Yet another 284LE Shuttle Shift Question

[RonMar]

Well I have been reading quite a bit on this forum and others of late in trying to make a decision on a tractor purchase. I have 7 1/2 acres of moderately hilly property that is mostly tree and brush. I would ultimatly like it cleared/open, ruts and piles leveled and fenced-in(300+ postholes to auger) in a grass/tree condition to support a horse or two and maybe some walking hamburger.

Price has pretty much sent me in the direction of the Jinma with a FEL and brushhog. As I am pretty mechanically inclined and like that kind of work, I think the Jinma is a good choice for me. There is a dealer about 60 miles away who stocks parts(and does on-site warranty repairs out to 30 miles). He had an older used 284 there that I crawled all over/under and I liked the overall mechanics of it(dont need pretty, just need functional). He will have some new 284LE's in around mid June for me to look at. One thing he mentioned was that he has only been ordering the tractors with shuttle shift. He also does something I hadn't heard about from any other dealer, he imports his tractors fully assembled from china(4 per container).

I like everything I have seen so far and read about with one possibly minor exception. The loss of the creeper gear for the shuttle shift. I have not seen one with shuttle shift yet but from the descriptions I have read here it is cable actuated to the rear of the transmission housing. Has anyone who owns one had the access plates/covers open? Is the reverse gear in the rear of the transmission where the cable goes or did they use the front creeper gear housing to install the reverse gear in. Did they remove the creeper as a necessity of the shuttle install or is it an option that they thought unnecessary? Could a creeper gear be re-installed?
It would be nice to use a rototiller and ripper/middlebuster and a 1MPH L1 nominal speed seems a little fast for a rototiller and also to get the full 1500 pounds of rated pull/traction force out of a ripper. The shuttle sounds great for using the FEL which I will be doing a lot of but can you still run a tiller in L1?

Thanks

 

[bluechip]

The cable runs to the back, but the actual reverser is in the housing that normally contains the creeper gear. this is a totally different casting so there is no going back. IMHO the tractor will be a little fast for tilling with the 6x6 shuttle.

We looked at importing assembled, but he freight costs outweigh the cost of good old American labor to reassemble, at least here in the mid-south.

The KAMA TS series now has shuttle moved to a lever under the steering wheel and it works very nicely offering 8x8 but still a little fast for rototilling...

 

[RonMar]

Thanks for the reply, thats what I figured they did with the reverse gear but my desire to have the best of both worlds forced me to ask /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif. 1MPH seems fast but I have pretty loose sandy soil here, once I get all the smooth river rock out of it. My property is on the side of a shallow valley carved by a wandering creek. I mostly need to be able to move the high spots into the low spots with a FEL and clean out the brush and stumps. I have a few existing slash piles that need broken up as they are too big to burn as-is. Also plan on digging a foundation into the hillside for a new house someday and with this soil the FEL would be great.

In talking with this dealer it sounded like he made up for the import costs by not having to maintain a full time assembly staff/tech. He said he used to assemble them but has had to do much less warranty repair with the pre-assembled machines. Sounded kinda like he had trouble getting good help. All I really need is parts availabilty and it sounds like he can meet that need.

 

[billbill1]

I have the 284 LE w/shuttle shift and I really like the tractor. I got the 140 Koyker loader and it makes using the FEL much easier. I don't have a tiller (but would like one) so I really can't answer your questions about speed of the lowest gear. If mowing and tilling were the main use of the unit, I don't believe the shuttle would be much of an advantage. IMHO.