Massey Ferguson "Combines for the 80s" Promotional Video.

Featuring the "New" 850 and 860. also featuring the 540, 550, Pull type combine and Rice Combines
I do not own the rights to this video.

[@Edward-tp5nc]

My Dad was John Deere all the way but on combines he chose these in the 60s through 80s. Massey was first to come out with auto auger arm in the 60s. And they did a little better job than Deere. This was his last Combine. 860. Farming 850 acres in the 1980s and 90s. We did well. And in 84 the 860 was 145,000! That was a lot in the 80s. I miss those days. Today is a cultural decline including farming.

[@clancytaylor7714]

We still run 4 860 Massey's

[@cj9072]

MCool video! Brings back memories from my teenage years. Our neighbor had two Massy combines, a new 860 and 750. I recall he traded in one of his two 750's for the 860. We would help each other at harvest. We were running one JD 8820 and I was pretty jealous that he always had two machines. It was cool seeing the 860, the 750 and our 8820 on the same feild. Remember, that was before grain carts were a thing so us two "boys" would be driving trucks all over the feild. The guys Dad was not able to drive so he unloaed the trucks...we kept him busy.

[@davehughesfarm7983]

I am a JD man mostly, but I have run these 860's and I thought there was many advantages over a Deere back then...I liked how you could walk behind the cab and get in behind the motor...

[@rmanr7131]

My first hydrostat combine was an 860 and I put a John Deere 925 header on it was a very very good matchup

[@jamesburgess4750]

A few Massey haters, I detect. These were awesome machines--Queens of the flatlands. And, despite the moaning from detractors, you could actually work on them without consulting a software engineer.

[@RJ1999x]

I will assume you never ran anything else, because they weren't queen of anything

[@J-1410]

You could work on any combine of that era without a software engineer, hell you could go up to the late 2000s with some machines. I've only seen these machines once, and that was at an auction 3 months ago. I assume if the paint isn't wore off the inside of the machine, not a whole lot has went through it.

[@formerreaper7987]

I don't understand why so many massey haters watch videos of these machine and leave comments. Just go watch videos of the machines you like, in my opinion massey makes good stuff that's why we run massey in fact my area is very strong in massey equipment

[@RJ1999x]

@@formerreaper7987 I watched because I cut 1000's of acres with a Massey just like that, and it brought back memories, but the idea of that machine being the Cadillac of combined is just not accurate

[@wyattsmith9291]

No no they were junk

[@MrBashriprock]

Thank you for sharing. My grandpa had a 540. What I learned on. Brings back a lot of great memories!

[@carlleo6696]

L

[@kadenemerson3569]

The 700 and 800 series was the best combines massey every made

[@timmoore3534]

Road many of hours right behind my grandpa and dad in 860’s! And that’s also what I started running.

[@GeigerFarm]

Thank you for this film🙏🏼🙂. I have never seen it before!

[@mikeymcmikeface5599]

I love how it opens with a Dallas-style TV theme of that era...

[@jefferyjones8684]

One of my favorite memories was riding home from Muleshoe tx in dads new 760 30 miles home with it

[@jefferyjones8684]

It even had a radio in it so cool

[@davehughesfarm7983]

Hell yes...

[@Landmaschinen_der_Bauern_XXL]

Schönes Video 😍👍 Tolle Maschinen im Einsatz 👍😍 Glückwunsch an die Verfasser 🚜🚜

[@brentjohnson9210]

For a brief moment I caught a glimpse of a Massey combine engineer and I remembered my vow to find one and exact my revenge...

[@dalekrueger1175]

I have a 7720 and times wish I could find Deere and company engineer, and work him over with a pipewrench

[@GermanShepherd1983]

@@dalekrueger1175 Before you do that, ask him why he put the return elevator under the seat where you can't get to it. THAN you can hit him with the pipewrench.

[@davehughesfarm7983]

@@dalekrueger1175 T I would rather have a Massy with a Deere head than a Titan... And I am a JD guy...

[@interman7715]

Hahaha.

[@kadenemerson3569]

I just bought a 510 I plan to hang on to it for a while then later jump up to a 550 or 700 or 800 series

[@timgear9892]

After watching that video, I am ready to buy. Hard to believe they went BK

[@amyandsamuel9432]

Great video of a great combine we were one of the first in the UK to get a 760 18 foot powerflow header it was really better than the rest seeing neighbours struggle with old fashion class and john deere . We later had straw spreaders fitted and a chopper when stubble burning got banned here it was the renamed a 765 . One thing we did notice on the bottom of one of the elevators there was a warning label to clean elevator regularly when operating in snow 😅 didn't see much of that during our harvests and the air con was brilliant along with the drive experience thanks MF

[@nikerailfanningttm9046]

forty years later, they would introduce another combine that is the leader in the European import market: *IDEAL 7, 8, 9, AND 10*

[@eddiebaughman2809]

They were a beast but also the same to work on. My Dad always said.he would bet it took the engineers a month to figure how to how stuff to work on

[@DWK-ln9rm]

,i joke sometimes,how drunk were they when the designed that

[@robertpayne2717]

My dad and grandad had an old super 92 from the 1950's and my dad replaced his 95 John Deere in 1969 with a 410 and I bought a 550 in 1983 neighbor bought a 750 in 85 I quit in 86 and didn't have a problem with Massey we raised Rice, grain sourghum, wheat and beans they were good machines then. But , Massey was in trouble by the late 80's and early 90's The first hint was they closed down their company owned stores. Wr then had to travel several miles around 80 miles round trip aferwards for parts ...and service MF was a victim of the 80's farm crisis as were many farmers.....

[@GermanShepherd1983]

Super 92 was built from 1960 to 1964. None were built in the 50's

[@frankwurth5375]

Massey was a good company, had decent dealer support and decent products. Don't forget that the big IHC and Allis also went under during the Carter induced farm crisis. New Holland ended up with Ford to survive as well. Can't blame Massey for the failure. Any simple economist can see that if you take away the farmers income and raise interest to over 20%, you have a disaster on hand and no way to recover till you get new leaders in charge. They had a hidden agenda to eliminate any and all small family farmers and business men in favor of the mega corporate operations that we have today. So over 1/2 of the Farmers and small businesses went under as well, If the farmer don't have money, he can't buy replacement equipment. That's the thing the big headed idiots in Washington don't care about the average person, they get their money, they don't give a fig about us, and their trying for a repeat performance today.

[@frankwurth5375]

Don't go thanking the present adm just yet, any better income will come with a hefty cost, taxes and regulations. That and the higher price of energy and fertilizer and the shipping blockage at the ports, this will all cost us dearly in the near future. Poor old Joe is in over his head. Trump sure didn't help Agriculture with his trade war, but don't forget the ag subsidy that Trump sent us, not great but better than nothing. The farm sector is barely 2% of the voting populace, don't expect much from Washington Politicans from either side! As bad as the last 2 Administrations were / are, they don't hold a candle to Carter for destroying the Farm economy. I damn well remember going broke while that idiot raised the interest rates to 25% or more! Also no jobs avilable for us to make a living in town! Every small business and farmer locally failed or barely survived and no sympathy from The bastards that forced this down on us! You can take Carter , Clinton , obiden and the rest of those Leftist Socialist's And take them straight to Hell and keep them! I survived the Democrat war in Vietnam and the Carter and Trump years but Obama has totally set us up to die, one way or the other! Poor old Joe is simply his front man.@@GermanShepherd1983

[@GermanShepherd1983]

@@frankwurth5375 Joe Biden gave my wife and I each far more PPP money tax free than trump ever gave us under his trade war payments.

[@frankwurth5375]

@@GermanShepherd1983 Your just another Biden loving troll that just can't keep your leftist propaganda to your self. So shut The F up.

[@GermanShepherd1983]

Ask anyone who ever owned a Massey 540 or 550 about reliability and resale value. And then be ready to run.

[@OldIron2188]

Speaking for a 550 owner, reliability would be best described as bulletproof. It's 42 years old and hasn't had a rebuilt anything and it works fine. As for the resale value, I have no idea. we bought it new and haven't sold it.

[@redbull8661]

I spent many hours in one of these, You could always put a clean grain sample in the hopper and not throw it over. But they had so many moving parts that they were a maintenance nightmare and with any time on the machine at all they became really unreliable.

[@frankwurth5375]

Yeah, Massey ruled until Jimmy Carter destroyed the farm economy! Put nearly 1/2 the farmers into bankruptcy, no farmer= no equipment sales= no dealers and no builders! We lost Massey, Allis, IHC, and White, all because of Carter! Someone pointed out that these combines had so many moving parts that with wear they became a maintenance nightmare. Yes, they did, but almost everyone else's machine had the same problem for the same reason. IHC revolutionized the industry with their rotary machine as it had 1/2 the moving parts. But even yet today, combines are still a maintenance nightmare. The rotary concept eliminated excessive extra moving parts for a while, but todays machine are back to adding all kind of extra equipment to make a more complex machine, we've gone a bit backwards! But today that same size machine will set you back nearly one million dollars, compared to the 60-70 thousand back then. The price of corn today is still about the same as the pre -Carter days, think of that.

[@darkamezcua3628]

One day @mike Mitchell is going to see this video

[@gordonvanpatten6637]

Not a better combine built in their day, easy on fuel, and built to save grain, not throw it out the back like a Deere.

[@davehughesfarm7983]

I liked them too and I am a JD guy...

[@lewisbarclay6574]

When case stopped building combines we switched to MF. 510, 540, 750, 760. Went back to case/IH afterwards

[@Zero01k]

There appears to be a lot of Massey characteristics in our Lexion combine

[@pauldevloo5231]

You mean the fact there's 4 wheels and a header, dont know what else is the same

[@tgh223]

massey class lexion all same company

[@Zero01k]

@@pauldevloo5231 clearly we didn't watch the same video, you must have missed that pre cylinder, main cylinder and impler

[@Zero01k]

@@tgh223 Massey and Claas are two very different companies

[@davehughesfarm7983]

LOL@@pauldevloo5231

[@robertallen3441]

Probably watched this at MF training school at Stoneleigh. Must admit it's not familar, but there again, I might have dozed off when it was being shown.🤣🤣🤣

[@bondoly66]

When people tell me it's green or nothing I ask them if they have ever run anything else. It's funny when I hear the answers.

[@ralfpusteblume2144]

My family here in germany had serveral of these types of machines(760, 860 all equipt with the V8 Perkins, never needed to repair the engine, onl valve time adjustment): Due to "Power Flow " cutting unit and robust design these amercian havesters where better (more acrers per hour) than our claas and John Deeere havesters! And in tractors the Perkins engines have way better cold starting abilities than the John Deers. If it was colder than -10°C the green ones always needed ether or strarting pilot to start...MY father always told:" Hey the time im starting the started you spray just enough ether into the air filter"....- But like alwaay there are and bad types of machines in any company. But hese types shown in the video where of good quality. Way better than the french build machines. their tractors had problems with the transmissiont, mainly the 32 Gears transmission and wirering harness... Best regards

[@RJ1999x]

@@ralfpusteblume2144 you should have tried a gleaner or New Holland, these Massey's were horrible machines

[@larrygro]

@@ralfpusteblume2144 have a V8 Perkins for an irrigation motor. Has to be 70 degrees to start it without ether. It’s pretty old though. I do agree with you about reliability. It’s never been opened up.

[@ralfpusteblume2144]

@@larrygro How many hours has the engine run? Normally if the Perkins engines have not run to many hours the start very well. Depends wether the pistons are worn out and this leads to low compression... But for me as a european i prefer cummins diesel John deere own built diesels. We never had any any Problems with cummins engines. In some bigger MF tractors cummins have been built into it. But never had any major problems.

[@larrygro]

@@ralfpusteblume2144 I don’t know because the hr gauge is broken but I would estimate 15,000 hrs at least. Uses very little oil though

[@interman7715]

MF was in severe financial troubles during these times and getting financial support from the government maybe that's why they couldn't afford a major upgrade to compete with other makes .

[@dannyboy6332]

Why are some people saying they were junk machines and other people saying they were great machines? So, which was it.

[@jameshill4900]

They were a good large capacity innovative machine when they were introduced that many custom combiners used. They did have reliability issues. They were more of a budget brand with lighter steel and looked to cut corners to save money. Example they originally had a reliable heavy duty bearing off the motor that they replaced with a extremely light duty one with the early 850/860s. It made no sense other than to save money and it caused constant major repairs. A couple years later they had to revert back to the original HD bearing.

[@dannyboy6332]

@@jameshill4900 thank you

[@TheFarmerfitz]

I have 2 860's. A 1984 model and a (newer style). The air intake shroud they show before 3:35 on the 84 is just like that, the newer version they went to a serpentine belt around the drum that drives off the output shaft, and also tey added a chaff extractor unit. They must have got that idea from Mickey Mouse clubhouse. lol. I hate it, they didn't improve anything. Just made it harder to work on.

[@TheFarmerfitz]

Don't get me wrong, the newer model is also a nice machine and works well. It just seems it's harder to fix than the other one because of some slight changes they made. But if I buy another one. I will look for the older version like my 84 model.

[@Blazefork]

They were good machines, but had no business doing a comparison with IHC, they were the innovator of the system still being used today. I will give them this, they probably were number 1 in the 70s....that's why John Deere copied them, something JD has been notorious for.

[@thesteelrodent1796]

Everyone copied the original MF combines. Most of the European brands started out as either a copy of MF, like Claas and Fahr (and a couple others I can't remember), or were built under license from MF, like Dronningborg in Denmark and a few others.

[@GallOGlaigh993]

1680 axial flows couldn't hold a candle to the 550 in the field. The feeder house was too small for thw bigger header. We used to run circles around the big crews from Texss that ran IHC

[@Blazefork]

@@GallOGlaigh993 they must not have had settings right etc... I've been around 550 Massey's and their not worth the matches and gasoline to burn them with. A 1440 International is an even or superior machine.

[@GallOGlaigh993]

@@Blazefork reread. I explained why.

[@Blazefork]

@@GallOGlaigh993 I started out with a 1480 with a 30' 1010 and had no issues, could run 4.5 to 5 mph in 50 plus bushel wheat and keep it in the machine, a rotary combines capacity isn't as directly linked to the feeder house width as a conventional combine. I operated an N6 Gleaner and it was a cutting machine when you could keep it in the field and the throat was narrower than the International machines. I apologize for the snarky comment on the 550.. but the experience I've had with them is non plus.

[@bigbudw5093]

Wonder if Massey was including the header in that price at the 4:10 mark or just lying. Our Massey 760 we bought new in 1979 cost just over $60,000 with 24ft header and it was a non hydro Perkins 354. I can't see the price going up $13,000 in one year.

[@72alta]

could be a Canadian price

[@GermanShepherd1983]

@@72alta In the late 70's the Canadian dollar was almost on par with the US dollar

[@georgeketchmark3087]

In Canada they were priced with a pickup header never bought a new combine or cutting header. You could get a new 850 with a pickup in 1985 for 45000 Canadian they were 1983 and 1984 production years. The dealers that had a lot of used inventory were not happy because the used ones were more expensive than the new ones

[@larrygro]

I can. Those were inflation years. If you could even get a machine you could sell it used for more than you bought it new the year before. Exactly like now. Hold on to your hat because it’s happening again. Let’s go Brandon

[@GermanShepherd1983]

@@larrygro I'll take Joe Biden any day over that idiot trump. Grain prices are more than double what they were after trump imposed the Chinese tariffs. Hard to make money on $2.50 corn and $6.50 soybeans. I made more money in the last month than I did in all four years of trump combined.

[@pauldevloo5231]

Wonder how many farms went bust with these units

[@bondoly66]

My guess would be fewer than with others.

[@farmernate-vy6bm]

Were still running them here!

[@RJ1999x]

@@bondoly66 then you never owned one, we started with 4 brand new 860 in Arizona and by the time they got to Montana they were junk, and an awful lot of repairs in-between

[@tgh223]

them ole 410 just would not stay together man what a headache

[@OldIron2188]

We had a 410, it was fine

[@interman7715]

Comparing an IHC 1480 to these combines didn't age well .

[@robmiller2919]

No it didn't, rarely see a 1480 still running....

[@jameshill4900]

Can't really knock the marketing. Even if they were more of a budget brand they did sell a massive amount of combines in the early 80s.

[@favorit926vario5]

Seven years later they went bankrupt.

[@bondoly66]

They are now part of the largest ag company in the world and doing just fine.

[@favorit926vario5]

@@bondoly66 But there is no more left than the brand.

[@bigbudw5093]

Agco dropped Massey combines so they are no more.

[@bryanginder5903]

Still see quite a few of them still running around the country!

[@snowman5609]

They don't go bankrupt because of there combine they had a crooked ceo that should have want to jail he hurt a lot of people with his dishonesty so there built a awsome combine for the time but it's hard to stay in business when your ceo is steeling from the company.

[@sheilamclaughlin963]

Gleaner was worse

[@RJ1999x]

Awful combines that did a great job but poorly designed and poorly built