Hate it when I'm wrong

Kerry50 · Mar 23, 2014

I posted a pic of what I thought was a Allis Chalmers pull type corn picker on one of the feature nights. rrlund posted that he thought that this was a Woods picker. Not being real familiar with it, I thought, he could be right. This old picker is parked amongst some Allis equipment on a farm I rent. Today it was really nice so I went over to check out the picker. The exposed metal was faded to almost Allis orange. Looking under the picker at the axle and wheels, it was more red. Looking for some kind of a tag or ID, I found this tag. Ford. I had to lay on my belly in these briars to get this pic! So, I got to thinking that maybe Woods built the pickers for Ford. Doing some research on the web,I found this:
"The Wood Bros. Thresher Company located in Des Moines, Iowa, made virtually all the corn pickers; combines; threshers; and forage harvesters for Ford/Ferguson, Dearborn, and later Ford Tractor Implement Division."
Dang, sure do hate it when I'm wrong. LOL. I just assumed, but Mr. Lund knew.

rrlund · Mar 23, 2014

Yep,I've picked a fair amount of corn with one of those. You could always tell if the corn was dry enough. If it was too wet it wouldn't make the 180° turn from the husking bed to the elevator.

60 acre hillside · Mar 23, 2014

Did a Woods Bros pick up from the wrong side? And did the Allis Chalmers have just one gathering chain? I have been away from those for fifty years.

rrlund · Mar 23, 2014

Don't know much about the Allis except that they were left handed and most didn't have a husking bed. They were just a snapper.
But ya,the Woods Brothers was left handed too. After the corn fell in to the husking bed on those it went forward toward the tractor,then it had to slide down and around and make a U turn to the elevator. They were quite a popular picker around here. I would imagine probably because of the dealers.

gtractorfan · Mar 23, 2014

That was the first cornpicker my dad had when I was a kid. It was fun watching the corn coming from the husking bed to the elevator. I think it would be fun to "restore" one and fit it with stipper bars for 200+ bu. corn and decent speed but the husking bed would have a hard time keeping up. As I remember the rotating rubber tip "pushers" over the husking rolls sometimes lifted up when the corn was crowding under them. Ah the good old days!

Kerry50 · Mar 23, 2014

Here's a pic of it from the front.

rrlund · Mar 23, 2014

Ya the earlier ones had kind of like a bulldozer track over the husking bed. The later ones had what they called a squirrel cage. It was kind of a combination auger,paddles that turned and pushed it ahead.
Dad took off pulling one of those home from Archbold Ohio one time. They didn't have automotive type bearings in them,just bushings. The plan was to stop often and grease them. He didn't get very far. He parked it in somebody's yard and went back with a big truck to get it.

Leroy · Mar 23, 2014

Wood Bros to ford was same except for tag. Earlier Wood Bros were grey up to 47 and for 48 up they were red. The earliest were built for the old Fordson and were different than the ones built for the 2N and then the red ones for the 8N and Name was changed for 55 when no more dearborn implements were produced. I have a grey one.

W_B · Mar 24, 2014

Our very first harvesting machine of any type was a Woods picker. Worked pretty well for our small farm and don't recall any problems with it. Got us through until Dad picked up a small IH combine.

Hate it when I'm wrong

Kerry50

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rrlund

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60 acre hillside

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rrlund

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gtractorfan

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Kerry50

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rrlund

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Leroy

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W_B

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