John Deere 5520 MFWD

blainesdad · Sep 10, 2013

I am looking at a John Deere 5520 MFWD, a neighbor of mine has for sale. Tractor appears to be in good repair but there is one area of concern on it and was wondering if you guys have ever seen it before.

On the front hubs, the black hub looks like the paint has been burnt off. Both sides look this way. The paint is peeled off and metal looks like it has been hot. I engaged the MFWD switch and it kicked in, but my dad pointed that out on the hubs and said he was concerned that they had been hot at some point in the past. The tractor is a relatively low hour unit with 1800 hours on it and the paint is all in good repair everywhere else. What is your experience with these tractors and has anybody ever seen this before?

Thanks so much

sixdogs · Sep 10, 2013

I've got a 5520 and never saw that. Lots of that model around here and I can't recall ever seeing it. Look close at the paint and see if it is, indeed burnt off or merely slightly rusty and flaky. I have seen that before but not burnt.

Maybe you could get the burnt look by driving for a long time in 4WD? How hot could they get? I don't know but would stop by a dealer to talk with a mechanic or maybe call them. That front axle is on a lot of models so if something like that actually occurred they would have seen it or would know about it.

Not sure what to do until I determined exactly what is going on and what dealers and mechanics familiar with the model had to say. Just my two cents.

Zebrafive · Sep 10, 2013

As blainesdad said, it might be just flaking paint and the hubs were heat treated, when manufactured, and that makes them look burnt.
I think I would ask the owner if he would pull the drain/fill plug (at 12 o'clock) and see if the oil smelled burnt. If not I would not worry about it.

cowski · Sep 10, 2013

pull the oil plug out and smell .if they have been hot then they have been run out of oil.sometimes the paint will just flake.

blainesdad · Sep 11, 2013

The guy that has it, has only owned it about a year. He trades all of the time apparently. I was thinking the same thing, going to check the oil in the hubs. I find it difficult to believe that they could get so hot that they could burn the paint off. If I buy it I will just pull the wheels and sand and paint them back up good and hope for the best. Now just have to get the A/C fixed in my 2550 and get it sold to buy it....haha