Any 6100 Series Owners Here?

[bigezfosheez]

Just bought an XU6168 for my small farm. Should get delivered sometime this week. Wondering if anyone here has some pointers for me or knows of any issues to look out for on the 6100 Series tractors.

Cheers!

 

[Btown]

Theee are some owners on here. I know one complaint someone had was the bucket was light duty and he easily bent it. They should have a stronger bucket on them. Just a heads up

 

[3Lfarms]

Welcome to the family. Did you get the shuttle or the power shuttle? Post pics when you get it.

I bought a 6168CPS in June. Has 90 hours on it now. It’s been great so far. Load the rear tires and instal better speakers (5 1/4 or 6”) and you should be about set.
I added an LED light bar and some LEDs on the back and used the factory switches and wiring and they work great.
The top of the cab is hinged with a prop rod so you can get to the radio and lightning harnesses as well as the a/c.
The bucket does seem a little light for this size tractor,but I am careful with it and nothing has bent. I have even pushed over a couple 5” trees with no problem. Do not use clamp on forks. Get some SSQA pallet forks. They are super handy and I use them more than the bucket anyway.
The first regen was at 48 hours, and I wouldn’t have noticed except for the funny smell. The two lights do come on on the dash when it happens to let you know and to tell you the exhaust is hot. Otherwise, I kept on plowing.
I change the filters with Napa Gold (Wix) and Rotella T6 since that is what I run in my other diesels. In fact that is the oil spec’d for my Ram 1500 Ecodiesel, so to keep things simple that is all I use. You’ll need good strong filter wrenches to get the factory filters off. Those buggers are really on there. Here is the filter info:
Oil: Napa 1516
Hydraulic: Napa 1715
Fuel: Wix WF8395
Inner Air: Wix 46672
Outer Air: Donaldson P827653



As far as things I don’t like, it’s a short list and pretty minor stuff. The orange handle on the parking brake moves on the handle. I need to glue it down. That parking brake is also very low and it’s not very ergonomic to release. I wish it had a telescopic steering wheel. The tilt is nice and it’s not really a problem. I’m 6’3” and I find it comfortable to drive for hours at a time. The arm rests really help.
The attention to detail of the paint on the loader isn’t the best. It’s a little sloppy on the cylinder rod ends (bare metal), but it’s all covered in grease now anyway.
The factory stereo didn’t have Bluetooth, so I changed it out along with the speakers, so now I rock out or talk on the phone while working in the pastures.
I wish there was a light on the dash to tell you when it was in 4x4. Mine was delivered with it engaged, and it wasn’t until I was making a sharp turn on pavement and about stalled the tractor that I realized what was going on.
The auto PTO doesn’t work they way I thought it would. I thought when I lifted the 3PT, the PTO would shut off, but it doesn’t. It only stops when I depress the clutch. So, i just leave it in manual mode. No big deal.
The backhoe stabilizers don’t come with feet. You can buy them if you look hard enough, and they are like $150. So I made my own.
Like I said, just some minor stuff.
Here she is the day I picked it up and the stabilizer feet I made.

 

[bigezfosheez]

Did you use the beacon light outlets to wire in the light bar? What's the part number on that connector, if so?

Also, does the cab hinge from the front or rear, and how do I open it?

I'm planning on doing both of those things you said, as the radio(not Sony like advertised) is terrible in just about every way and all of the stock lights are obscured by the headache rack of the forks I bought.

Also, have you noticed the hour meter counting too fast? I've put maybe 1.5 hours on the tractor and it's counted for about 2.5. I let it idle to warm up yesterday for ten minutes and it registered as .3 hour on the meter. The dealer said the hour meter runs off the alternator and will count faster with higher engine speeds, but I haven't ran it at very high speeds while learning to operate everything. If my warranty runs out at 1000 true hours of operation, i'm going to be pissed.

 

[3Lfarms]

I’ve never put a stopwatch on the hour meter at idle, but it does seem like it’s fast at idle. At PTO speed it’s pretty accurate.
I spliced into to wires for the beacon light. That connector is hard to find.
To lift the top, remove the two nuts up above the windshield and the nut on each side above the door hinge, then lift from the front. There is a prop rod under there that you stick into a hole in the framework and into the hole in the underside of the top.
To remove the whole top, disconnect the antenna wire from the radio, then let it back down and remove the two nuts above the back window and the whole top will lift off to make for better access to the speaker wiring. You will need two people. It’s not heavy, just awkward.

 

[3Lfarms]

Mine had a Sony radio in it, but no Bluetooth, so I changed it out while I was in there. Now the wife can call me and I can talk while running at PTO speeds.

 

[bigezfosheez]

How big of a light bar did you install? I see the fuse is 10amp, so 120w at 12v is about the max right?

 

[3Lfarms]

I think it’s a 30” light bar. The numbers say it’s right at 10 amps, but in reality, these Chinese lights bars don’t draw as much as rated (and aren’t as bright either). It works fine on the stock fuse. Hasn’t blown it yet.

 

[bigezfosheez]

So my automatic PTO function doesn't work either. The PTO will stop with the clutch in, but not with the arms raised. The dealer said that would be a faulty sensor or connection and is going to fix that for me. I'm also having him call the factory to ***** about the crap radio they put in the cab. It's some off-brand Korean unit that doesn't have a CD player, or a seek function. you have to tune it by the decimal point every time, so obnoxious. Hopefully they can just give me a credit back so I can buy a real unit.

The whine in the hydro has gone down considerably since last night, so maybe it was just an air bubble in the line that was cavitating and finally passed through.


Overall pretty pleased with the tractor. It's doing everything I want it to. Despite how bothersome I've been with the dealer, he's taking it like a champ and we'll just have to see how LS treats me with the warranty (given the inaccurate hour meter) and the lame radio. Could you image spending $40k on a truck advertised with a premium sound system, that shows up with a crap stereo unit and an odometer that spins out of control?