New Guy JD 855

[redvettemike]

Hello. I'm a new guy in Madison, Ms. I just bought a 1987 John Deere 855 tractor. I knew well the guy that I bought it from. It has had good care all its life and shows 800 hours on the tach. I have a couple of JD 345 lawn tractors but I never had a diesel unit before. I know little about these tractors. I have a classic car restoration shop and we wil use it mostly to pull these cars around the lot and do some minor box blade work (the JD came with a good box blade.) I paid $2k. I may pose a few questions. I plan to repaint it. I might ask where is the best place to get parts for a unit such as this? Thanks. Mike

 

[beenthere]

She looks like a good buy and from the looks of your shop, she is in very good hands. The looks of your shop makes me wish I were closer to you.

 

[WinterDeere]

I owned a 1986 855 MFWD for many years, and found the local Deere dealer still carried every darn part on that machine, as of when I sold it in 2019. Bonus, yours being a 1987 and later, most of the parts remain un-changed. The 1986 model suffered from some older-design parts, which caused me to have to upgrade surrounding components to 1987 or later, when making certain parts replacements.

Good luck! They're solid little machines, but being nearly 40 years old, you can expect your ownership experience might not be entirely trouble-free. Hope you're handy with a wrench!

 

[redvettemike]

I hate to admit it but I can fix little. But I have a bunch of guys that can fix everything! The car restoration biz is just a hobby run amuck. I need to stay busy and at age 77 I can tell you that this biz keeps one busy! Mama told me in 1966 to get to work. I'm still hard after it.

 

[Hodado]

I can tell you that the Yanmar engine in the 855,no parts are available from the dealer so take care of that diesel and don’t over work it

 

[redvettemike]

The previous owner used this 855 for years and then bought a bigger tractor and then did not use it for years. He told me it had been many years since it was used and the oil is 'old as the hills'. I'm going to do a complete service on it, change all the fluids including the hydraulic fluid. The little thing cranks up and runs great. It has 800 hours on it. My grandson (age 14) is going to help us this summer. I'm going to let him paint it. We paint entire cars here and have two booths. We will keep an eye on that job!

 

[WinterDeere]

I can tell you that the Yanmar engine in the 855,no parts are available from the dealer so take care of that diesel and don’t over work it

Since when? It hasn't been that long since I sold my 855, and literally every part right down to MFWD front axle castings, were still available with 48-hour delivery thru my parts counter.

The only problems I ever had for parts on this machine were:

1. Mine was a 1986 model, and there were major design revisions between 1986 and 1987. There were cases where I had to upgrade parts around a failed component, to make them compatible with the 1987-up parts Deere stocked for that machine.

2. Cost of manufacturing and stocking components for old machines out of production go up each year, as demand falls off, and Deere raises their prices accordingly. At some point, it becomes more expensive to repair a major component or system on an old machine, than to just buy a new one.

 

[WinterDeere]

It has 800 hours on it.

Not even broken in, yet! I forget how many hours I put on mine, but it was in the thousands. Most machines that age are going to have 2k - 4k hours on them, if coming from a homeowner, and more than that if coming from a commercial operator.