MHarryE
Elite Member
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2009
- Messages
- 2,972
- Location
- Northeastern Minnesota
- Tractor
- Kubota M7-171, M5-111, SVL75-2, RTV900XT & GR2120; CaseIH 1680 combine
When I was in my 20's I spent one weekend a month maintaining my wife's and my cars/trucks. Changing plugs on my small block Chevy was a day job with skinned knuckles and if I didn't change them every 6,000 - 8,000 miles, my field economy dropped from 14 to 11 mpg. Wife always calling me to come rescue her, and we never got more than 60,000 miles from a car before the number of breakdowns just got too much. Now of 3 vehicles the low mileage one is 60,000 miles, the plugs have never been changed in any, and my F-150 gets better fuel economy than my 71 Nova even though it weighs twice as much and now has 3 times as many miles as the Nova had when it got traded off.
But this is a tractor forum. When I returned to this little corner of the farm on which I was raised my dad included the Farmall H on which I learned to drive and repair. First thing I did was get a new CUT, hooked it to the H, and towed it to my sister's father in law who wanted something to tinker with. The H went with no regrets. I had zero problems with the L3710 in the 8 years I owned it before retiring and then trading it for a L5740 with its computerized transmission that puts the L3720 to shame. My cousin and I now farm around 2,000 acres in our old age that it took 6 of us to farm back in 68 when I left. Every tractor except the L5740 is power shift. We till more ground in a day than we did in a week. Unlike our old Farmalls we aren't rebuilding transmissions every year, rebuilding Carburetors, changing points and condensers (after we first switched the magnetos to battery ignition). We have power steering, cabs with air conditioning, and when I get stuck which I rarely do now but did daily back then, I can get out my cell phone and call for help.
As for my last job at Cat I had. Fleet of 30 test machines. Every morning I could check on location, how many hours each machine ran the day before, and check to see if the computers had detected any errors like overheating. When a customer would complain about engine power one thing I could do was flash in a new engine rating.
Do I have any concerns? Yes, because John Deere, Kubota and Deere don't seem to have the same capabilities that I was used to at a Cat. The dealer techs don't appear to have the same training. I complain that our new Kubota power shift is much harsher than our Deeres and New Holland. A dealer here on this site said that can be tuned by tweaking the computer. I told that to my dealer who has checked with the local Kubota service rep who doesn't know anything about it. But I do have power shift and can shift up 8 gears on the Kubota, 6 gears on the NH, and 4 on the Deeres without having to do anything but tap a button, and the Kubota will automatically shift down when it thinks I am working it too hard. Our Farmall M spit out transmission gears when it felt I was working it too hard. Our Case diesel spit a rod out of the block when it thought I was working it too hard. The International 806 we got just before I graduated from college was a huge jump up - TA - the ability to power shift down 18% was such a benefit, and it stepped up the reliability by a huge factor over the previous generations but still sucked compared to our current lineup which includes 2 Tier 4 interims.
But this is a tractor forum. When I returned to this little corner of the farm on which I was raised my dad included the Farmall H on which I learned to drive and repair. First thing I did was get a new CUT, hooked it to the H, and towed it to my sister's father in law who wanted something to tinker with. The H went with no regrets. I had zero problems with the L3710 in the 8 years I owned it before retiring and then trading it for a L5740 with its computerized transmission that puts the L3720 to shame. My cousin and I now farm around 2,000 acres in our old age that it took 6 of us to farm back in 68 when I left. Every tractor except the L5740 is power shift. We till more ground in a day than we did in a week. Unlike our old Farmalls we aren't rebuilding transmissions every year, rebuilding Carburetors, changing points and condensers (after we first switched the magnetos to battery ignition). We have power steering, cabs with air conditioning, and when I get stuck which I rarely do now but did daily back then, I can get out my cell phone and call for help.
As for my last job at Cat I had. Fleet of 30 test machines. Every morning I could check on location, how many hours each machine ran the day before, and check to see if the computers had detected any errors like overheating. When a customer would complain about engine power one thing I could do was flash in a new engine rating.
Do I have any concerns? Yes, because John Deere, Kubota and Deere don't seem to have the same capabilities that I was used to at a Cat. The dealer techs don't appear to have the same training. I complain that our new Kubota power shift is much harsher than our Deeres and New Holland. A dealer here on this site said that can be tuned by tweaking the computer. I told that to my dealer who has checked with the local Kubota service rep who doesn't know anything about it. But I do have power shift and can shift up 8 gears on the Kubota, 6 gears on the NH, and 4 on the Deeres without having to do anything but tap a button, and the Kubota will automatically shift down when it thinks I am working it too hard. Our Farmall M spit out transmission gears when it felt I was working it too hard. Our Case diesel spit a rod out of the block when it thought I was working it too hard. The International 806 we got just before I graduated from college was a huge jump up - TA - the ability to power shift down 18% was such a benefit, and it stepped up the reliability by a huge factor over the previous generations but still sucked compared to our current lineup which includes 2 Tier 4 interims.
