We recently completed wheat harvest on our farm. After 20 years of sitting in a barn after purchase, we were able to get our John Deere model 45 combine up and running so it could participate in the action. I thought having a machine from the 1950s out in the field with our 2010 9670 STS would make for some great comparison photos. It’s easy to see that the new combine is larger. Quite a bit larger actually.
In addition to all the pictures I went to the owner’s manuals to get some specs on dimensions and capacities so we can all see just how much things have changed in half a century.
By the Numbers
| 45 | 9670 | |
| Cutting Width | 10′ | 35′ |
| Grain Tank Cap. | 40 bushels | 400 bushels |
| Weight | 6,100lbs | 32,667lbs |
| Length | 22′ w/ platform | 34′ 3″ |
| Height | 12′ 9.5″ | 14.9′ |
| Width | 7′ 2″ | 17′ 6″ |
| Wheel Base | 10′ 4″ | 11′ 6″ |
| Rear Track | 3′ | 10′ 3″ |
| Horsepower | 42 | 305 |
| Engine Displacement | 188 cu in | 549 cu in |
| Fuel Capacity | 25 gal | 250 gal |
Some of those differences are huge, but others like height aren’t that far apart. I went to the manual for the 635F cutting platform on the 9670 to find its weight. The platform alone, at 6,710lbs, weighs 610lbs more than the 45 and its platform together! Our 8 row corn head comes in at about 200lbs less than those. I couldn’t find any specs on the capacity of the unloading augers. I wouldn’t be surprised if the auger on the 9670 holds as much grain as the 45 holds fully loaded.
Harvest in Action
Here I am making my first pass in a combine without a cab!
Footage from last fall harvesting soybeans. Different crop, same equipment.
Combines side by side showing the size difference. There’s a tiny two year old standing in front!
45 making its first cut.
- 9670 puts a lot more out the back!
Well. That’s one way to unload it. Our modern trucks are way too tall for this machine to unload into them, so we just emptied the grain tank into the other combine.
Our salesman from the local John Deere dealer came out to see the old combine. We told him he had to make a pass before he left. He was glad he did!
This is the son of the man Dad and Grandpa bought the combine from. He really wanted to come out an see it run again, and we made him take the wheel too!
Not a recent picture, but this is the cab of the 9670 when we first took delivery last fall. The 45 has a metal seat, several levers for activating various functions, and it obviously lacks a cab. You can see the new model is full of displays and switches. The newest combines from John Deere have cabs 30% larger than this one with more amenities such as Bluetooth and a refrigerator. We sometimes trade for equipment 1 or 2 years old and the original owner never removed the factory floor and seat covers!
I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing how things have changed over the years. These machines are really quite similar in the way they separate grain from the plants. The basic operations are essentially the same, but efficiency and performance have improved bit by bit over time. Do you think when my grandfather was running pull behind harvesters and combines like this one he could’ve imagined how large today’s machines would be? Not to mention they’d be driving themselves via invisible GPS signals while creating printable maps of things like yield and grain moisture? Amazing!
The Farmer's Life 
Very cool post! Love it, and I’m sharing it on Benton County Farm Bureau’s FB page and my Real Farmwives of America and Friends FB page too!
Your grandfather didn’t need yield maps and grain moisture monitors. he could tell you within a bushel what it was yielding by what it sounded like hitting the hopper and how hard the combine was “pulling” as he drove through the field. Moisture test? he grabbed a kernel and bit into it. accurate to within 1/2%.
True story. I can do some of that myself. You know things are running too wet by the way it piles up or what it sounds like dumping into an empty trailer.
Looked like she’s running real nice. Dad always wore a hanky over his nose and a pair of goggles.
After we go the engine to turn over everything else pretty much worked. Broke a couple belts and replaced them is all.
This is so cool.
A big green combine and a little one 😉
Total sweetness!
Love it! Can’t believe the original owners hadn’t removed seat covers and floor, 9670 must have been in pretty mint condition when you got it. 45’s looking pretty good too.
Thanks. Our 9320 tractor came from the same farm. Had to take the covers off it too, and it was a few years old. Good or bad depending on how you look at it, the dealer just calls us when that guy trades something.
Thanks a lot for posting all these pictures and the stories with it! Been anxious to see all this put together like you did. Great job on the comparison table too, can’t believe how close some of those numbers are though, like wheel base and height.
Thanks again, sharing on all SM!
I was surprised the wheelbase was so close too. The bolt pattern on the rear of the 9670 is very close to the front of the 45. I’m sure the ties wouldn’t clear though.
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great memories…we farmed rice in the Katy Texas area. I do have a question…do you remember or have you seen pictures of a JD 45 with steel tracks..we had one when i was very young…early ’50s…thanks for sharing..
No! That would be awesome!
The 9670 is 400 bushels with grain tank extensions but other wise its just 300/250 according to the John Deere 70 Series combine brochure.
That’s right. I didn’t make that distinction above I guess. Pretty rare around here to find a combine without extensions. Thanks!
I notice you have corn front & 635F. I have a 630F on our 9670 with a varispeed front drive & I’ve had to put a little tap on the hydraulic line to the front varispeed otherwise I couldn’t get the backshaft speed over 470rpm with the 630 front on. Same control for the reel lift let all the pressure out of the cylinder. Have you had anything similar? John Deere in Australia don’t know anything about it, very few corn fronts & vari speed front drives over here. Thanks for the vids etc, really good. I love the JD, had a CASE before, it was good too, but not as good as the JD
I haven’t seen that issue, but I have trouble keeping the reel pulled all the way back on our last two 635Fs on the same machine. It creeps forward to the point where I’ve just developed a habit of retracting every 5 or 10 minutes. I don’t even notice myself doing it anymore. Dealer thinks it could be a slight problem on the combine side. We’ll have a new 635F on a newer 9670 next fall so I’ll see if the problem persists.
Thanks Brian
Thanks for stopping by!
Brian, I freaking LOVE old combines! I love new ones too. In fact, I’m just a big-time combine geek, but old, heritage combines have a charm and character lacking in the newest ones, with all their computers and high-tech gadgetry that pretty much allows them to run almost by themselves, like something more from a Buck Rogers or Star Trek scenario, than down on the farm. I really don’t think the most recent of combines can be heard as well, past the isolation and insulation of the new cabs. Can you honestly even hear the engine of a Maximizer, STS or Axial-Flow, once the separator is running?
These old open combines are fast disappearing from the land, too. It is solely up to owners like you and the precious few who still have running runs, to keep them preserved for prosterity and even secure their destiny in wills, so that they won’t just fall into the hands of scrap metal vultures or those who would kill them in demolition derbies. NO combine desrves the latter, and THAT should be freaking OUTLAWED!
Nel1jack is right, your grandfather and I sure did NOT need all those bells and whistles when we ran our combines. Sure, we may have missed a little now and then, or even lost some miniscule amount out the back, but we did not complain. We had oodles and oodles of it, binful by binful and truckload by truckload. We appreciated and respected our combines, too. We were careful and most picky about just who could run them or even ride with us, but we were also the irst to allow the curious to view them and answer the many questions others had about combines.
I can definitely hear the motor and separator. My ear is tuned in to all the machine noises plus all the beeps and lights in the cab. There is a show in Rantoul, Illinois every two years where corn and beans are harvested and shelled by antique pull type and self propelled harvesters of all make and models. After that it’s time for antique tillage.
I can hear the separator okay, but not so much the engine, at least on a 2188. I have only rode in, but not run an STS. I do remember doing some photography, back in 2001, when the STS’s were new. One of the combines had a problem. I heard a loud ‘bang” from one of the three, but nobody stopped. Finally, the last combine in line, did stop. Whatever I heard, went unnoticed by the operator, for at least 60-90 more seconds. When the boss drove up in his pickup, I could hear the hand tell him how he had heard nothing. I’ve had similar experiences with Maximizers when something broke and could be heard on the outside, but neither of us knew, until some light or buzzer came on.
Meant ot also say that I’m very glad to see yet another vintage harvesting bee held somewhere. We definitely need more of such, to show off the old combines and their standing capabilities, rather than just destroy them in the name of “entertainment.”
I reckon the best thing about old Combines is that we don’t
have to use them anymore. Brian is right, yes you can hear the
motor, yes you can feel the drum and after a while you pick up the
beat and the thing starts singing to you. Listen to the music, and
as soon as something isn’t right, you know about it just about
before the sensors.
I tell my wife the combine is easy to operate as long as everything is going well. Knowing what to do when things go wrong is the trick!
Now THAT is something I have little problem with. If something is broken, I can darn sure fix it!
Back again for another look Brian. After seeing this blog I had a look through my archives and found a brochure (in mint condition) on the John Deere 45, 55, 95 & 105 roundbacks which I had forgotten I had. Just a couple of questions, 1/. gasoline engine, right? Was diesel an option? 2/, do you know why they called them Hi/Lo combines? & 3/. did you happen to do a fuel consumption test in terms of tonnes per gallon on the 9670 & the 45? It would really be interesting to know that. Whilst our 9670 uses 20% more fuel per hour than the old Case, it puts through about 2x as much grain, I was wondering if that still applied to the old walker machines. Very Interesting blog, congratulations, Will from Australia
Yes, it’s a Hercules gas engine. I don’t believe diesel was an option, but I’m not sure. Not sure about Hi/Lo, and we didn’t check fuel consumption.
True Brian, on the motor. That particular style of No.55 was colloquially called the “high boy” or “high bin.” All John deere SPC’s from 1947 to 1959, were built like that. The “Hi-Lo” was the later style from 1960-1963. You may remember seeing old pictures of 55’s, 95’s and even the new 105’s, with the sides and top of their bins greatly flared out. This dramatically lowered the profile and overall dimensions of the combines, thus making transport much easier. It was a boon to the custom operators using Deere machines. Yes, John Deere was highly inspired by the recent [1956 and up] Massey-Harris “Streamliners” as they were called. To us combine geeks, that’s the Models 92 and 82.
The term, “Hi-Lo” was coined, based on the retention of their signature large [high] capacity, while having such the low profile. The Hi-Lo was replaced by the fully styled square back configuration in 1964, which lasted until the 5 Series ended production at the end of 1969.
Thanks for the info. It’s funny that despite the differences in capacities and sizes of these machines, that the 45 with the screen sitting on top isn’t much shorter than the 9670.
That’s so true, Brian. Also, I forgot to mention that while the “high bins” have the breakover top folding unloader, the Hi-Lo’s have a single piece auger that neatly folds back, just like more recent models. On the New Generations [00 Series] the auger was straight and parallel with the separator, while the Hi-Lo’s had it slightly tilted upward, in the folded position.
Looking back at the 5’s, those styled square-backs were not only the prettiest North American combines by sheer aesthetics, but are still quite comely to this very day, too.
Thanks amanita59 and Brian, much appreciated.
Any time, Will. God bless you.