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Dennis J OPKs 
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Joined: 12 Sep 2009
Location: Overland Park,
Points: 467
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 Topic: Sugar Beet Harvesters
Posted: 12 May 2020 at 4:42pm |
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This is a rare subject for the forum and I don't recall it ever being mentioned. They were made in the mid 60's until about 1970. It's not clear if AC mfg. them or someone else built them for AC. Anyway, I was asked if they have any value and my reply was probably scrap value unless a collector wants one and then it's still probably scrap. Anyway, I know where there is one in the TX panhandle and it actually doesn't look too bad considering it may have been parked there (outside) for 50 years. Comments appreciated. Thanks.
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DiyDave
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Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Location: Gambrills, MD
Points: 52399
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Posted: 12 May 2020 at 5:11pm |
Swinfords book states that SBH's were made by Oppel Harvester Company, Boise, Idaho... 
Edited by DiyDave - 12 May 2020 at 5:11pm
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Michael V (NM)
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Joined: 12 Sep 2009
Location: NM
Points: 2424
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Posted: 12 May 2020 at 5:43pm |
where in the TX panhandle? I'm guessing Hereford/Dimmitt/Friona area, as that was a big sugar beet production area back years ago.. I get to the Hereford area occasionally,,, I don't want it, but would like to look, and maybe get a picture or 2
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Dennis J OPKs
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Location: Overland Park,
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Posted: 12 May 2020 at 6:33pm |
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Michael, no it's actually close to Dalhart. I have a couple of pictures if you want to PM your e-mail address to me I can forward them to you. It appears to be a pull type pto driven, maybe one row-I guess they made them up to three rows. Beets were raised in SW KS years ago and may still be grown in Colorado-I don't know.
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Michael V (NM)
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Joined: 12 Sep 2009
Location: NM
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Posted: 13 May 2020 at 8:45am |
geez,, Dalhart is like 2 steps out my back door..get there quite a bit, bank is there, get most my parts and supplies there...I know a few folks around there. PM sent
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Ray54
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Joined: 22 Nov 2009
Location: Paso Robles, Ca
Points: 4616
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Posted: 13 May 2020 at 10:30am |
You willing to let Micheal V share pictures with the group.
Why does this always happen................. not used in 50 years. I start counting fingers and toes and come up with 1970.......................that was not long ago. Darn that was 50 years ago and I was just a pup.  Now the whole day is going to HE!! cause I am old. |
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ac fleet
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Joined: 12 Jan 2014
Location: Arrowsmith, ILL
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Posted: 13 May 2020 at 10:35am |
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Don't feel bad Ray!---I am there too!
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http://machinebuildersnetwork.com/
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john(MI)
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Joined: 12 Sep 2009
Location: SE MI
Points: 9262
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Posted: 13 May 2020 at 11:49am |
I was still in high school! If it has an AC auxiliary engine on it that may be worth something.
The raise lots of sugar beets up here on the MI Thumb. The harvesters are huge machines. And the piles are impressive.
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D14, D17, 5020, 612H, CASE 446
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Dennis J OPKs
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Joined: 12 Sep 2009
Location: Overland Park,
Points: 467
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Posted: 13 May 2020 at 1:03pm |
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No problem on sharing photos. I don't have the skills required to post them here so will be sending them to him via 3 e-mails.
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Michael V (NM)
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Posted: 13 May 2020 at 4:05pm |
I'll try and get them here well,,, I got one here..
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Michael V (NM)
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Posted: 13 May 2020 at 4:25pm |
 heres another one
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Tracy Martin TN
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Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Location: Gallatin,TN
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Posted: 13 May 2020 at 8:23pm |
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I like to see the pics of all the stuff AC made or rebadged. Pretty neat stuff. Thanks Tracy
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No greater gift than healthy grandkids!
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BenGiBoy
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Posted: 13 May 2020 at 8:29pm |
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That's cool, thanks for posting!
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'39 Model B
Tractors are cheaper than girls, remember that!
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AC7060IL
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Joined: 19 Aug 2012
Location: central IL
Points: 3431
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Posted: 14 May 2020 at 7:57am |
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First for me to view such an item. Impressive how broad spectrumed AC had become. So would it dig/loosen crop, then separate from soil or did it require another implement pass to help the process? Love it’s jeep looking tires. Thanks for sharing.
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tomstractorsandtoys
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Joined: 11 Feb 2015
Location: wi
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Posted: 14 May 2020 at 9:11pm |
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Thanks for posting pics. I have no interest in owning but still nice to see another part of a great company and farm history. Tom
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Dennis J OPKs
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Location: Overland Park,
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Posted: 15 May 2020 at 10:03am |
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I'm sure there are members on here that can explain the process. I believe the green tops first have to be removed (can be used for cattle feed). Then the harvesters actually dig the beets out of the ground, shake off as much dirt as possible. Then they are piled up and/or eventfully hauled the processing plant. That's got to be the short version and others can explain better. Check out you-tube for the modern methods but the process seems to be similar.
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Ray54
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Joined: 22 Nov 2009
Location: Paso Robles, Ca
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Posted: 15 May 2020 at 1:59pm |
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They used a flail type mower that would take everything down to the dirt here. So not much left and after the digger was like it had been plowed. The lifters and open slates on the chain (in pictures) lets the dirt fall back to the ground.
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DiyDave
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Posted: 15 May 2020 at 5:51pm |
Here's the modern version, of how sugar beets are processed...
[TUBE]ksN7h-ZpFWc[/TUBE]
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oregontrailbeans
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Joined: 15 Sep 2009
Location: USA
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Posted: 25 Jan 2021 at 5:03pm |
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I had a 3 row I could dig 40 ton beets at 6.5 mph with the 190XT.. great machine
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injpumpEd
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Joined: 13 Sep 2009
Location: Walnut IL
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Posted: 25 Jan 2021 at 6:01pm |
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Looks very similar to a FarmHand
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210 "too hot to farm" puller, part of the "insane pumpkin posse". Owner of Guenther Heritage Diesel, specializing in fuel injection systems on heritage era tractors. stock rebuilds to all out pullers!
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Dave (Mid-MI)
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Posted: 25 Jan 2021 at 8:24pm |
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The latest Old Allis News came today, and contains an advertisement about these harvesters.
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shameless dude
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Posted: 25 Jan 2021 at 11:24pm |
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that machine sure wold look nice all spiffed up and on display at Hutch!
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HudCo
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Posted: 26 Jan 2021 at 11:02am |
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i would like to see photos of a mar beet mounted on a wd 45 or a d17 ours was mounted on ad17d single row and mounted to awd45d before my time it got scraped all i have left is some picking wheel parts and all the books i would like to find one to mount on my wd for parades and shows this was big beet country until the 80s
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Bill(MO)
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Posted: 26 Jan 2021 at 6:00pm |
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Oppel made several products for AC in the Late 60s and 70s. I had just started to work for Allis Chalmers in summer of 1967 when one of our dealers sold a potato harvester to a prison farm in Kansas. There were enough inmates in the field they could have dug potatoes about as fast as the harvester. I did get to have lunch in the prison dining hall! .
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matador
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Location: Wyoming
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Posted: 26 Jan 2021 at 9:17pm |
Those old diggers aren't that much different from the modern ones. There's a farmer out here who runs an old Hesston 3 row that looks kinda like that. In a beet harvest, you have a defoliator run ahead of the digger- it's a bunch of rubber flails that beat the tops off the beets. Then, that machine comes along. There are two angled wheels for each row- they kinda look like a narrow front end on a tractor. They're steel and run a little underground. They lift the beets out of the ground, and flails push them onto some steel rollers that knock the dirt off.
That machine would have been a Cadillac in it's day- it has a basket to carry beets. A lot of the older Heath units out here don't have the tank- they just go straight on a conveyor to a truck. The tank makes them so much more versatile- the unloading conveyor is hydraulic, so you can just shut it off at the ends of the rows while the truck turns around
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truckerfarmer
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Posted: 26 Jan 2021 at 10:09pm |
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My dad built some of those Heath lifters back in the late '70s.
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Looking at the past to see the future.
'53 WD, '53 WD45, WD snap coupler field cultivator, #53 plow,'53 HD5B dozer
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