Anyone have a John Deere 748?

[ccsial]

I've been thinking about trading my JD355D on a 748 with 54" mower and 60" blade. Mainly because I'd like 4WD and hydraulic angling for winter. Anyone have a 748 and what do you think of it? Do the front wheel tear up grass when in 2WD?

 

[jcmseven]

I do not have a 748, but have had the VERY SIMILAR 595. No, it will not tear up the grass, and yes, it would be a real step from the 355D, although your current machine is a good one. At times, I really miss my 595. It was a hoss.

John M

 

[neverenough]

I've been thinking about trading my JD355D on a 748 with 54" mower and 60" blade. Mainly because I'd like 4WD and hydraulic angling for winter. Anyone have a 748 and what do you think of it? Do the front wheel tear up grass when in 2WD?

The 748 is just like last years 595. Just renumbered for this year inorder to create the "new" 500 series. I have the 585, which is this years 728, with 2 more hp being the only difference. I have the HDAP tires, which are the most aggressive tires they offer. They actually come on the SE's from the factory. I have no issues with the tires leaving any marks except loose soil while turning fast. I mow 3 acres and I never had an issue with marks, even in wet spring conditions. When the front end is locked in, on the other hand, it can leave marks if the front end is pushed hard, either by driving fast, or turning sharp. Not sure if this would happen with the standard turf tire though. Like I said, I have the HDAP tires and they are, by far, the best garden tractor tires I have ever seen. I was totally amazed this last winter/spring. I didn't use chains to snowblow or plow with the front blade, and I never came close to getting stuck, and I have a fairly steep and slippery hill to climb at the farm. In the spring, I took the snowblower off and played around in the heavy wet spring snow out in the yard. WOT and to the floor with the go peddle, and I was going through snow up past the axles. I did get stopped in the real deep stuff, but I just backed up and kept charging it until I broke through. Very impressive garden tractor. It's going to be in my stable for a long time. BTW, the front angling blade is 54 inch, and according to the Deere site, the 60 inch mid mount angling blade is not available for the 748. It lists it for the 728, but not the 748. This might be an error, but it is something you should check on. I have no idea why it wouldn't work.

 

[ccsial]

I'd be OK with a 54" blade but I suspect a misprint on the web.

My 355D has the squeegee and cleans my black top drive and parking lot real nice. If there is more than a few inches the L3400 with the blower does it first. There are a number of hilly areas that the 2WD 355D has trouble with when it is icy.

I'd use the 748 for mowing the smaller yards around the house, buildings, and cabin and I'm glad to hear it does not mark up the lawn. The 355D does good with the tires but I have a few shady areas where the front gauge wheels will peel off the grass if I turn too sharp. I raise the mower a lot to avoid this. The 748 does not turn as quite as tight and that may be a plus.

 

[neverenough]

I'd be OK with a 54" blade but I suspect a misprint on the web.

Just so I know we are on the same page here, I'll go over the blades Deere offers.

They offer a 54 inch front blade that fits all front quick hitch systems from the 425/445/455 series to 2006 x series tractors. As long as you have the front hitch, you can use the blade, if you add the angling kit, you can angle it either direction too. It has power lift and power down. You can literally lift the front end off the ground about 4 inches, if so desired. It also has a "float" setting that allows the lift cyliinder to "float" so there is little down pressure. This feature works great for snowblowers and pushing snow with the blade. If they have recently changed to a 60 inch front blade, that I am not aware of, I will be at the dealer monday morning trading up. I too, would much rather have a 60 inch front blade. The 54 inch blade, when at full angle, isn't much wider than the tractor, I would love the extra 3 inches on either side.

They also have a 60 inch mid mount blade. The frame for the blade mounts on the tractor frame, and slides into the same lift arms used for the MMM. This blade gives you power lift, but gravity lowering, just like the mower. This is the set up that Deeres website doesn't list for the 748, but does for the 728. I don't know why, and I think might be an error.

Lastly, they offer a rear mount, limited cat1 3pt hitch, 60 inch, back blade, that is just like the BB's you find all over that work off the 3pt hitch and have manual angling.

 

[neverenough]

I'd use the 748 for mowing the smaller yards around the house, buildings, and cabin and I'm glad to hear it does not mark up the lawn. The 355D does good with the tires but I have a few shady areas where the front gauge wheels will peel off the grass if I turn too sharp. I raise the mower a lot to avoid this. The 748 does not turn as quite as tight and that may be a plus.

Oh, the gauge wheels. I mow at 3.5 inch setting with about 1/2 inch gauge wheel clearance. Never had any type of issue with the gauge wheels either. I do have a quite rough yard too. It's not landscaped, just old field mowed. The only landscaping is up by the house and I mow that with the push mower to get a finer finish. If you mow to a much shorter finish hieght, I can see where it might be an issue. The big, rounder, gauge wheels on the newer decks do help to slide over the grass instead of digging in though.

 

[RWEST]

In contrast to neverenough I took the aggressive HDAP tires off my 595 in favor of standard turf tires after tearing up my yard in certain areas where I had to make sharp turns. The dealer said he'd ordered it with the HDAP's in case I needed to use the 595 in winter, which was really weird because the same dealer sold me my 955 with Curtis cab, heater (yeah, baby!!), loader bucket and 5' PTO mount blower for winter use. I didn't think the 5's came with HDAP's. Anyway, I've got some really low hour (less than 75) HDAP's in case anyone needs 'em.

If you'll be using the unit for winter duty, the HDAP's will probably work best. They're very aggressive tires.

 

[Bulldog160]

sent you a pm on the HDAP's.

 

[ccsial]

I would get the turf tires. I have an L3400 with a rear blower but I still use the 355D for light snows and cleaning up small areas that the blower misses.