2011 Wheat Harvest with the EIII

I took off work Wednesday to get my 6 acres of wheat on my south hilltop harvested.  It was much better with temps in the high 80's instead of waiting until Saturday with highs in the upper 90's. 

By my own stupidity, I found out something very interesting about my old Gleaner.   You can forget to shut the rock door and the combine will still harvest wheat and put it in the bin and only leave enough on the ground to think you had the fan turned up over the sieve a bit too much.  I figured it out after the first bin when I was still slugging the feeder beater occasionally even going slow in first gear.  I'm used to it slugging once or twice right a way in the field in wheat or beans until everything gets "slicked up" again.  But what I was really amazed about was that the cylinder would pull the heads through and thresh on the back two concave bars and not lose much at all with the door open.  Once I shut the rock door tight it ran great and I kicked it up in the 2nd gear and never slugged it again...

Wheat made 248 bu over 6 acres.  That was 4 bins filled to about  60 bu plus a little more.  For that last little bit on the top flat part of the field, I let my 10 year son Lucas run the combine with me showing him how to do it.  It was his first time to do that.   It was a good day for him as I also taught him how to drive the Expedition that day as well so he could follow me over and I'd have a quick way back to the house if we needed to make a parts run.  It's also good for pure safety to have someone else around too (he kept cell phone in the vehicle and sat under the big pecan tree in the shade).  Even better was no breakdowns again...that EIII has been the best $600 equipment investment I've made by far.  Here's some pics to share.  Mike















Rest of the pics:

http://s39.photobucket.com/albums/e176/Skyhighballoon/2011%20Wheat%20Harvest/?start=all

Forgot to add...my farming partner came in right after me with his 4450 and 15 foot 750 No-till drill and put in my double crop beans the same day before dark.  Also good to have them in Wednesday instead of Saturday, esp since there was still good moisture in the ground from rain we finally got last Sunday.   Mike

Rick - it has the light in the cab but the switch down on the rock door and the wiring is gone.  I need to find a good used switch from either an E or an early K and get that fixed and working.   Mike

PS...ask them if they are finally ready to sell that other Orange thing out in the shed...

Great pics Mike, good idea to teach that young man now,while you can watch him.It will be second nature to him by the time he has his license

Sounds like you had a good day and passed on a little something too.
 My neighbor got his JD combine out this spring to pick corn off a food plot. I went out o "help". On the first six rows he plugged up the snouts and stopped to clear it, giving me time to flag him down because his clean grain elevator was open at the bottom. He stores it that way to keep mice out.
 Well when he finished all 18 rows he still didn't have a whole lot of corn in the bin. While knocking junk off he realized the rock door was open too. I went back out the next morning and picked up 5, five gallon buckets of ear corn in about 5 minutes and left the rest to get plowed under. He should have not wasted the time to drive the combine all the way out there. Could have just plowed it all under.

What a fun day -- Kids and Gleaners - priceless.

Thats a nice looking EIII!

I was just now talking with Dad about your EIII, and he said he delivered the first E that Wells Implement, Plymouth Nebraska, sold.  He got to take it to the field and adjust it for the customer-he was REALLY impressed with how that little machine worked!  Yours looks really nice!

Curiosity question Mike,  About how much fuel did you burn per hour? 2 or 3? Dad's A had a Buda and we'd run about 3 or 4. 

Nice pictures Mike.  I'd forgotten what a nice original machine that E-III is.

Mike, Great pictures & nice combine. Now all you have to do is buy my A C 303 baler & you can bale straw. Thanks Terry

those rock door switchs were a PITA to keep working, always lost the ground somehow, same for the straw walker switch when it came.    I like the picture of the ole time custom harverter standin on the platform watch the wheat roll into the truck!!!!!!!

Great pics Mike.  It's great to see an old GLEANER still going and doing the job instead of getting crushed and melted down.