. The Cub engine is cool, but I really prefer the Continental. IMO IH should have used them in the Cub instead of developing their own engine.

By the way, I don't believe in lecturing but the way they cranked that engine in the video is an accident waiting to happen.

Al

Al

[Barnyard]

Maybe I've got it wrong, but the video has one title that states that the combine is powered by a Cub, then another title that says it is pulled by a Cub.

Yes, I titled it that way because it is powered by a Cub engine and also pulled by a Cub.

Here is my brother-in-law's power unit set up to operate a buzz saw. As Al said, IH made the Cub engine to power more than just the Cub.

[Bus Driver]

I spent many hours on an Allis All-Crop 60, tying grain sacks. The 60 referred to the width of cut, 60" or 5 feet. Allis did briefly make a 40 which was quite small. Allis did offer a retrofit grain bin with auger unloading for that family of machines.
I never saw one pulled by a Cub. I think they were too heavy. If self-powered, but towed by another tractor, the Allis machines used their own engine from the B.
I doubt that today's harvesters are able to extract a greater percentage of the grain from the chaff than did those old machines. But modern machines are able to handle a greater variety of moisture levels of the grain stalks.
My area had lots of small fields that would not be easy to harvest with modern wide grain heads. But the length of the towed combine plus tractor also hindered maneuverability in tight areas.
If you ever work on an Allis 4-cylinder engine like the B, be aware that the firing order is different from the IH family of engines.

[Bus Driver]

Thinking more about the old grain combines. I do not recall ever seeing one pulled by a Cub. The Cub power unit is the smallest engine I ever saw on a combine. Some of the combines were both towed and powered from the PTO by larger tractors. My guess is that the horsepower of such tractors was about 30 as a minimum. The Ford N series was often used to tow a combine that had it's own engine but I do not remember an N Ford powering a combine from the tractor PTO. One of the drawbacks to using the PTO for powering the combine is the large turning radius required because of the power shaft between the tractor and the combine. Having an engine on the combine required more maintenance since that engine was used only seasonally and often would not run well after being unused for many months.
And adding an engine to the combine added weight making it harder to tow. No easy solutions.