Red vs Green combines??

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I’m considering updating my combines. I run s670 and s680 now. Our case dealership has been pushing to get an 8250 on the farm. What’s everyone thoughts on red vs green combines and the price difference between them?

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Have you seen the new Ideal combine?  Supposedly designed by farmers.  Looks good in the videos i have seen.  Time will tell though.

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Have run red combines my since my first 79 1460, in my opinion the red guys last good machine was the 2588. In north east NE you cant get service on a red machine unless you bought it from that dealer new. Went to a S670 after my last red one burned up. Can now get service from any green dealer around. They say they don`t care where you bought your machine, if you run green you are family. I am too far away from a gleaner  or  Class dealer . So for the rest of my career ill run green. Sorry red you lost me.

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Seems like i see more red ones than anything in the salvage yards

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the new midsize machines  are the 5150, 6150, 7150, flagship are 7250, 8250, and 9250.

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Guess I'll find out if I don't like this one.

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Maybe should try twin rotor by NH on top of list to compare then will forget single rotor

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I'm late to this discussion, but the best ROI is easily buying a used combine.  The JD market is flooded with used S670's and S680's and you can buy them cheaper than the same class combine in the Red color.  You can find a ton of combines out there with less than 1k separator hours for around 200K or less.  Our operation recently bought a 8120 case combine with 1400 sep and 2100 engine for 115k.  I've found better luck with buying from independent used equipment dealers.  Same with what the people above say, buy whichever you can get better service with.  You're going to put some money into a combine regardless of if it's new or less than 10 years old, just hopefully you can stay away from engine/transmission/final drives repairs with used equipment.

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Do a little research and don't blindly follow the majority. I have to laugh at all the green and red sheepels, they think Gleaners are Stone age equipment. I'm amazed at how little people know about Gleaners but seem to know it all. Do some serious homework on your own and don't believe all the fairy tales. I know green from countless friends telling me, will cost you a lot in repairs in just normal wear items, don't know about red on that. There are many advantages with a Gleaner, look into it.

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i demoed a new S780 last fall in corn and beans.  I've been running a 8240 and was thinking of switching until i ran the deere.  There was no comparison in corn, the case had more power and way more capacity while having a better grain sample and using less fuel.  We stayed with Case and bought a new 8250.  The deere in beans ran really nice if i had more acres i might have switched but for the extra 60k they wanted for the deere it wasn't worth it.

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We run about 450 separator hours a fall on are machines.  We switch to green because of service.   In southeast Nebraska we found the best service is greeen.   Doesn’t matter what the color alll have trouble   All about service on the brand you run for us

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try a new Holland I used to run a cr960 a while back yeah its old but damn that thing was one hell of a machine for a class 6 combine and I did not have any major repairs for 5 years. after five years she's a little on the worn inside and will need a bit of attention but I am now in a 9870 john Deere and its a big ole pig compared to the 960 but for it being a class 8 the cr 960 or class 6 was much better built and I combined 300 acres last year with the john Deere due to weather losses and I couldn't even make it through that without something minor and stupid going on with the john Deere call me crazy but I'm looking for a class 8 New Holland to trade it off on.

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Farmers union in Kenmare ND is having a going out of business sale on ******* brothers.  They have some nice nh on the sale ******** ran NH for years.  Run circles around my JD brothers.  Only problem I have is my dealership is going out of business and it's not because of the product it's because of poor management.

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love our 9230 for everything other than wheat!

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Why not in wheat?

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rotor loss is my guess. just can't go very fast throws to much for my liking over the back.and i have tried everything. other than changing the sieves. now we had a case 6088. that was the best combine we had! done a awesome job all the way around!

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Almost all rotor loss can be fixed by adjusting a few things: vane position rotor speed and concave clearance these combines are designed to run the grain against itself to thresh so if you drive faster push more crop through u might need your vanes adjusted so the grain makes more revolutions or might need to open up your concaves and adjust rotor speed a little best way I have found is just to play with it I never had to get any special concaves or anything like that to get it working properly.

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This isn’t my 1st time.. I have done all the above and then some.. no luck

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The more I hear that the more I keep thinking I should start up my own little traveling business if it wasn't for a 5  year non compete agreement I'd do it haha

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I run a 2017 S680 & 2011 9870, demo’d a new 9240 this fall, it does have a bit more capacity but more $ for it, it is way louder, has a shitty screen and setup for gps and burns 6x the dec the Deere does along with harder on fuel. I won’t be switching to red. Only feature I likes was you could shut off discharge cross augers to empty your unload auger if the cart is full, I wil by upgrading my 9870 to another ‘17 S680 even tho it only has 1700 sep hrs. Just want to run identical machines makes things simpler. And regular maintenance is cheap on the Deere’s, no worse than the red or yellow

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I've ran red for 45 years, except for 10 years we ran Lexion until they moved dealership. Was always cussing the sieve loss.  No matter how we set the sieves, after awhile it would spit out one side of the other and leave a trail on the end.  We run a chopping head and always had heating problem.  Cured all those problems this fall.  Ran an 8600 Claas which is a class smaller than the last three 9240's we've been running.   We were able to put a third more through the machine without pushing it and with the cooling system on top, never heated up once.  Never cleaned radiator all season and only cleaned air filter once during the season.  Ran it at times over 6,000 bu/ hour but carts and trucks got behind .  It has an 8,000 bu/hr clean grain elevator so now chance of over loading.  The most impressive was getting out and walking behind and digging around.  Never found more than one kernel per square foot which is about 1/2 bu per acre.  
Another 8600 in the area did an 8 hour hard run and took out 57,927 bu in the 8 hours.  Average of 7241 bu/hr.  They demoed an X9 the day before.  Beat it all the way around.  They make two more verions larger than the 8600.  
Looking forward to harvest '21.

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We started using case combines with a 1440. We now have two 7130 and 7230 both machines have around 1300 separator hours and required $30000 in repairs. I think we will stay with case, all machines need fixed eventually.

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We run two pre-def S660 John Deere Combines on our farm. Both have over 1300 hours on them. Typically me and dad run the machines and in good corn with 12 row heads we run anywhere from 4-5.5 mph. Beans we run their as well. Wheat we typically run 3-4 mph so speed and overall grain quality and cleaning is not an issue for us. A large reason for us running Deere is quality, speed of service, parts, ride, and cab space. Deere is closer and faster about getting parts and service when we need it. We do almost all of our own maintenance and servicing. Last year we didn’t have a break down at all the entire harvest. This year we have had 3 that were two day break downs. I will be staying with Deere.

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Have ran red, yellow and green. The all have their pros and cons but it your the one sitting in the machine all day long every day, the Deere has a quieter more user friendly cab, I’ll be running Deere’s for a while yet, way nicer to run than the new case

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Each to their own, we also get way better service and sales through deere than the competitors

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I know dealer support and brand loyalty are pretty high on peoples list for choosing a combine.  But,  something else to consider.  We raise  numerous varieties of seed soybeans.  When it comes to cleaning out the combine between varieties there isn't an easier machine to clean or inspect than a newer Massey or Challenger combine.  If you are growing or thinking about identity preserved crops,  the ease of clean out is a big deal.  Also,  I'd have to say reliability has been excellent too.

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We switched to claas and would never look back

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I run the big class 9 case on my farm and trade every year. I used to run both and spent about the same for repairs. The case was easier to work on and parts were cheaper, but when you look at grain loss and quality Case won big time. Lower grain loss almost made half my payments.PTI is my dealer and they take great care of me. When I have a machine down they are there to get me back going that day or they bring me a loaner machine.i couldn’t even rent one from Deere when theirs was down for days. I grew up on a green farm but we are 95% red now because of price and service..

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Weve ran every makr of combine over the years.  Ive seen it all from an old gleaner that ran night and day for the neighbors While we ran red  machines across  the road.  We now now run Green   but I think the Red is hard to best.  I love the 9610 combine better than any machine  JD has built yet.  The JD rotors will trash themslves if any bolt or shue arm malfunctios.  We have a 9760 did this spent moooney rebuilt all replaced all bolts.  Did it again frustrating I love the rotary JD but thst deal the designer should have talked to Case IH before building that deal.  All machines are as good as you keep them.  I love em all if they run sometimes luck is what you need  with any machine out there.  Dont need near as much luck with a 9610 JD.  Puts the old 9600 to shame

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What made you switch to case?

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Cheaper up front cost going from a class 7 to a class 8. Trying to get more efficient without breaking the bank. Turns out I’d have been about the same staying with Deere assuming that the repairs on a S680 would have been significantly less. Thats a fairly big assumption though. Anyone have an idea what annual repairs on an S680 are?

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Run 3 680s and 2 8240s grain sample better in red but the reliability is terrible. Lease is up dec 9 be a happy day when there gone

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All brands have similar strengths and weaknesses. I have found that finding a dealer that stands behind there product and offers great service is more important than the brand. I personally have found two dealers that meet that criteria, a Deere dealer and an Agco/Versatile dealer. Caseih doesn't even have a dealer near me.

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Buy a Gleaner!

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Seriously, it is a much lighter machine. No concaves to swap between crops. Easy to set and saves grain. Very easy to work on. Very fuel efficient.

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Combines are red, tractors are green, if your truck ain't a duramax you will never be scene.....

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Hell if your going to upgrade I have heard great things about fendt might be worth a demo I think they are still doing sign ups for a demo

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FYI anyone looking at CaseIH, if you have the option of the mid size vs flagship, an engineer from the factory said they have the fewest mechanical issues with the midsize combines

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I switched from a case 7240 to a JD780 and found that the deere is far more reliable in my experience so far.  I had wear items on the 7240 that should have lasted for 1000-1500 hours and I was changing out unloading auger, beater shaft, and main drive shaft at 400 hours.  The John Deere also has more operator convenience features and much better auto header height control. Cost on the JD is higher, would be a negative.

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We run case. Have an 8120 and an 8240.
We've been red for since I was about 12, I've always checked out the neighbors' green machines, I think JD has more features, and some stuff looks beefier. However I feel like they aren't designed to be worked on. They seem overly complex and a lot of stuff crammed into tight spaces. (looked at the Fendt combine at FPS and thought the same) 
Just seems like case are much easier to work on and better layout. 
Some of our neighbors have switched to lexions and claas and have raving reviews. I haven't had a chance to take a close look.

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How come no one mentions the New Holland combines?   We run 2 of them and they do a excellent job.   Super clean sample and our maintance cost per year are about $5000 per unit.   They each have around 1000 thresh hours and work very well.    Only thing that maybe a case would have over them is the reversable rotor.    New holland has best feeder reverser on the market (JD ‘s reverser is junk).   Our dealer has excellent service and most parts if ever needed.   For me,  New Holland combines, the 8.90 rotary are best on market.

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We demoed then rented at a s780.  We own two 2012 8230s with 1850 hours we didn't rebuild the combines until 1500 hours.  We cut wheat and canola with it.

Case advantage.
The sample is better, easier to switch between crops, less moving parts, rock trap is easier to clean out, shields are easier to open up, reversible rotor

John Deere
Monitors are better, has a swivel seat, basically a 2388 under the green shields.

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I've ran red since I was a kid starting with 1680s.  The 8010s were a huge jump up but a lot of bugs with them especially lots of hydraulic leaks.  The front axle extension bolts used to be a problem to.  I now have a 8250 and have owned every series in between.  The new heavy duty feeder house gear box fixes a big weak point especially with our 18 row chopping corn heads.  The standard duty wear components should have never been used in the flag ship series either.  Cases story was that your getting as many acres as the pre flagship combines but its still half the hours.  With our crop mix we got about 900 separator hours before we had to replace transition cone, vanes, rasp bars, and the vertical auger was at 1100 hours.  I have demoed deere, claas, and the new ideal.  The biggest thing for me is I grow soybeans for seed and dry beans and the red has been the easiest to set up for a quality sample without cracking or skinning and the easiest to clean out quickly if we change varieties.  The lexion makes a great sample and seems like an all around good machine.  The new ideal is a monster of a machine.  The power was pretty crazy and it could chew through some crop with a nice sample but it didn't feel finished yet and looked like a pain to work on.  The deere S series hasn't done to well harvesting in cold conditions that we've been stuck dealing with in ND the last two years.  The seem to frost up easier and then take out the cleaning fan which takes out other stuff.  I don't know if you can consider having to harvest in 0-10 degree weather normal though or plan around it.

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We used to run green combines. Switched to red about 20 years ago. A lot has to do with what you grow. If you grow more small grain and beans then the green one is the answer to your question. If you grow more corn then the red one hands down is a better combine.

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I bought a set of kondex concaves and it solved my wheat loss issues. I also didn’t like how it choked the oem skip wire concaves in corn. Kondex made a different machine out of my 8250.

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Tried that too ..nobody gets back to you.. we been running case combined for 40 years I’ve been alive

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Go with RED to many reasons list why the people who say green is because they haven't and wont try red.

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My dad is a deere man to the core, but he even says that IH makes a better combine.  We run a JD 9760 simply because there is a local dealer.

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I really don't have a dog in this fight as I have only been around Deere's. However I trucked binned corn away from several Red 8 thousand series machines this past year. I was blown away at the grain quality from what I was used to. Much better samples. Pretty much just as what a good friend has been telling me for years. Within a couple of loads the flour dust in the trailer was gone. Kernel quality/damage much less than what the Deere machines produce. I was really impressed, and could see much less trouble managing bin condition s, and minimizing storage problems. This is the same situation as 40 years ago. Just what I have seen.

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If you were color blind and looked over red and green, you would pick the red one just because of design

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Just was husker harvest days. Wish you all the best with Claas all I seen was belts and moving parts spare me

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Everyone has their own stories of all there horror, I have run new Holland since the TR 70 came out yea that's old, have demoed all brands of all colors stayed with new Holland, look under the side panels judge for yourself which one you want to tear into fix.i don't always like to wait for the dealer to show up to fix something. New Holland has treated us very good, grain samples very good. But remember that is all up to the operator

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We were JD since 1958, all the way through tje 96xx series.  We then bought 4 1680’s and were happy with them.  Due to a dealer change we went to SYS machines, but parts was really tough, even with the Denver depot only 50 miles away.  We switched to 8010”s when they came out because of capacit, simplicity etc.  parts has been better even with sourcing out of state.  We have a neighbor with a new Deere each year that cuts with us, and to be honest still like our 40 series better for a number of reasons.  Have looked hard at the  Fendt for 2 years, but they are not serious.   To certain about Lexion, and are checking, but having 5 separate heads for each combine makes switching a long gem decision.  
To be honest, our 40 series are simpler, more capacity and less fuel than the 7 series that cuts with us, but we’re pretty colorblind.  $$ is important

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Been green for 30 years. Said next time I trade, I'm going to look at red. Demoed an 8250. Liked it. But had no problem staying with green. It was the $60000 price difference that made me trade red.

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No dealer. Besides, the forum was red verse green. Next time, keep to the subject. 1 out of 100 farmers have yellow. Wouldn't have one on the farm.

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Buy the one with the better service... maybe you live close to both case and JD dealerships... 
We run alot of case equipment... closest dealer is an hour away... gets annoying when you need that service call... Probably will be switching green since JD has dealer 15 miles away

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Go with what ever dealer is closest.  If both dealers are close by go with Deere there parts availability out does case by 100times

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The main issues we had with our machines in the 2019 harvest was DEF. I did a DEF delete on both machines and didn’t have many issues this 2020 harvest.

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Demo the new Gleaner

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I know there’s a lot of brand loyalty out there. And people love to debate which color is better. I have owned both red and green. Currently run a case 8240 and as far as performance goes I have been happy with it. I have definitely had to do more repairs on the case and had more down time in the field. It just seems that the Deere’s are built heavier.

The Deere is more expensive up front but lower repair costs. The case is cheaper up front but plan on spending $10,000 or more on repairs every year.  So I would say the cost is about a wash over the first 5 years or so.

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Buy red you’ll always be glad you did

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Have had both. Currently have two 8230’s. Both much more reliable than Deere. Haven’t opened a piece of Deere equipment that didn’t require major repairs. 9860 s 9870s  all required major repairs and significant down time. Went back to case equipment and downtime is less. Repairs simpler. Excellent dealer helps.

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Red combines produce better grain samples. Easier to keep grain in bins

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The grain samples are a lot better with the red machine over the green. If you start with a clean sample you don’t have to blow cracked grain out the back to clean up the sample.  Case IH has  cvt drives that drive both the rotor and the feeder house.  This really makes it a lot easier to do maintenance to the machine.  I use to run Deere. I will never go back. CIH have been building Rotor machines since the late 70’s. Deere is still trying to catch up.

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Try a Claas,  you will drive circles around them both.  I made the switch and happy with the performance and reliability.

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Go yellow. Either claas or new holland. Nothing else is close in tough conditions

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I run a JD s690 alongside a case 8230 and the sample is always cleaner from the case.  About a point lower on dockage. Also the 8230 has much more cleaning capacity than the JD. Lastly the case is simpler and easier to work on with less belts etc.  Both dealers have great service which is nice.

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Did a demo with Claas this year .Was impressed. On 50 Bushel canola crop going the same distance as our Deere had consistantly 3 bushels more per acre grain tank .Also used half as much fuel as our Deere.(Thats A FACT).Impressive.

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If I were you I would look at lexion combines. 
We ran red until we got a lexion in 2009. 
We will never go back. 
In fact we demo’d a caseih 9240 last year because caseih dealer was pushing for us to demo.  It just confirmed everything we already knew. 
The lexions will our perform both green and red machines.  I have many examples of how. Too many to mention.

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Farm always had Deere. Demoed a Caseih vs Deere vs Lexion same field same day same conditions. Lexion burned the least fuel. Lexion did more bushels an hour with the least loss. I now own 2 Lexions. My next trade I will have green Combines as new Lexions are now lime green. IF you really want to measure a combine you should be checking losses. Check out schergain.com  Fastest, easiest, Safest way to check losses and help dial in your combine.

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Claas Lexion has my vote, they are so durable compared to Case or Deere. Ours has almost 8 million bushels thru it and not wore thru anywhere yet.

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I agree with *******, we've run green and red, then tried lexion. Now run 3  class machines , night and day difference!

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Family has been custom harvesting for nearly 50 years. Ran and demoed almost every brand. Good and bad about every single color. Had silver machines run up to 7k hours before updating. Had green run 4K hours before updating. You get some machines that know they have to work and earn there keep. Sometimes you get a lemon with any color. I recommend demo apples to apples. New green vs new red and if you want to try other colors demo them as well. Just remember compare the same size of machines with same model years to be fair. Go with whichever dealer can provide best support and service. Buy what you feel the most comfortable running and owning not what some brand loyalist opinion is. Most salesmen are doing what they are taught to SELL the product! If you change colors there is a learning curve just like there is when a high model change is brought to the market. Good Luck!

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We run a S690 and a 9230 and both have 1200-1500 sep hours. The red machine does a cleaner job but the green machine is built heavier. The red machine does require more wear parts replaced yearly which leads to increased repair costs. The red machine is easier to work on and a bit lighter in muddy conditions and we definitely like the tracks although John Deere now has a good track system also. We have had to park the JD in muddy conditions. John Deere has good power, great transmission, usually have dealer installed updates "PIP's", less yearly repairs. If you are looking for grain quality and easy to work on, alot of mud go red. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Dealer support would be a deciding choice also. Another thing also is to consider is do you have competing dealerships in the area for each make, it seems like there are more differently owned John Deere dealerships than Case IH dealerships in our area so if you are not happy with one dealership of that brand you have some choices.

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I bought an 8240 threes years ago and have been very happy it.  I’ve been custom combining for 25 years and have always had Deere’s.   I can find bad points about all of them.  The maintenance is a lot easier on the red one.  Parts seem cheaper less moving parts.  Less belts and chains.  Seems to be a lot simpler machine.  There is definitely a learning curve with the red one so don’t get discouraged if you try one.  If you have a good salesman he will be there with you.  The demo is what sold me one.  My dealer has been very good to me I haven’t had a lot done but I felt like they have always treated me well.  The downside of the red is the transition cone they do wear out but I case is making them better on the newer series.  I have 1200 separator hrs on mine and still have the original one. Had to weld it up last year but I think i get through this year with it.  The unloading auger is slower than the Deere.  They say there faster but there not!!!! But if you have a cart not a big deal.  The gps isn’t as good and the Deere but one you figure it out it’s fine.  As of now I won’t go back to a green one.  But it all comes down to what your comfortable with and you dealer.

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Red vs Green combines??

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