Deere quality--nobody builds better !!

[JDgreen227]

In April 2003 I took delivery of my 4210, it came with a 60 inch 7-Iron deck, the 420 FEL, and a 72 inch Frontier rear blade. I really had no idea what to expect as far as reliability, because it was my first "real" tractor.

Until yesterday, aside from regular oil and filter changes, two hydro system fluid and filter changes, one air filter, one fuel filter, one coolant flush and refill, and one new fan belt, plus a new battery, my green machine has required NOTHING, repeat NOTHING, in the way of repairs, only the routine maintenance listed.

Before beginning mowing yesterday I did the customary fluid checks and eyeballed the tractor to see if anything was amiss. Much to my shock, I spotted a broken draft arm clevis, Deere only welded one side of it and it flexed and broke. The other clevis was supporting the entire front deck weight, and there was still only a 1/4 inch difference side to side!!!

I raised the deck with a jack, and swiveled the unbroken side of the clevis around to support the deck with the J-pin, and will have both clevises rewelded this fall after I remove the deck for winter.

Man, I should really be upset, my Deere FINALLY gave me a real, honest, MECHANICAL PROBLEM, and it only had 881 hours on it....:laughing: :laughing:

If I ever replace my 4210, it will be with another John Deere....you can be SURE of that !! :thumbsup:

 

[sunnyside360]

Good story. Normally tractors will go a very long time with proper maintenance and no abuse. By abuse I mean using the tractor to do things it wasn't intended to do like dozer work, etc.

 

[art]

Yanmar gave them a great chassis to get started with!

 

[grsthegreat]

My old 1996 JD870 worked nearly flawless for all the years i had it (till i sold it in 2010) cept for the broken front axle. I thought it was something i did, till i realized that alot of 770, 870 and 1070's had this same issue. There was some mechanical device that held the gears together that gave way. the left side froze up and the right was ready to give. Other than that, it was a nice tractor. About $1,500 later it was all repaired, but my mechanic never even thought to look at the other side, i made him open it and look...lo and behold, it was ready to separate also. easy to fix now before the gears shredded. you'd think the mechanic would have thought to look, especially when he knew of the potential problems.

 

[JDgreen227]

Yanmar gave them a great chassis to get started with!

My mid-chassis Deere has a serial number plate that reads: "Made in the USA" which I interpret as meaning it was assembled here. That doesn't mean the chassis was MANUFACTURED in the USA, only that the tractor was assembled here. Yanmar chassis or not, I just wanted to say how pleased I am with the quality. Over 8 years of use, and not even one blown fuse of burnt out lightbulb. And despite the pic showing it shiny clean, this tractor WORKS HARD.

 

[Mechanos]

My mid-chassis Deere has a serial number plate that reads: "Made in the USA" which I interpret as meaning it was assembled here. That doesn't mean the chassis was MANUFACTURED in the USA, only that the tractor was assembled here. Yanmar chassis or not, I just wanted to say how pleased I am with the quality. Over 8 years of use, and not even one blown fuse of burnt out lightbulb. And despite the pic showing it shiny clean, this tractor WORKS HARD.

What do you use it for besides mowing?

 

[JDgreen227]

What do you use it for besides mowing?

Grading, backfilling, moving half ton rocks, hauling yard waste, brush, firewood, gravel, topsoil, hoisting shingles to roof level, getting people unstuck in the winter, plowing my near 1/4 mile driveway of snow, clearing the driveways of 5 of my neighbors in the winter, excavating soil for concrete slabs, moving large tree trunks, etc.

 

[PapaPerk]

Glad you have had good luck with your Deere!

Does the belly mower work well for you? I'm interested in getting another compact tractor for mowing duty.

 

[JDgreen227]

Glad you have had good luck with your Deere!

Does the belly mower work well for you? I'm interested in getting another compact tractor for mowing duty.

Thank you for asking about the mower. it is a 60 inch 7-Iron, probably have about 650 mowing hours using it. I just replaced the OEM JD blades this year, and the OEM deck belt looks good for another 5 or 6 mowing seasons. Aside from the broken clevis, ZERO problems.

However, I have posted elsewhere in this forum about my issue with the cutting height of the deck, and advised other members who are considering a tractor/mmm purchase to check into the cutting height before they buy. The same deck installed on the next larger model (4310) will cut a maximum height of 6 inches. Mine is limited to 4 inches maximum, which creates a HUGE headache when it rains frequently where I live. Many times I cannot mow because it has rained so often, and the deck is next to worthless at recutting clippings. WORTHLESS !!! It simply vacuums up the already cut grass and blows it out the discharge chute. The attachment shows the problem clearly...I was recently cutting 6 inch high grass, perfectly dry, at maximum 4 inch height. The clippings just build up on top of the uncut grass and the front of the deck pushes them up onto a pile. No matter what RPM I use, what speed I travel at, chute up or down, and nearly new Gator blades, I still end up doing a HUGE amount of raking to get the clippings off the lawn. And my grass is not THAT thick. How I wish I had the extra two inches of cutting height, but aside from this problem I love my tractor.

If only it would just chop the BLEEPING GRASS UP BETTER it would be perfect.

 

[houstonscott]

Not sure how Deere missing a weld is a good thing, maybe its just me. What else did they overlook? I don't get it...Manufactures with better quality control and don't miss welds in the assembly build better!!

HS

 

[two_bit_score]

My old 1996 JD870 worked nearly flawless for all the years i had it (till i sold it in 2010) cept for the broken front axle. I thought it was something i did, till i realized that alot of 770, 870 and 1070's had this same issue. There was some mechanical device that held the gears together that gave way. the left side froze up and the right was ready to give. Other than that, it was a nice tractor. About $1,500 later it was all repaired, but my mechanic never even thought to look at the other side, i made him open it and look...lo and behold, it was ready to separate also. easy to fix now before the gears shredded. you'd think the mechanic would have thought to look, especially when he knew of the potential problems.

He's paid by the hour. That was his next car note.

 

[JDgreen227]

Not sure how Deere missing a weld is a good thing, maybe its just me. What else did they overlook? I don't get it...Manufactures with better quality control and don't miss welds in the assembly build better!!

HS

The clevis would be difficult to weld on both sides of the tabs because they are so close together. They could have welded both sides of one tab and then done the outside weld for the second. When I have them rewelded I am going to ask them to add reinforcement between the tabs to eliminate the flexing.

BTW, the installation manual for the deck front draft arm assembly is WRONG, period, if you have the FEL and grille gard on this model tractor. You cannot rotate the draft arm lever as described, because it hits those components. And the moron who originally assembled the draft arm at the dealership did it wrong, so the tractor as delivered could only cut 2 1/2 inches maximum height.

 

[RoyJackson]

Yanmar gave them a great chassis to get started with!

Other then the engines, I don't believe any of the 4xxx series were built by Yanmar.

 

[Mike_S]

Not sure how Deere missing a weld is a good thing, maybe its just me. What else did they overlook? I don't get it...Manufactures with better quality control and don't miss welds in the assembly build better!!

HS

JD also didn't miss a couple of handfulls of metal millings left in the transmission housing after milling it, which they did on my first 4400HST (one of the first ones sold). The suction screen was full, the transmission filter was full of fine silver dust, the hydraulic pump went out as did the brakes and hydrostatic transmission -- all within 50 hours. That required a major tear down. Oh yes, JD also didn't correctly engineer the geometry of the front wheels of the early 4400's so that in 2WD they would tear grass out of the ground when not even turning sharp -- BUT there were no recalls about the defective front ends -- just their usual "fix-as-fails" policy. Quality control??? About $ 12,500 worth of warranty repairs due to total lack of QC. Sadly, I liked the size, egonomics and capability of the 4400HST so much (compared to equivalent Boomers and Kubotas of that time) that I traded the repaired faulty one off (JD would NOT take it back or help with a trade-in) for another 4400HST and it has gone 10 years with the only repair being FEL cylinders needed rebuilt and now a short in the hazzard flashers and while I have no hard feelings about cylinders needing rebuilt or a short developing in the flashers after 10 years of dependable use, I DO STILL harbor hard feelings about the extra $5000 I had to eat in order to get a 4400HST (trade-in difference) that was built right and that I could trust and has proven dependable. JD would not even talk to me about the many QC issues of my first 4400HST.

Mike_S

 

[houstonscott]

JD also didn't miss a couple of handfulls of metal millings left in the transmission housing after milling it, which they did on my first 4400HST (one of the first ones sold). The suction screen was full, the transmission filter was full of fine silver dust, the hydraulic pump went out as did the brakes and hydrostatic transmission -- all within 50 hours. That required a major tear down. Oh yes, JD also didn't correctly engineer the geometry of the front wheels of the early 4400's so that in 2WD they would tear grass out of the ground when not even turning sharp -- BUT there were no recalls about the defective front ends -- just their usual "fix-as-fails" policy. Quality control??? About $ 12,500 worth of warranty repairs due to total lack of QC. Sadly, I liked the size, egonomics and capability of the 4400HST so much (compared to equivalent Boomers and Kubotas of that time) that I traded the repaired faulty one off (JD would NOT take it back or help with a trade-in) for another 4400HST and it has gone 10 years with the only repair being FEL cylinders needed rebuilt and now a short in the hazzard flashers and while I have no hard feelings about cylinders needing rebuilt or a short developing in the flashers after 10 years of dependable use, I DO STILL harbor hard feelings about the extra $5000 I had to eat in order to get a 4400HST (trade-in difference) that was built right and that I could trust and has proven dependable. JD would not even talk to me about the many QC issues of my first 4400HST.

Mike_S

I feel real good about buying an LS after reading this post. Modern manufacturing facilities and robotics are expensive and generally require completely new facilities to manufacture a line of cars or tractors. That's a big investment but it pays off, LS in S. Korea understood this when they build their new lines. My little LS is a real jewel from the most modern tractor factory in the world, take a look.

HS

 

[JDgreen227]

JD also didn't miss a couple of handfulls of metal millings left in the transmission housing after milling it, which they did on my first 4400HST (one of the first ones sold). The suction screen was full, the transmission filter was full of fine silver dust, the hydraulic pump went out as did the brakes and hydrostatic transmission -- all within 50 hours. That required a major tear down. Oh yes, JD also didn't correctly engineer the geometry of the front wheels of the early 4400's so that in 2WD they would tear grass out of the ground when not even turning sharp -- BUT there were no recalls about the defective front ends -- just their usual "fix-as-fails" policy. Quality control??? About $ 12,500 worth of warranty repairs due to total lack of QC. Sadly, I liked the size, egonomics and capability of the 4400HST so much (compared to equivalent Boomers and Kubotas of that time) that I traded the repaired faulty one off (JD would NOT take it back or help with a trade-in) for another 4400HST and it has gone 10 years with the only repair being FEL cylinders needed rebuilt and now a short in the hazzard flashers and while I have no hard feelings about cylinders needing rebuilt or a short developing in the flashers after 10 years of dependable use, I DO STILL harbor hard feelings about the extra $5000 I had to eat in order to get a 4400HST (trade-in difference) that was built right and that I could trust and has proven dependable. JD would not even talk to me about the many QC issues of my first 4400HST.

Mike_S

I am sorry for the issues you had to endure and don't blame you for having hard feelings. NOT ONE BIT.

 

[CompactTractorFan]

Thank you for asking about the mower. it is a 60 inch 7-Iron, probably have about 650 mowing hours using it. I just replaced the OEM JD blades this year, and the OEM deck belt looks good for another 5 or 6 mowing seasons. Aside from the broken clevis, ZERO problems.

However, I have posted elsewhere in this forum about my issue with the cutting height of the deck, and advised other members who are considering a tractor/mmm purchase to check into the cutting height before they buy. The same deck installed on the next larger model (4310) will cut a maximum height of 6 inches. Mine is limited to 4 inches maximum, which creates a HUGE headache when it rains frequently where I live. Many times I cannot mow because it has rained so often, and the deck is next to worthless at recutting clippings. WORTHLESS !!! It simply vacuums up the already cut grass and blows it out the discharge chute. The attachment shows the problem clearly...I was recently cutting 6 inch high grass, perfectly dry, at maximum 4 inch height. The clippings just build up on top of the uncut grass and the front of the deck pushes them up onto a pile. No matter what RPM I use, what speed I travel at, chute up or down, and nearly new Gator blades, I still end up doing a HUGE amount of raking to get the clippings off the lawn. And my grass is not THAT thick. How I wish I had the extra two inches of cutting height, but aside from this problem I love my tractor.

If only it would just chop the BLEEPING GRASS UP BETTER it would be perfect.

Get a TracVac.

 

[JDgreen227]

Get a TracVac.

Now that the flippin' house is paid for I finally can.....:laughing:

 

[grsthegreat]

Now that the flippin' house is paid for I finally can.....:laughing:

my property has been paid off for a few years,... its a great feeling not to have that burden on your back.

 

[JDgreen227]

my property has been paid off for a few years,... its a great feeling not to have that burden on your back.

Every time I hear of people being stuck with a mortgage where they owe more than what their house is worth, it brings to mind that episode of "CSI" where the Nick Stokes character tells someone:

"I'm so far underwater on my mortgage I should be wearing scuba gear...."