New Tractor - Initial Impressions and Observations

   / New Tractor - Initial Impressions and Observations #1  

kwright

Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2000
Messages
36
Location
SW Michigan
Tractor
NH TC21D Boomer w/60
Having taken delivery of the new TC21D yesterday (Friday 07Jul), I spent some quality time carefully going over the tractor and attachements this morning. I also spent quite a bit of time reviewing the manuals last night. I thought my inital observations may be of interest to others, especially someone considering a new tractor.

Delivery: Arrived right on the button, dealer hit the time within five minutes.

Condition as delivered was OK but not great; i.e. was reasonbly clean, but not spotless. Delivery person was a bit hurried (it *was* 6:00pm on a Friday evening), but he did take a couple of minutes to run through a few things with me.

The machine was obviously serviced as all the grease fittings had evidence of grease seepage. I would have expected each one to have been wiped clean at time of service though (which I did this morning). Fluids were full, including fuel tank (nice touch - but probably should be expected).

Everything on the tractor, mower and loader worked as expected. Notice a slight binding or resistance from time to time when shifting from two wheel to four wheel drive and back. After moving the tractor slightly, it will shift though so I assume this is fairly normal and might even be due to the fact that it's new.

Observation on mid-mount mower: Dealer set up with cutting height of 1"! I thought this odd, as I don't know of anyone that mows at 1". I changed it to 2 1/2", which is my standard mowing height. Change of height only took about 2 minutes and this was my first time and I had to study it a bit first. Nice touch - Label on mower details specifics of height adjustments.

User Manuals: Frankly, I'm not impressed. I'd rate the tractor manual average or fair, the same with the loader documentation, the mower info was poor.

Please note, my reference point on user manuals is Dell computer. Now those folks know how to put together quality user documentation! They use color for visual ques, printed on good quality stock, detailed and organized extremely well.

In any event, the manual for the loader had clearly gotten wet at one point, as it was damaged (pages stuck together and such), but usable. The mower manual had several minor but noticable errors and isn't particularly well organized. It appears the manuals were produced by different folks as there are noticable differences in presentation between them.

I would have thought (expected?) that for a multi-thousand dollar piece of equipment, the user documentation would have been more polished and accurate.

As I haven't actually used the tractor for anything yet, I haven't drawn any conclusions in that regard.

If folks are interested, I'll post that too when I've had some "seat" time.

REAL horses weigh a ton.
 
   / New Tractor - Initial Impressions and Observations #2  
Congrats on your new purchase/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif IM sure you'll have years of fun. I just got a Kubota and traded in a ford, the manuals arn't all thet hot on either one, but will get you by. Pick the front end up with the bucket and take it out of 4-wheel dr. this will reduce the binding.
Rich
 
   / New Tractor - Initial Impressions and Observations #3  
richh,

This is the second or third time I've heard you guys talking about lifting the front end with the bucket, which I don't have, to take it out of 4wd! What if I don't have any problem with 4wd binding? I'd say that's a good thing, right!

Can't imagine you guys having "trouble" taking it out of 4wd that you need to lift the front end. Is this a Kubota problem, that's mainly who I've heard talking about it. My NH TC18 shifts smoothly from 2wd to 4wd and back again! /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif

JimBinMI

We boys and our toys!
 
   / New Tractor - Initial Impressions and Observations #4  
JimBinMI - It's very rare for a tractor without a loader to have any trouble getting out of 4wd. There's not enough weight up there to keep the front tires from sliding enough to "unwind".

Mark
 
   / New Tractor - Initial Impressions and Observations #5  
JimBinMI, I wouldn't say that my tractor has ever been a "problem" to take out of 4WD. If it feels a bit still, I can usually just let it roll a tiny bit and it comes out all right (I don't ever try to force one of the levers), but after reading about using the bucket to lift the front wheels, I tried it and it does slip out even easier and smoother.

Bird
 
   / New Tractor - Initial Impressions and Observations #6  
So does my JD4100. Can't figure out all of this difficulty with shifting. Mine is smooth as silk, either stopped or on the fly. Now if it were a Chevy truck I could relate to these difficulties.
 
   / New Tractor - Initial Impressions and Observations #7  
Ooops, just realized I typed "still" instead of "stiff" in the previous post./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Bird
 
   / New Tractor - Initial Impressions and Observations #8  
JYoutz. Are you having trouble engaging 4WD in a Chevy truck. If so , describe the problem. A Friend just found the problem with his GMC, might be of use to you. Dave.
 
   / New Tractor - Initial Impressions and Observations #9  
Ok Jim, lets not be picking not be picking on the orange fokls. I had more trouble with my 1910 ford than the kubota, but this whole thing with 4 wd tractor or truck happens all of the time no matter what flavor you have. I never done the bucket thing, just passing along something that mite help a guy out, but Im going to try it and Ill be sure to let you know how it works. You should realy think about getting a loader then you could have a real tractor,/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
Rich
 
   / New Tractor - Initial Impressions and Observations #10  
Which tractor is hard to shift out of 4WD has nothing to do with brand, it has to do with what surface you are on. Hard=worst Soft=best. It also depends on the particular tires and exact sizes they have worn to, the inflation pressure which controls rolling circumference which controls true "gear ratio" of that differential, how much turning you are doing. Even from the get go, there are only so many different gear ratios possible, and only so many tire diameters made.

I'm sure I could take any tractor and find it was hard to shift sometimes.

I use the bucket lifting the front end trick a lot with my manuervering. Sure you can squirrel the tires around and skid the one brake etc or back up 10 times but nothing is easier and quicker in tight areas then putting the bucket down, unloading the tires and turning the wheels from one side to the other, with no strain on anything. (It's my version of poor man's "Supersteer!")

This L35 turns the front wheels with a load in the bucket like my Ford only could do when empty or unloaded! But it's not a brand thing, the Ford had 7.8 gpm flow and only one pump. The L35 has 17.3 and the steering has it's own pump. The wear on the tires has got to be a heck of a lot less by dropping the bucket. I don't do this all the time, the R4s are very forgiving, I can remember turning the wheels with a big load on my Ag tired Ford and seeing them completely squirmed over, almost off the rim it seemed. Lowering the bucket first and crabbing them over and then going, or hitting the turning brakes took the side forces out of the tires.

I also move by butt around with the backhoe all the time when I'm squeezing around the trees, but that's another thread!

You're just not "correct" if you don't have <font color=blue>blue</font color=blue> <font color=orange>orange</font color=orange> AND <font color=green>green</font color=green> in your garage!

del
[email]oldcarparts@mygarage.com [/email]
 

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