Is Full Time Use of 4WD a Problem?

[batwing]

Our little John deer 870 4x4 came from dealer with loaded front tires.

 

[MHarryE]

I can assure you all L3800's (and similar) they have grease fittings and the front one has a small threaded "port" you are supposed to open and pump grease until it oozes out the port and re close the port. The rear one you just give a couple of pumps as any excess falls inside the differential housing.

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I had hoped that Kubota learned. I was surprised to find that my L3710, one year older than my BIL's L3000, had fittings while the L3000 didn't. The L5740 that replaced the L3710 has an improved pivot system. The L3000 has grease zerks now - we drilled and tapped the new parts before installing them. The fact that the replacements also had no provision for lube indicated to me Kubota didn't learn its lesson.

 

[MHarryE]

Consider the pure physics. Power through the transmission is equal. RWD all drive force is transmitted through the rear axle components including pushing the front wheels. AWD all tires are pulling their own reducing the load on the rear axle although adding load to the front. If the front power train is designed for the load overall life will be improved. Now the practical example - tillage load with high drawbar power requirement. I pull into a field and drop my implement. The rear wheels slip at a fairly high percentage creating ruts in the field so they are always trying to climb out of a hole. Switch the front wheels on, they start transmitting load, wheel slippage decreases, and away you go. Works the same way on all of our tractors. An example - our M135GX will only pull the disk in 12th gear in RWD but will easily pull it in 13th if the front wheels are on. In addition to the higher gear the actual ground speed is increased due to reduced wheel slippage. Even chopping had for my BIL - he has a 150 HP 2WD vs my 135 HP MFWD. I can run circles around him and use less fuel doing it even though we are working on sod. There is a lot of tractive effort pulling a chopper and chopper box filled with heavy wet hay. Our JD7720 has auto front wheel drive and shifts into FWD by measuring the speed difference between the fronts and rears. Pull into a field, drop the implement, and the tractor automatically shifts to 4WD for the rest of the operation.

 

[SmokemanGRP]

I see you have a L3800. Not sure if this is a problem with all basic L's but my brother-in-law's L3000 didn't have grease fittings on the front axle trunions (front and rear pivot points).

I can assure you all L3800's (and similar) they have grease fittings and the front one has a small threaded "port" you are supposed to open and pump grease until it oozes out the port and re close the port. The rear one you just give a couple of pumps as any excess falls inside the differential housing.

Is this front axle trunion in the center of the axle? I see a zert fitting there which I grease when I grease the others. Am I also supposed to be pumping grease into this small threaded "port" mentioned, in addition to the zert fitting?

 

[k0ua]

Is this front axle trunion in the center of the axle? I see a zert fitting there which I grease when I grease the others. Am I also supposed to be pumping grease into this small threaded "port" mentioned, in addition to the zert fitting?

There are 2 grease nipples (zerks) and a grease "port" for lack of a better word, in the center of the axle pivot . The port should have a 5/6 square ended threaded plug nearby the front zerk. (look this up in your manual) take a wrench and open the port and lay aside the plug. pump grease into the front zerk until you see movement and grease oozing out the port. then put the plug back in. On the rear zerk, crawl up under the front axle at the center and locate the rear zerk, pump 2 or 3 pumps of grease into this zerk and stop. You can tell when a zerk takes grease by the feel of the grease gun lever. Any excess grease bleeds into the differential housing, so don't just keep on pumping expecting something to fall out on the ground, as you are pumping the excess into the housing.

 

[wmonroe]

I haven't read all the posts but my 5240 stays in 4x4 all the time unless I'm on the road which doesn't happen much. My parents B8200 has been in 4x4 almost constantly for the last 26-27 years with no issues so I'm not worried about it. With the hills on my property 2wd isn't an option in some places so I just leave it locked in all the time so no one forgets and has an accident.

 

[blueriver]

Just my opinion ... And it's not worth much !! But I assume if tractors were meant to run in 4x4 all the time ... The mfgr would not install a lever to engage or disengage ... Use it when needed

 

[ovrszd]

Just my opinion ... And it's not worth much !! But I assume if tractors were meant to run in 4x4 all the time ... The mfgr would not install a lever to engage or disengage ... Use it when needed

That right there is the best post in this thread!!!!

 

[Bluegill2]

Just my opinion ... And it's not worth much !! But I assume if tractors were meant to run in 4x4 all the time ... The mfgr would not install a lever to engage or disengage ... Use it when needed

That right there is the best post in this thread!!!!

Yes, yes & Yes!

 

[Bluegill2]

Also worth mentioning, some folks need 4WD because their tractor has a FEL and they have no counter weight (or not enough counter weight) on the 3 pt hitch. Just the added weight of an empty FEL will cause loss of traction at the rear tires. So having the fronts pulling only masks this problem.

We want the rears to do most of the work and the fronts to help. Just look at the size of the rear axle/tires VS the front...