Going from Blue to Red

mccormickDave · Apr 19, 2004

After a year of daily TBN reading/research, dad and I finally traded in old blue. We traded our Ford 3600 in for a new McCormick GX 50. Since we have stopped haying, we have decided a compact would be much more productive than the old 3600. We considered the big 3 and I have plenty of experience with a JD 4300 HST and Dad's work tractor is a JD 4600 PowerShift, so it will be interseting to see how we accept the new McCormick having so much past experience with Blue and Green.
Our decission was based on local dealer involvement. Our local dealer who we have done business with for the past 25 plus years is now an authorized McCormick dealer. He has always provided great service and offered a great deal for the McCormick. Hopefully, the new McCormick will be delivered some time this week. We are having six inch spacers manufactured to widen the rear end, and waiting on the new 84" Bush Hog RFM to arrive at the dealer before we take delivery. The liftmaster loader is in stock and should be on the tractor early this week. The one thing I have noticed with the new compact McCormick is the lack of telescopic link ends and stabilizers /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif. In my thoughts, a small trade off for the many other standard features on these McCormicks.

Once little red arrives I will be sure to provide pics and reviews in the "other brand" discussion group, as I feel this group needs a McCormick representative. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

markie61 · Apr 19, 2004

Nice! Congratulations on your new purchase. The dealer means alot, doesnt he? There aren't too many new McCormicks yet, so be sure to post pictures!

( The one thing I have noticed with the new compact McCormick is the lack of telescopic link ends and stabilizers )

A Quick-Hitch could help ( or the Pats' Easy Change ends, too.)

Mark

lablovers · Apr 19, 2004

Congratulations Big Red. I looked at them at the Tulare World Ag Expo. Very nice tractors. Best of luck with and looking forward to the pictures. Oh, and welcome to TBN, all colors are welcome. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

mccormickDave · Jul 20, 2004

First off, let me appoligize for taking so long to post pics and reviews of the new purchase. My home computer crashed (for third time /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif) and I just got around to purchasing a replacement and adding the software to download the digital pics. The good news is I can provide some insight on the McCormick as I now have 78 hours of seat time on our GX 50, the bad news, I have been so busy and not having a home computer, I do not have any pics of the new machine yet. I promise now that I have a computer that pics of the tractor and recent projects will be coming shortly.
My opinions on the McCormick GX 50. Overall I am satisfied with the tractor. As I mentioned the tractor now has 78 hours on it and it has been to the shop once. Around 20 hours a linkage in the shuttle shifter (roll pin) came out and rendered the tractor useless. Up until this point the shuttle shifting had always been less than smooth. Going from forward to reverse was very easy with just the slightest pressure required to shift. However, going from reverse to forward often required finessing the shuttle shifter. The gears would not rake, it was just difficult and required more pressure on the shifter. Watching my father operate the shuttle shifter I think I understand why the linkage came lose. My father operates a JD 4600 power reverser daily at his work and is used to just hitting the shifter on the JD as easy or as hard as he feels like it. As I watched him perform the same slam on the shuttle shifter of the McCormick, my hypothesis was that the shifting on the McCormick was less than smooth as a result of being new and my fathers aggressive shifting may have caused the roll pin to come out. Anyway, the good news is we called the dealer on the Saturday that this occured and explained that we needed a tractor for seeding a new lawn on Monday. On Monday morning the dealer picked up our tractor and dropped off a loaner Ford 4000 for us to use until we got the McCormick back. Since we have gotten the McCormick back the shuttle shifting is much smoother and I honestly believe it gets better as it continues to get broken in.
One area that I am somewhat dissapointed with is the loader. The lift on the loader is weak to say the least. When I talked with the dealer about this he did check the psi and it was operating at about 1800 psi. The dealer increased the psi to 2000 psi and it has improved some, but is still is lacking. I will probably check with the dealer to see what the max operating psi is and if I can't operate safely at much higher psi, then I will seriously look at an aftermarket loader (woods etc.)
The list of additions to the tractor are: A set of rear wheel spacers that were fabricated by the dealer (very professional job and I will be sure to provide pics), a tiltmeter, bradco HD toothbar.
The usage of the tractor so far have been grass cutting, moving gravel and road grading for my drive, and assisting with the construction of 2 retaining walls. Currently my lawn is about 6 acres and I have been cutting it weekly. The tractor handles the 84 inch bush hog finish mower nicely (the mower weighs approx 900 lbs). The 84 inches of mower combined with the wheel spacers helps stability tremondously. I have been routinly mowing across slopes between 20 and 25 as indicated by the tiltmeter, with no hint of instability. Depending on grass conditions the weight of the finish mower will sometimes want to pull the rear of the tractor down the hill slightly, making it necessary to use 4wd. The tires are R4s and the rears are filled.
One thing that has skocked me, is the price of parts and fluids for this tractor. At 50 hours I was sure to change the oil, oil filter, and transmission filter. The oil filter was $15 and it is no bigger than the one on the wife's impala. The transmission filter looks like the oil filter for my powerstroke but cost $28. Thank goodness this filter doesn't need changing for awhile.
Overall impressions: I am happy with the tractor and the mower, I just would like a little more muscle from the loader. Most importantly, I was very satisfied with the deal we got from the dealer (who is local by the way), and I am very satisfied with the support the dealer provides. Although when asked if he could bring down a new 75 hp with air conditioning for a loaner he decided on a good used ford 4000 /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif. Oh well, at that point in time it wasn't too hot anyway.
Pics of tractor, mower, and projects will soon follow. Thanks all TBNers for making this a great source of information.
Happy playing, I mean working /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

KiotiJohn · Jul 20, 2004

( As I watched him perform the same slam on the shuttle shifter of the McCormick, my hypothesis was that the shifting on the McCormick was less than smooth as a result of being new and my fathers aggressive shifting may have caused the roll pin to come out. )
Sounds to me as though the roll pin was not in all the way to begin with and that going forward was hitting it in the right spot to move the lever, but that going in reverse was pushing against the weak end of the pin. I doubt your father's style did anything more than make it happen maybe sooner than later, which was probably a good thing. Now it's out of the way.
My dealer was talking about maybe getting McCormicks as a second line so he could have some large two wheel drivers. Does yours have a Perkins diesel? I've heard these are very good tractors. If that loader doesn't work out, you may indeed like the Woods better. My dealer has placed them on a lot of Kioti models and they sure look good, sturdy, and strong. Thanks for the review, and I look forward to lots of pictures. Make some of them action shots, okay? John

Ben_W · Jul 20, 2004

Hi, Dave. I received my GXH 45 in July of last year. Since it was late showing up the dealer allowed me to use a GX 45 for 6 months. (Brand new loaner, I couldn't complain!) I don't know if just any dealer would do that. Sounds like yours might. The GXH had to go into the shop for a PTO problem, which ended up being a recall. Anyway here comes back the same GX I put 40 some hours on while mine was in the shop. There are things I like about both tractors. I like the manually engaged PTO on the GX better. I like the speed control better on the GHX for mowing around obstacles. One thing I had happen on BOTH that people that own them should be aware of. The range selector cable where it attaches to the transmission has had the nut back off and actually fall off on the loaner. I used lock-tite on them after that.
I haven't had to buy any of the filters you mentioned yet. Sound a bit pricey for the ones you mentioned.
The Yanmar engine has been a bright point for both. Runs great.
MaybeTBN could start a new section for McCormick so posts would be easier to find!! Ben

JayC · Jul 20, 2004

Does the GX hydro use a two pedal system or single pedal?

Ben_W · Jul 20, 2004

Two pedal.

mccormickDave · Jul 20, 2004

I agree John, better the roll pin happened under warranty. The McCormick compacts (40, 45, and 50 hp) have Yanmar engines and from my understanding are made in Spain and are basically the same tractor as the Landinis. The replacement gear filter I bought actually is labled Landini. The larger McCormick utility tractors I think are built in England and might have the Perkins. When I was shopping I looked very hard at the Kioti DK55 with the Perkins and absolutely loved that tractor. I just couldn't justify that big of a tractor, that is one big 55 hp compact. In addition, there is not a Kioti dealer within reasonable distance from me. My McCormick dealer is about 20 miles away, and the Kioti dealer that I looked at the DK 55 was about 75 miles away. Hopefully this weekend I will get some action photos as the second retaining wall is being constructed.

JayC · Jul 20, 2004

Look forward to the photos. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif I still haven't seen any good pictures, yet. The website photo isn't that good.

( When I was shopping I looked very hard at the Kioti DK55 with the Perkins and absolutely loved that tractor. )

The only Kioti with a Perkins engine is the DK65. The DK55 has the Daedong diesel.