[AJD] JD 227 Corn Picker universal frame - Long response

[Dean VP]

Dennis:

I'm not able to offer a Universal 227 frame that you are looking for but I
do have a suggestion that might lead you to one. My suggestion is to place
some "Wanted" ads in likely areas where there were an abundance of these
pickers used in the past and that would be in the Mid West corn belt such as
Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. 

A possibly productive avenue might be to contact the Two Cylinder clubs in
these areas. For example: there is a Two Cylinder Club in the area where I
was born and raised in NW Iowa. It is called:

Northwest Iowa Two Cylinder Club

and their web site is:

http://www.nwi2cylinderclub.org/

Maybe someone in this club could lead you to what you are looking for.

Of course an ad in the Two Cylinder or Green Magazine might bring some
results as well. 

I know one of the members of this club has an extensive collection of the JD
Corn Pickers of this era and he might be able to lead you to what you are
looking for. His name is:

David Hawkins
Orange City, IA
(712) 562-6511

BTW, my father had both a 226 and 227 corn picker and the 227 was much
improved over the 226. As I recall this was in the mid 50's era. I don't
recall exactly when the 227 first came out but I would guess it to generally
be in the mid 50's era. I do recall my father being much happier when he got
his 227. 

I have a warm recollection of one of my fathers' jokes about corn picking in
that era. He always carried a "corn knife" on the tractor with him when he
was picking. This knife was used to cut down any large weed that might still
be standing in a row before it went through the picker, such as a large
sunflower plant. Whenever city folks would ask him what the corn knife was
for he would tell them that in some areas of the field, the corn ears were
so big that he had to cut the ears in half so they could make it up the
elevator into the trailing wagon. They often believed him!  :-) 

I also recollect that we dedicated an older A to the two row corn pickers
because we didn't want to go through the hassle of mounting and dismounting
the corn picker each year. It was a rather extensive time consuming process
along with usually having to slide the rear wheels in and out as well, which
could be a hassle all by itself. I guess the value of the older tractor was
less than the hassle of all the extra work. 

My job during corn picking was to transport the wagons of corn, get them
unloaded into the corncrib and back out to the field as soon as possible.
Since we had land scattered around a bit it was "hell bent for leather" time
to keep up with him. When the corn had reached the appropriate dryness and
the weather was cooperating there was an intense effort to get as much done
as fast as possible. On one occasion I was unloading a flare wagon of ear
corn into the elevator and was on my knees dragging ear corn out the gate on
the wagon and I got a tap on my shoulder. I was a bit startled. I looked
back and it was my father. I was really surprised and was confused as to why
he was there. He says to me: "Lets go in the house and have a cup of
coffee!" Now if you knew my father this was very untypical during corn
picking time. I knew I wasn't in real trouble because he wasn't yelling at
me, but something was really strange. 

Over a cup of coffee, my father asks me what kind of tractor we should buy.
Now this really confused me. Finally I pried out of him that he had walked
in from the field, since the corn picker and tractor had gone up in flames
and both were completely destroyed. I guess the walking distance had
afforded enough time so that he had cooled off and I wasn't at fault. :-)

As I recall this is when the used 70 got purchased and new mounting hardware
was needed. Of course these were readily available then. From this point on
we removed the corn pickers at the end of the season because the 70 was the
work horse tractor for all the spring and summer field work as well. And
also moving the rear wheels in and out on the first numbered series was a
breeze compared to the older letter series. It may have been at this time
when we got our 227 picker. It's just too many years ago to remember all the
details. I do remember the 70 handling our largest wagon (300 bushels, an
Anthony with dual PTO pump driven hydraulic cylinders) much better than the
A's did. Especially when it was muddy. 

Good luck in finding the mounting hardware you are looking for. 

Dean A. Van Peursem
Snohomish, WA 98290

I'm a walking storeroom of facts..... I've just lost the key to the
storeroom door 


www.deerelegacy.com

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