TC55da steering in Question

Charlie4r2 · Jun 7, 2005

Well I wrote NH and here is their reply concerning the TC55DA: Quote word for word.
File # 2546443

Dear Mr. Charlie,

Thank you for contacting the New Holland Customer Response Center.
We have not heard any issues regarding steering. New Holland uses a system
called Assist, where concerns or issues with products are shared throughout
all Dealerships, and are catagorized. When dealerships find solutions to
concerns, they are shared on a dealership wide database. Presently, there
are no known issues with the steering with the TC55DA.

Do they honestly think it is the dealers job to find solutions to their design flaws? What happened to the R&D team?

Osconda · Jun 8, 2005

Charlie,

This is true. New Holland does have a program called Assist. And it is designed for the purpose they specified. But, who determines what issues will be posted into their database? Is this the mechanic who finds the problem? The Service Manager? Is this mandatory or voluntary participation?

All New Holland can say is that they did a search on this problem and nothing was found. But who knows how they really did the search? What keywords did they look for? For instance "noeclark" has reported a substantial steering issue on this tractor and has been dealing with New Holland about it. I am curious if his dealership posted the issue on the Assist database, and if so, why didn't that pop up when they researched your question.

What they did NOT say was "we have NO knowledge of ANY steering problems on the TC55DA tractor NOR have ANY problems been reported by ANY of our authorized dealerships since we began shipping this model."

I haven't had my TC55DA for long since I have only logged 17 hours on it. 90% of this time has been using the root grapple pulling trees and moving rock. I max out the loader all the time. The only time I have noticed any steering unresponsiveness has been when I've had a full load of something and I'm sitting there at idle figuring out what I'm gonna do next. What I mean by "unresponsive" is that turning the steering wheel feels like if there is something obstructing the front tires from turning, then it's abruptly taken out of the way, then put back. Once I come off idle, everything seems normal. I can't think of a situation, where I would be "working" the tractor at idle, so I'm not really concerned about it.

Charlie4r2 · Jun 8, 2005

what is the dealer you got that kind of deal from?

JT1972 · Jun 9, 2005

Charlie,
What are the issues with the steering and when do they occur? Are you using a loader and if so, are the rear tires ballasted? If the tires aren't ballasted and you are trying to turn with a load, you will have difficult steering.

Charlie4r2 · Jun 10, 2005

6-10-2005 Meet a guy at the tractor dealer today that had a TC55da with 18 loader. His tractor was 1 year old. He said he experiences steering problems with a full bucket . But he did also say he was very pleased with the tractor.

spencer200 · Jun 11, 2005

My guess is that New Holland is hiding the information on assist about this problem because I know for sure we have reported these problems several times to assist and that New Holland has been involved in several lawsuits all ready over the steerng on these tractors and has actually bought some of these tractors back because of this.