Anyone care for a review on the new 5E Limited series?

   / Anyone care for a review on the new 5E Limited series? #1  

stravis

Gold Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Messages
258
Location
Henderson, GA
Tractor
2009 John Deere 5101E Limited
I picked up a 5101 E limited last week. If there is an interest, I'll post some pictures and first week impressions. I'll continue the thread later with later impressions as I get more seat time. The 5 series and up don't seem to popular on here, so I thought I'd ask before I put in the work.

Anyone interested?
 
   / Anyone care for a review on the new 5E Limited series? #2  
   / Anyone care for a review on the new 5E Limited series?
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Specifics on the tractor:

John Deere 5101E Limited
101 engine HP and 82 PTO HP (4.5L Powertech)
MFWD
12F/12R with PowrReverser
553 Loader

Specifics on me:
I've got a lot of seat time on tractors, but am certainly no expert. Most of my experience is with my 1974 Ford 3000 and a mid 90's Ford 7740. I have some limited time with a small (read too small, but I can't recall the model #) JD. I have quite a bit of time on a backhoe as well. Most of my use is cutting grass, moving round bales of hay, seeding pastures (disc harrow, spreader, seeder/aerator, etc.), and maintaining about 1500' of gravel drive. Again, I don't claim to be an expert by any means, so this is just an opinion of a semi-knowledgable land owner on his first new tractor.

I bought the tractor last week. We were looking for something with a cab, MFWD, and loader in the 75 HP range. We were looking at the 5083 which is basically the same tractor with 83 engine HP. The dealer had this one (5101) in stock used with just 100.7 hours (I posted 200 hours in another post, I was mistaken, it wass 100) and only two months old. We talked the dealer down some and felt like this tractor was the better deal. We wanted the extra HP as I intend to purchase a larger mower, possibly batwing, in the future. I am using the tractor on my 110 acres. Of which about 25 acres are pasture. At the moment, I have an old Fred Cain 5' rotary, a John Deere 25A flail (used most often), 5' box blade, 6' disc harrow, boom, and a few others that rarely get used.

First week impressions:
Very, very comfortable cab. Keep in mind this is my first cab tractor, so likely any cab would be comfortable, but the AC is very cold, the seat has plenty of travel and, when adjusted correctly, absorbs the feral hog damage to the fields quite well.

One of the best features of the machine is the economy setting on the PTO. Most of my work will not require the full 82 HP of the PTO, so the economy setting is perfect for most of my applications. In the first 10.7 hours I put on the tractor, most of which were in the economy setting, I averaged 1.4 gallons per hour of fuel usage. I don't know what comparable tractors get, but that was much better than I expected, so I am pleased. For those that don't know, the economy setting allows full 540 PTO rpm at 1700 engine rpm vs. 2400 engine rpm in the standard setting.

Engine power has been excellent, although I haven't really taxed it yet. For my use, I can't imagine ever needing more power out of this machine.

I was a little worried about the 553 loader as my experience with loaders on anything other than a backhoe has been less than favorable. I've gotten so used to a backhoe loader that all others seem way underpowered and practically useless. I have been very pleasantly surprised with this loader, though. So far, only about 2 hours of use on it, but it has proven to be quite capable. With the bale spear attached it lifted a 1600# round bale out of the back of my truck with ease. Even at idle engine speed, it didn't hesitate in the least. Moving dirt, plucking up small brush and trees out of a food plot, it has been excellent. It's not as fast as a backhoe, nor as powerful, but it will serve my needs perfectly.

I have used the MFWD some to make sure I didn't dig any ruts in a wet cotton field, but it probably wasn't necessary. Worked fine, but we'll really review this later when I get in a bind as I'm sure will happen. I have a lot of water on my property, so I will definitely need this soon. My only complaint here is that it can be somewhat finicky to get it to engage. It's very possible that this is operator error, however. I'll have to get used to it.

My only real complaint is that it only has one rear remote. Two more can be added and I will likely do so in the future. Along the same lines, the rockshaft position control lever and the remote lever are way too close together. I'll post a picture of this later. My hand often finds the remote lever when it's looking for the rockshaft lever. Maybe I'll get used to it, but it could have been better thought out. Both of these controls are a little further back than I would have put them as well.

One other positive seems to be the accessibility. All the maintenance items seem quite easy to reach even with the loader attached. Sight glass at the rear for hydraulics, fuel water separator easy to reach, fuel filter and cabin filters are relatively easy, etc.. We'll learn more about this as I service it later (the 100 hour service was performed by the dealer before I took delivery).

All in all, I'm very pleased so far. I'll post some pictures either tonight or tomorrow and I'll update this thread as I put more hours on it. Maybe it will be helpful to some. If anyone has any questions at all, I'll do my best to give an honest answer.
 
   / Anyone care for a review on the new 5E Limited series? #4  
Thanks for your post and I look forward to your updates. I am considering an AG tractor over 60 hp so your experience is very beneficial to me.
 
   / Anyone care for a review on the new 5E Limited series?
  • Thread Starter
#5  
One thing I forgot to mention was the lights. Excellent night visibility. The 5E limited series comes with four top corner mounted work lights as well as headlights with a bright setting. The brights could reach a little further for transporting at night, but the work lights are wonderful. I have one front pointing at the loader and the other pointed about 50' out. One of the rear lights pointed down at the implement / three point hitch and the other behind about 50'. Very easy to work both in the fields and with the loader at night with these lights. If I had to come up with a negative, it would be nice to have more side lighting. An extra light on each side pointed out 50' would be nice and might be something I put on later if I still think I need it. It should be pretty easy as there are multiple "blanks" for switches in the cab.

two_bit_score - glad it's helping someone. When I was researching tractors on here I really couldn't find much information on machines larger than the 4000 series so I thought it might be helpful to have other reviews. I'll continue to update as I think of other areas. Again, I'll post some pictures tomorrow of it working and may take some of the cab tomorrow evening.
 
   / Anyone care for a review on the new 5E Limited series?
  • Thread Starter
#6  
Thought I'd go ahead and add a few pics of the outside. I'll post some more of the cab later.
These were all taken while moving a bale of hay to the horse pasture.
 

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   / Anyone care for a review on the new 5E Limited series? #7  
Where are the 5e's made? Who's motor do they have?
 
   / Anyone care for a review on the new 5E Limited series?
  • Thread Starter
#8  
They are made in Augusta, GA. Engine is the 4.5L John Deere Powertech, not Yanmar, but an actual JD engine. Cab an all are made in Augusta, GA.
 
   / Anyone care for a review on the new 5E Limited series? #9  
Sweet ride Stravis, makes my 3320 look like a toy. enjoy and I am jealous of your cab, it's supposed to be 82 degrees here saturday in the middle of Sept and I have six hours of brush to cut.
 
   / Anyone care for a review on the new 5E Limited series?
  • Thread Starter
#10  
Thanks mnbowhunter.

Couple more things I forgot to add:

Wet clutch - comes standard and should provide much longer service.

Telescoping links on the 3PH - Makes hooking up much much easier as you only have to get close. I'm so used to backing up, trying to get it to fit, climb back on and back up a little more, try again, etc. that these make my life a lot easier. I get more work done because I don't dread changing implements. A quick hitch would be just that much easier, but I don't have that. The only down side is that after hooking up the implement, simply backing up doesn't always make the telescoping links lock back into place. There could be a trick I haven't yet learned or they could need some grease, but it's an issue I'm having with it right now.

Loader bucket - my tractor came with the 500 series carrier. I've never used the others, so I don't know how this one compares, but it literally only takes about 90 seconds to remove the bucket and attach the bale spear. Simply remove to quick pins, roll the bucket off, roll the spear on and reattach the pins.

I took cab pictures this morning, but they are pretty fuzzy as they were taken with my phone in the dark before I left for the office. I'll take some clearer pictures tonight and post them.
 
 
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