Dad is approaching 3000 hours on his, only problems were the pivot bearing/bushing on the front axle, and the brakes were chattering, he uses a large front mount blower so he uses the steering brakes alot, he took it to JD, they said the brakes were sho,t tore the tractor down replaced the brakes and charged him..within 20 hours the brakes were chattering again,
he dumped in some gm limited slip additive and the chattere went away..turns out the additives in the hydraulic tractor fluid had degraded, he used JD oil at the schedules he took a video of before and after and adding the additive...to the dealers credit, they refunded his money for the brake job.
I was just curious on your interest...I have used this tractor a fair ammount before I bought mine, it is a really good tractor made by Yanmar, if you are interested in my impressions..the hydraulics are very strong for the size of the tractor... you have to be carefull with it... which prompted me when buying, to go for the next size bigger, my DK is much more stable. and heavier will push through what the 970 bounces off.
In that size tractor for a gear unit I would say it is one of the best....the next frame size up is a lot more stable/safe my .02
