Loader Made From Deere Combine

Loader Made From Deere Combine TRACTORS Loaders 27-4-32 When Ron Grismer bought an old Deere 55 combine several years ago, he was mainly interested in the grain header on it. "I already owned a 55 combine, and I needed that head," says the Dorintosh, Saskatchewan farmer. "My combine was in good shape. The platform head on the one I bought was just about the only part that wasn't worn out," he continues. "The inside of the combine itself was completely rusted out." A couple of years ago when he needed a new loader tractor, Grismer decided he could make one out of the old 55. "The frame was still good," he says. "I stripped the combine down so the only things left on the frame were the engine, the operator platform, and the axles." His next step was to move the steering axle forward 18 in. to shorten the turning radius. Then he took the motor off, made new mounts from 2 by 6 steel tubing, and set it crossways on the frame, just in front of the rear wheels behind the platform. He moved the operator's platform down onto a new 2 x 6 frame just 2 ft. in front of the engine. "It was surprising how easy it was to move all the controls down to just 6 in. above the frame and hook it all up again," he says. Because the combine had hydrostatic drive, there was no need to redo the driveline. Using square steel tubing, he made a frame on which to mount a front-end loader. Then he went looking for a good used loader to put on it. "I couldn't find one, so I bought a new one with a quick-detach bucket that fit the frame I made," he says. Then he had another problem. The 55 Deere combine had a two-stage hydraulic pump with two control valves, designed for the power steering and the hydrostat. He could have added controls for his loader, but the old pump didn't have enough capacity to handle the loader. So he decided to add another hydraulic pump and reservoir. He located a used 20-gal. per minute pump from an old Case 580 backhoe. "I made a double groove pulley to replace the single groove main drive pulley on the engine. I ran the belt to drive the second pump to a double bearing splined shaft and attached the shaft directly to my new pump, so there'd be no belt torque on the pump," he says. For a hydraulic oil reservoir, he sealed up one of the square tubes on the frame. Finally, he decided he needed a cab over the old combine operator's platform. To fill the need, he salvaged one from an old IH combine in a junkyard. "Everything went together really well," he says. "I can't think of anything I'd do different on it right now." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ron Grismer, Box 35, Dorintosh, Sask., Canada S0M 0T0 (ph 306 236-6760).

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