Earlier this winter I mentioned in some of my posts that I was planning to build a cart for my New Idea 319 Mounted Picker so that I could easily move it around the yard. Well, I finished it today and here are some pictures. Now I can store it in whatever shed I want to without being concerned that once I take it off the tractor, it will be in the way and I won't be able to move it. I built it out of a transport truck off a JD 350 elevator I junked out years ago
HEY! thats a good looking (and working) set up! That picker looks to be in GREAT shape too! I should make something like that for the soon to be 2 more pickers I have.
Yes, the picker is pretty decent. The guy I purchased it from had bought it many years ago from a neighbor, parked it in the corner of his shed, and then never used it. When I picked it up, it was still "broke down" in pieces from when he had brought it home (the gathering unit was in 2 halves and the husking bed elevator was removed). After I got it home and looked it over more closely, mechanically it wasn't as nice as it looked. The gathering chains were shot and there was a bearing out on one of the gearboxes that drives one side of gathering chains (which in turn caused the chain sprocket to wear quickly, and it was a $60 part from Agco!). The bearing at the top of each snapping roll was shot (even spun on the snapping roll shaft on some of them) and the open spur gears that drive the opposite snapping roll on each side were worn out. Looks like the last guy who used it never found that grease zerk which lubricates these gears - they were dry as a bone. Luckily I had junked out another picker this fall and had some spare gears from that - Agco was pretty proud of those also! The bearings weren't too bad - so far all of the bearings I have replaced on it are common flangette bearings available at the local farm supply store for $8 to $12 each. I found a few places online that had gathering chains for a LOT less than Agco wanted for the same ones. So if anyone else is fixing up a New Idea picker and is looking for cheaper parts, drop me a note and I'll share with you the places I found for more reasonably-priced parts. So it took a lot more time to get this outfit close to field-ready than I had anticipated. Now on to the sheller unit - maybe I'll make a cart to move the processing units around too. A sub-frame from a junked-out gathering unit mounted on wheels and a hitch added should work, right?
Nice looking picker cart. When we bought our 40 combine, the owner had taken a truck from an elevator and built a little cart for the grain table mainly just to pulled around the barn lot on. I would like to build something like that as I have a chance at a couple Deere pickers, but that mounting on a tractor to move them is the killer. I really have been looking for a NI like you found close to home. Home here is east central IN/west central OH.
I see the picker is pinned down nearer to the back, is it pinned in the front too, as well? Maybe I can get some dimensions off you sometime? Thanks
Yes, it's pinned at the front too. If you look on the pictures of the cart without the picker on it you will see 2 upright pipes with a clevis welded to the end of it. These clevises go where the hydraulic cylinder pin goes on the underside of the picker elevator and a bolt is used in these holes.
The idea of this cart came years ago when I purchased a JD 237 picker from a farmer about 50 miles from me. He had a similar setup for the JD picker and he let me borrow it to get the 237 home. He told me that many dealers had carts like this back in the 1950's & 1960's when these pickers were popular. This way they could move them around easily and deliver them to the farmer without having to mount it on a tractor.
