What do you do with a combine that can't harvest grain anymore? Warren Jensen turned his into a combination snow plow and big bale mover.

 I had seen stories about guys doing things with combines, and I had this snow plow sitting here without a tractor to push it,  recalls Jensen, Wakonda, S. Dak., who had an idled Deere 6600 combine.  I figured if I could put a 3-pt hitch on I could use the snowplow on the combine. 

The hardest part was working out the details in his head. Instead of welding 3-pt. hitch arms directly to the combine, he made a 3-pt.  header frame  that fits existing brackets on the combine. He started with a used corn head with a heavy-duty frame. He stripped everything off except the center frame, which he reinforced to support 3-pt. lift arms.

Light snows this past winter gave him only a limited chance to try out the rig, but he was able to show questioning neighbors that it did work.

With the 3-pt hitch in place, it was a snap for Jensen to attach his big bale fork to the combine to move bales this past summer.

Jensen thinks combines are ideally suited to moving snow.  There's traction right up front where you need it, though you have to add a little weight to the back for when you lift the blade,  says Jensen.  It has a good heater and good visibility. Our road drifts in pretty good, but I can push more snow with this than I could with a tractor and loader.