I came close to buying a JD4300. But, alas, the seat was torn up, the PLASTIC hood was busted all to poop, the gas filler door (part of the hood) was missing. The hyd lines were rusted badly from sitting out in the weather all the time, the tires were mostly worn out but the clincher...that stopped me cold, was that the stabilizer bar on the left lift arm had broken off the "dog ear" where it attaches to the left transaxle housing. It is one piece cast iron and MUST NOT be welded. A braze would never be strong enough. A new housing was about $1400 and the dealer wanted $1200 in labor. The seller said no and I said no. I looked around and found a "like new" Kubota. Good Luck.
Yup, sounds like the experience we had with a 4400, which my father recently got rid of.
They bought it new in '98, had about 1700hrs on it when they got rid of it, wasn't abused and had impeccable maintenance.
In that time heres what has failed:
-3 different front axle seals
-one rear axle seal and bearing
-two rear axle housing (two different occasions where the 3pt mounting bosses sheared off, it's actually cast aluminium)
-hood, grille, cowling all became brittle and broke
-hydraulic oil cooler core broke, had to replace entire unit
-cruise control mechanism would no longer hold position
-last straw was when the PTO clutch was starting to go south, making clicking/grinding when running, would start by itself sometimes.
Basically the 4x00 series were the first compact tractors Deere made in the US and they didn't have nearly enough R&D put into them before the were put into production. I believe the have worked out most of the bugs on the 4x10 and later series, but some of the core design flaws are still there. I would stay away from them completely, the 4x00 were some of the worst tractors Deere has ever made.
