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Wish I lived close by!!! I"m very familiar with the No. 17 and the No. 5A combines. 5A was same style as the 17, except it was slightly smaller. Dad owned a 5A and an uncle owned a 17. That was north central ND. The tires you mention are most likely airplane tires. Our 5A had airplane tires installed by a previous owner when it was switched from steel wheels to rubber. The airplane tires made for a VERY smooth, easy ride for the combine. I suspect those tire types were surplus AFTER WW Two. I rode our 5A a lot and it wasn"t bad (dirty wise) except on a real windy day going with the wind. The engine exhaust outlet was several feet above the operator and that sweet sound of the 6 cylinder Hercules was music to my ears when it was working hard!! (it would be a real thrill to hear that sound again) We even had ours rigged to control the tractor from the combine so it only required one operator, but you were busy. You mentioned that the tractors of the day didn"t have enough power to run the combine AND pull it over the field, therefore they installed engines on the combines. I respectfully disagree. The tractors did have enough power but they didn"t have live PTO back then and since crops varied in yield from place to place in the fields, it was necessary to change ground speed to match (which today"s modern combines do with hydrostatic drive) and without live PTO, changing ground speed in small increments was impossible since the combine needs to run at full speed all the time. I have a subscription to the TWO-CYLINDER magazine and they did a quite thorough article on older JD combines a few issues back and it had pictures of the 17 included. You mentioned "sitting" for the operator. There were no seats on those I was familiar with. The operator stood and standing was necessary to properly control the wheel that raised and lowered the platform. Also it was easier to see the platform. I"ve rambled a bit. Would be very interesteing to visit in person and see that machine. There were many of them around on the great plains and into the Canadian prairie provinces. Hard to put a value on it. I would guess a few hundred dollars at most as they are a beast to load, haul and store for any one wanting to own and preserve them. My hat"s off to those who are preserving any old combines.
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