RX2 series a huge advantage with the Cummins engines replacing the Deutz. The 500 Series head - marketing forced the cutterbar further out in order to advertise 5" float vs JD's 4", but sacrificed feeding. Gleaners first rotary protoypes had the rotor up front with a lot of weight in back to keep the rear down so Marketing could advertise no feed chains. Then the Marketing Manager retired and the rotor ended up back of the bin. Feed chains required but greatly simplified cleaning like allowing accelerator rolls. Unfortunately I only have one poor picture of that nightmare original proto rotary.
@@JandLVideos Began somewhere in that timeframe at our ATC or Advanced Technology Center in West Allis. The small group (3 people) moved to Independence in 1968 setting up quarters in a mobile office across the street from the main office. Lyle Shaver was the leader of the group, came to A-C from Massey where he had been working on rotary concepts. In the Massey experiments, they found the straight in feed method was most efficient but Massey did not want to pursue so Lyle moved on to where his concept could be pursued - at least that's what I was told when the group all of a sudden moved in. I remember Massey having put out a video in which the narrator said they had evaluated the concept Gleaner used and found it unacceptable. The program suddenly showed up on our project list as the AFC (Axial Flow Combine). Lyle Shaver replaced Gene Allen as Chief Engineer, Product Development when Gene retired in the early 1970s, and then Lyle replaced Stan Reeve's as Manager of Engineering about 1973-75. By that time the L & M were in production and resources swung heavily to the rotary, code model N2, then limited release as the N6 in 1978.
The Laverda Mx is an axial combine that had the rotor in the front to avoid feeder chain, it has a very bad reputation, I've never seen one in person but you can look it up, there are pictures of it. By the way, Laverda has since been bought by AGCO and they now build the Fendt (Massey Ferguson?) Ideal combine.
i still run a 1982 m2. it is so simple to work on and does an amazing job if you keep the machine full. the head is terrible for feeding in short beans though! I am looking to upgrade as it seems rasp bars are not available for the old girl...
Quite frankly, the best combines made Gleaner has such a rich history great combines
I remember seeing those R72's back in 1992 and wishing we hadn't switched to JD.
Great video of number 1 combine
RX2 series a huge advantage with the Cummins engines replacing the Deutz. The 500 Series head - marketing forced the cutterbar further out in order to advertise 5" float vs JD's 4", but sacrificed feeding. Gleaners first rotary protoypes had the rotor up front with a lot of weight in back to keep the rear down so Marketing could advertise no feed chains. Then the Marketing Manager retired and the rotor ended up back of the bin. Feed chains required but greatly simplified cleaning like allowing accelerator rolls. Unfortunately I only have one poor picture of that nightmare original proto rotary.
They started experimenting with rotary combines around the same time you started at gleaner 1967ish?
@@JandLVideos Began somewhere in that timeframe at our ATC or Advanced Technology Center in West Allis. The small group (3 people) moved to Independence in 1968 setting up quarters in a mobile office across the street from the main office. Lyle Shaver was the leader of the group, came to A-C from Massey where he had been working on rotary concepts. In the Massey experiments, they found the straight in feed method was most efficient but Massey did not want to pursue so Lyle moved on to where his concept could be pursued - at least that's what I was told when the group all of a sudden moved in. I remember Massey having put out a video in which the narrator said they had evaluated the concept Gleaner used and found it unacceptable. The program suddenly showed up on our project list as the AFC (Axial Flow Combine). Lyle Shaver replaced Gene Allen as Chief Engineer, Product Development when Gene retired in the early 1970s, and then Lyle replaced Stan Reeve's as Manager of Engineering about 1973-75. By that time the L & M were in production and resources swung heavily to the rotary, code model N2, then limited release as the N6 in 1978.
The Laverda Mx is an axial combine that had the rotor in the front to avoid feeder chain, it has a very bad reputation, I've never seen one in person but you can look it up, there are pictures of it.
By the way, Laverda has since been bought by AGCO and they now build the Fendt (Massey Ferguson?) Ideal combine.
i still run a 1982 m2. it is so simple to work on and does an amazing job if you keep the machine full. the head is terrible for feeding in short beans though! I am looking to upgrade as it seems rasp bars are not available for the old girl...