Great visibility and versatility
Model Year: 2001
This tractor replaced a 23 hp compact so we took a huge step up in horsepower and performance. My son has a landscaping/excavating business so it gets used for a tremendous variety of work. It was one of the first tractors to have a factory quick coupler on the loader so we can use skid steer attachments. The attachments we have are Ag and Turf tires, front grille guard, 2 remote valves, 3 pt hitch counterweight and trailer hitch, L160 loader, 72" bucket, 64" grapple bucket, pallet forks, hydraulic auger, ATI preseeder (power rake), FMC 72" rotary cutter, Case IH 72" finish mower, Land Pride 84" landscape rake, Rhino 60' box blade, and a McKee 76" snow blower. We also use a dump trailer, a hydraulic log splitter and a 3 point one way disc that belong to our snowmobile club for doing trail work. With this variety of attachments, easy exchange is important. The telescoping links and telescoping hitch stabilizers are big pluses on this tractor. Another great feature is the curved boom loader. You can see your pallet fork tips and the bucket corners with the design of the hood and loader. The reach of this loader lets you unload a semi trailer of trees from one side with the forks. In 281 hours use there has been no problems with the tractor or loader. The rotary cutter threw a U shaped piece of fence wire into the sidewall of the tire, requiring the tire be dismounted and repaired from the inside, this is no fault of the tractor. Our area made the news when we got 7' of snow in December of 2001. This tractor got a great workout with that amount of snow and the powershift transmission worked very well for the ability to have power when you needed it and speed when you needed fast reverse speeds or road speeds without having to shift ranges, like with our old tractor. The 6'6" snowblower uses all the horsepower that is available but that is the beauty of a hydro. Last winter, I also ran my brothers NH 1920 which is a sweet tractor, but not nearly as handy for running a snow blower. I mowed a large complex last weekend and it involved backing into a lot of odd areas. The swivel seat makes it much easier to watch your rear implements. The independent PTO means I did not have to stop the tractor to engage the PTO. I was mowing ponds banks so steep I had to go up and down them, and there was another situation where the 2 speed powershift was so handy. Low powershift for the hard climb, high powershift for the flat areas. PTO speed is at 2500 engine rpm, so you do not have to run the tractor at full throttle to get PTO performance. Having the quick attach bucket let me drop the bucket in seconds to have better manueverability in the tight areas. One thing that is different between a DX40 and DX45, other than the engine size and hp, is the DX45 is not available with a mid pto. If you want to run a belly mower or front snowblower the DX40 will accomodate those, but the gears to run the mid pto are not in the 45 transmission. In soft conditions the 8.50x15 turf tires cut in with the loader attached. The newer tractors have 10.50x15 front tires which should help this situation. One other observation- if you are in high powershift and encounter a very heavy load, powershift down before you go into a stall. When hauling a loaded dump trailer up an extremely steep hill in high range high powershift the tractor transmission stalled, and would not downshift. This is an unusual circumstance that most people will not encounter. Also if the transmission seems sluggish, make sure you are not in high powershift when you should be in low powershift. <i>Editor's note: This review was originally posted to TractorByNet.com on June 4, 2003.</i>
Pros: Great visibility and versatility.
Cons: Would like to have larger front turf tires. New for 2003 have larger turf tires as standard equipment.