Tractor Help

[yoderjac]

In 2012 when I needed to replace my tractor I looked at new Kubota. I was planning on running a rototiller on the back of it(1.5 mph operation) so would need creep gears. I was planning on financing through Kubota and they ended up impossible, so dropped that plan. Ended up with a used 2008 John Deere Premium tractor with IVT transmission. It has been a good fit, but there are so many sensors that can throw off alerts, some of which will put the tractor into lame duck mode. I am able to find some of the error codes on the internet now, but in 2012 when I got the tractor I would call the service department. Once it was flashing a code and shutting me down and I called the service manager. He looked it up and it had to do with the right brake. He had never seen that code, but thought maybe there was some dirt in a sensor(micro switch). Told me to stomp on the right brake a few times to see if that cleared it. It did, but that is how sensitive some of those systems are. I had another issue one time with the tiller on the back. I really needed to finish up, but it kept de-rating my operation due to over temperature, but my monitor showed 175 degrees. Finally by the time I finished I was down to 0.2 mph. Stopped by the dealership and the service manager knew exactly what was happening as it had happened to a sod farm on their bat wing mower tractor. The tractor has basically two cooling systems that use the same radiator and the coolant had gotten low and one side had gotten some air, but the monitor was only showing the one side at 175 degrees, but when it switched to check the other side, it was too much of a differential, but it didn't show me that. The service manager printed out the bleed instructions so I could take care of it. Point being, good relationship with your service manager can save money and trips to the shop.

Yep, that is one of the reasons JD is off my list for a new tractor.

 

[swat1018]

Yep, that is one of the reasons JD is off my list for a new tractor.

You're willing to buy a Korean tractor, but not a Deere due to poor support? Ok...

 

[yoderjac]

You're willing to buy a Korean tractor, but not a Deere due to poor support? Ok...

No. I purchased the Kioti when I was young with quite limited resources. The upfront cost was much lower than the major brands. I'm sure it cost me much more in the long run with repair costs. I've said in many posts that I would NEVER buy another Kioti. Now that I am older and better resourced, I will avoid all the off brands based on my experience with Kioti.

If I was in the market for an older used tractor, Deere would definitely be in the running. I'm hoping to buy a new tractor. With that in mind, I'll still be avoiding the off brands, but I will also avoid Deere. @M. R. Byrd post above is one of the reasons. I'm hearing this same kind of story from both deer management folks as well as local farmers. They can no longer fix their own tractors because the proprietary software that JD uses. Even small failures in a sensor will electronically shut the tractor down even though it would otherwise operate fine if the sensor wasn't there. You end up completely shut down for things that could be fixed later when you had time.

This seems to increase demand for the JD shop, at least locally. Locally, they understandably prioritize their big farmer customers. Little guys can get shut down for small failures and can't fix it themselves and can't get into the shop for multiple months.

I am not hearing the same things about the other major brands. Perhaps it is happening with them as well, but I'm not hearing about it.

 

[M. R. Byrd]

When I was shopping in 2012 I also looked at Case but got turned off with the dealer. He insisted that I needed to wait for the new DEF tractor and he didn't have one on the lot yet. At that time I wasn't too sure about the DEF future and decided that I didn't want to go that route at that time. I don't know if another route would have been better for me and I do get annoyed at the numerous alert the JD flashes, but for the tiller operation it does very well. Good service managers with the two JD dealerships in my area has been a real plus.

 

[jsasker007]

I ended up getting a 4075r john deere earlier this year. The cutoff point for DPF VS DEF is 75 hp for the DEERE. I went with the largest I could get but still avoid having to deal with DEF.