John Deere 4720 58 hp hydro only ??

[CountryJoe]

Would the John Deere 4720 be a hydro only because this tractor offers so much torque a geared transmission would not be able to hold up as well as a hydro(that is the impression my dealer gave me ? My dealer told me he sold 2 JD dozers to a guy who has a oil/gas pipeline business and the guy who bought them likes the hydro on the dozers and says they are tougher and more efficent to operate,he said they held up better to multiple users .
I have always had a geared tractor but was thinking about the new JD 4720 and was wondering if anyone here switched from gear to hydro and what there opinions were of the hydro's .

Thanks
Joe

 

[_RaT_]

You will find posts about hydrostatic drive quite plentiful here at TBN. Some love them, some prefer gear. I have a gear and a hydro. If you intend to do lots of ground ripping type work, I would still say the gear drive would do it better. For many other things, the hydro does it quite well and can be quicker. Both shuttle and hydro's have proven themselves to be great transmissions. The new JD 4X20's look to be very good.

 

[texastomtom]

I have a 4720
I still have a mf230 gear - which is supposed to be picked up as I am trading it.

I like the gear fine on the straight away work.
For the front end loader and tiller I prefer the hst.

I also like the hst fine for the str8 away,,, I just dont really mind either way on straight rows.

It sure saves a lot of hassel
Plus if you jump off the tractor a lot ( I do ) Its kinda nice not to have to jack with anything... Just let go the pedals and your safe.

I've jumped off the gear tractor a bit hastily a few times and almost missed getting it out of gear.. That tractor has no safetys so it could be nasty if.

I did this before getting used to the hydro so I cant blame it on forgetting which tractor I'm on.

The gear is cheaper I think in most cases, so if that is a factor and you dont do a lot for stop and go or forward reverse loading etc..... then I see no reason to avoid geared.

Sometimes I kinda miss messing with the gears...

I wouldn't think the 4720 being hst had much to do with the tractor being to powerfull for a gear transmission.. But I'm no expert...

 

[rockyridgefarm]

I am a little surprised how many 20 buyers are springing for the 4720. But why look back?

I think it is HST only for 2 good reasons. Marketing and supply logistics.

I still can't figure out why there's 4 models...

But I must've missed that JDPanel question...

 

[cowboydoc]

JD lost a sale with me on a new 4720. I was all set to pull the trigger until I found it was only available as a hydro. No way I would own a hydro. For dozer work yea I do believe your friend was right there. For the tractor work that I do it isn't a good choice.

 

[CountryJoe]

Why do you think John Deere offers hydro only on the JD 4720 ? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[DDT]

So are they any new ones on lots yet? I have not seen any where I am, machine finder shows none as well.

 

[_RaT_]

I suppose they know where the bulk of their sales are and what the majority of customers want. It looks like a very interesting line of tractors. If you have not tried hydrostatic drive, you owe it to yourself to try it. It certainly is very popular among many of us here at TBN. I definitely find it the best way to go for me. I use mine for box blading with rippers, mowing, post digging, with my Harley landscape rake, and lots and lots of loader use. Try it, you'll like it! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[JayC]

The local Deere dealer here always seems to have some 4000 Twenties on the lot. They also had some large chassis 4000 Tens with the new 400x loader.

 

[CountryJoe]

My neighbor has a JD 4600 hydro he bought in May of 2000 with 3900 hours on it,he has a dairy farm and plows 20 acres with an old set of plows each year and has not had any problems with his hydro.I tell him he's crazy but it holds up well.He keeps the lots clean and pulls the old wheel driven spreader with it.
He has 3 boys and 2 hired hands working and the tractor must get ran 12 hours a day sometimes. His biggest problem is the differental lock not holding up and a couple of wheel bolts want to work out occasionally.