JD 790 and 419 loader

RyanL · Dec 31, 2002

Hi, I went and looked at a John Deere 790 4x4 with the newer 419 loader it has AG tires on it but they have two other 790's with R-4's ( I want the R-4's) . I E-mailed him about the price of the tractor and loader and R-4's, so i was wanting to know if anyone could give me the price they paid for theres.
I like the way the tractor controls and everything else is setup but the one thing i am not sure about is the Gear trans. Is the transmission reliable as far as back and forth mower work. What else has went wrong with these tractors besides the Cheap battery cable ends. And was there a transmission flaw with the 790's? Any advice would be appreciated!!

P.S. I got a 1965 Ford Mustang convertiable for sale in the Classified section under "other" in the tractor part of the forum.

Thanks
Ryan

John Weaver · Jan 1, 2003

RyanL, I have a 790 4wd, bought in 2000. It came with the hydraulic controls for a FEL (but not the FEL) and R4's. Paid 12,000. Just bought # 70 FEL for 2,800. I don't know of any problems with the gear transmission, but you may not like it for many changes in direction. PS, TV just said it's 2003. John.

RobS · Jan 1, 2003

Ryan, I've got a 790 w/ 70 loader. About 125 hours and it's been great. No problems other than the battery cable issue you noted. The trans is fine but you pretty much have to be at a dead stop to shift between gears. While mowing, you'll be relying heavily on the two stage clutch to keep the PTO running while you shift. Make sure you try that out at the dealer. It works fine, but does require a bit of finesse to get the correct clutch engagement point. You didn't mention if your mowing was finish work or brush hogging. The PTO clutch is a bigger deal for the brush hog as it has more momentum to deal with.

Overall, it's a great little tractor and a tremendous value /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

RyanL · Jan 1, 2003

RobS, I will be using the tractor for running a 5' finish mower and a 5' bush hog. another ting i wanted to ask is are the king kutter brand mowers good cutting and long lasting mower.

Ryan

John Weaver · Jan 1, 2003

I have heard there is a #419 FEL for the JD790. How is it different from the #70 FEL? Anybody seen one? John.

RobS · Jan 1, 2003

Ryan, I've got a King Kutter box blade, rake and scraper blade. I'm happy with all, and like the 790 they are good value. I've got a Deere 513 rotary cutter and it's a piece of junk. The King Kutter cutters I've seen are much heavier duty than the 513.

As I mentioned before, check out the clutch action before you buy. It's not difficult, but does take some getting used to. Part way down disengages the transmission and all the way down also disengages the PTO. When brush hogging you'll want to keep the cutter spinning when you change tractor direction otherwise you risk shear pins when you re-engage. So to change direction you push the clutch down partway, come to a stop, shift and release the clutch to resume travel. Not difficult, but if you have a lot of direction changing to do while cutting it could become a nuisance.

Good luck /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

RyanL · Jan 2, 2003

John Weaver, The 419 loader is like the loaders for the 4000 series tractors and the 990 tractor it has a different way of unhooking off of the tractor and the bucket is removable. I will post some pics out of some brochures. The first pic is the way the loader detach's from the tractor. The second pic is a close up view of the way the bucket detach's.

Ryan

RyanL · Jan 2, 2003

John Weaver, The 419 loader is like the loaders for the 4000 series tractors and the 990 tractor it has a different way of unhooking off of the tractor and the bucket is removable. I will post some pics out of some brochures. The first pic is the way the loader detach's from the tractor. Ryan

RoyJackson · Jan 5, 2003

So to change direction you push the clutch down partway, come to a stop, shift and release the clutch to resume travel.

Rob, does your 790 have a stop to indicate the limit of the "first" stage travel (that is, when you can shift gears but not stop the PTO)?

I read this (but not about the 790) on a post somewhere...think it was referring to a Kubota though.

Also read the new operator's manual (there's two 790 manuals on the Deere website now) for the 790 (newer models). Seems like the horse power rating was dropped a bit (23.6 @ the PTO vs. 25.0 PTO HP on the older 790's). Probably just a more honest rating since it doesn't appear anything else changed.

I'm going to look very seriously into buying a 790 this Spring...still one of the best values on the market, IMHO.

RobS · Jan 5, 2003

Roy, the two stage clutch is pretty subtle. No positive stop at the first stage, only a slight increase in effort required to push on through to release the PTO.

The only time I've ever had a problem with it was early on in my learning curve. I had been brush hogging and came to a stop for some reason (direction change, assessment, who knows?). I must have been stopped for a while and inadvertently had the clutch all the way down. When I resumed I let the clutch out (PTO speed on the engine) and sheared a cutter pin. That's when I began paying more attention to the clutch. Of course, for a very brief interuption it's no biggie, but in my case the cutter had a chance to slow down considerably.

Still love the tractor and I'm sure you'll be happy if you upgrade /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif