Another MX6 Brush Hog Failure

plowindeeper · Mar 3, 2013

Sure do and I pray. Was gonna trade it in JD dealer said they wouldn't swap for it.

Ken · Mar 3, 2013

Verticaltrx said:
The gear boxes made in China are the new style and are actually pretty good. IIRC the ones that have all the trouble were made in Spain.

My MX6 had a gear box made in China 2008 maybe 20 40 hours and shaft broke at same area where the ring keeper is ground into the shaft. J.D, said if had purchased after Nov. 2010 would of been covered.

Took shaft to machine shop specialize in re-welding. metal worker looked and said wouldn't try with such cheap junk metal.

bought a 290 type Bush hog brand and have quit worrying . I sure didn't know clover and short grass was so hard on a Rotory cutter.
ken

arlen4720 · Mar 3, 2013

I bought a new MX6 last summer. I maybe have 30 or 40 HARD hours on it. I've been clearing overgrown pastures full of 2" plum trees and some other woody shrubs. I've hit many rocks and mounds of dirt. No problems so far. Has anybody had a failure with the new 5 year warranty gearboxes?

Ken · Mar 3, 2013

arlen4720 said:
I bought a new MX6 last summer. I maybe have 30 or 40 HARD hours on it. I've been clearing overgrown pastures full of 2" plum trees and some other woody shrubs. I've hit many rocks and mounds of dirt. No problems so far. Has anybody had a failure with the new 5 year warranty gearboxes?

These may be good gear boxes only the replacement Bush Hog was cheaper and heavier h-p than J.D. MX6 at that time.
Still have the carcus of the MX6 in junk pile if you continue to have good service May be interested.
ken

fieldman12 · Mar 5, 2013

Ken said:
These may be good gear boxes only the replacement Bush Hog was cheaper and heavier h-p than J.D. MX6 at that time.
Still have the carcus of the MX6 in junk pile if you continue to have good service May be interested.
ken

My buddy has im guessing an 01 year MX6 that has been pulled by a John Deere 5400 and now a 5310. It's had a very hard, hard life and never gave out. We have a Bush Hog 720 squealer which is the cheaper model. It's never gave us an ounce of trouble. I though about getting a Deere next time but after all this trouble I am hearing I will probably stick with Bush Hog or Woods.

fieldman12 · Mar 5, 2013

PapaPerk said:
Have any photos of the failure point?

In my opinion a rotary cutter should be one of the most easy pieces of equipment to make and Deere has done a good job in past years of making a rotary cutter. I see allot of new and old Deere rotary cutters sitting around on farms and on Landscape trailers. I know by any means a rotary cutter is not a big dollar item for Deere such as a S690 combine but in my opinion if they dropped the ball on this rotary cutter the past several years is a major black eye for them. I hear more and more for Deere to compete with other countries and manufactures they have slacked up some on there quality to build a more affordable product. I think they need to stick to there roots as they once was. I am not saying they make bad machines cause about everything on our farms is Deere including the combines and overall very good equipment but I do think they have backed off a little on quality. Sold.Stable.Still John Deere

Ken · Mar 5, 2013

Give a try to post pictures of MX6 broken out put shaft

Gale Hawkins · Mar 5, 2013

Is it safe to 'assume' all of the series has bad steel in the output shafts? Does it happen with China as well as Spain sourcing?

If clipping clover will cause a failure I would hate to see what cutting a three inch tree would do it it. If I owned one that was still covered by JD I would be looking for some trees to grind down I think.

Ken · Mar 6, 2013

Gale Hawkins said:
Is it safe to 'assume' all of the series has bad steel in the output shafts? Does it happen with China as well as Spain sourcing?

If clipping clover will cause a failure I would hate to see what cutting a three inch tree would do it it. If I owned one that was still covered by JD I would be looking for some trees to grind down I think.

Gale This is a China gear box. The metal looks like chip board material or "flaky" ground up car bodies maybe.

ken

bigbull338 · Mar 6, 2013

from what ive read of this thread the MX6 is a cheap sorry built shredder.an theres only 1 fix for that go buy a 286 bushhog shredder.an you wont ever be sorry.

greasemonkeyok · Mar 6, 2013

Its not so much that Deere made defective shafts, its that they compleately abandoned the gearbox leaving you with an ourageouly expensive fix if you want to use Deere parts. "Oops, we made a mistake in (design - choosing a supplier, or whatever), so you boys are just out of luck." Makes you wonder which attachment is next on their list for "oops, we made a mistake ...."

That said, mine has cut a lot of saplings, hit rocks, and been used as it was advertised. So far, no problems. I would not agree that it is a cheap sorry built shredder over all. The unpleasantness is knowing it could go at any minute and the fix is expensive.

Ken · Mar 6, 2013

bigbull338 said:
from what ive read of this thread the MX6 is a cheap sorry built shredder.an theres only 1 fix for that go buy a 286 bushhog shredder.an you wont ever be sorry.

bigbull338 .That is what I did and never look back when there is a clang of a rock or brush getting ground up.
And same price as the gear box, from J.D.
ken

plowindeeper · Mar 6, 2013

I just hope no one gets killed by the shaft breaking. Had a neighbor die from a flying chunk of wood that struck him in the eye while bushoging. Would hate to see that coming at me.

sawtooth · Apr 19, 2013

Ken said:
Give a try to post pictures of MX6 broken out put shaft

Man this is crazy. This is the exact same thing that happened to ours. Just driving along and everything let go. Believe it or not we didnt even hear anything that sounded like an impact. Its like it just broke or something. Not liking Deere right now.

fieldman12 · Apr 19, 2013

These gear boxes could have not cost John Deere much to have them made in China. I do not see how they can be worth $1600 from JD.

arlen4720 · Apr 19, 2013

sawtooth said:
Man this is crazy. This is the exact same thing that happened to ours. Just driving along and everything let go. Believe it or not we didnt even hear anything that sounded like an impact. Its like it just broke or something. Not liking Deere right now.

Was it one of the new style china gearboxes with the 5 year warranty?

Rivendale · Apr 20, 2013

Deere is at it again huh? We got screwed 10 years back or so with the F525 front deck mower. They made a terrible design that broke belts on anything other than perfectly level lawns and then charged you 80 something dollars a pop!

They never did anything to make it right, just milked us (professional lawn care company) for 80 something dollar belts every other week or so it seemed.

Kevin37 · Sep 1, 2013

Clearly I'm late to this party but I am in the same boat with my MX-6. Mowing on a flat field and the shaft just sheared in two. My gearbox was made in Spain, at least thats what is on the outside of the box. Don't know where the internal parts came from. My local dealer where it was purchased was nice enough to talk to but would not help out with any of the replacement or fixing. I got the same quote....$1600 for the new gearbox but was told I also needed a new blade mounting adaptor. Total $2000. To fix a "John Deere quality" mower that probably didn't even have 100 hours of use. Very poor customer support, but clearly Deere is big enough to simply not care.

arlen4720 · Sep 1, 2013

That sucks:thumbdown: I think Deere should have recalled the old "non china" gearboxes. Kevpilot1, how old was your mower? I think the new geargoxes came out in 2010....maybe?