John Deere 850

[Reg312]

I'm looking at a JD 850. I think the price is fair, but will try to get it down some, but high hours is my concern. Ad reads as follows:

Nice John Deere 850 Tractor 4 wheel drive Power Steering Differential lock. 3 Cylinder 25 Horsepower Yanmar Diesel Engine liquid cooled 8 forward speeds 2 reverse speeds.3 point 540 RPM rear PTO. Tractor has 2500 hours. Rear tires are excellent front tires are just OK $4900.00

.What do you guys think?

 

[gary_dsc]

Pretty good tractor. Depending on the year and condition, price might be a little high. JD made 850 from 78-89.

 

[Reg312]

Thanks for the reply. Is 2500 hours high for this type tractor? If maintenance kept up, how long should one of these 3 cyl yanmars run before major engine repair required?

 

[Baucom]

The hrs aren't too bad for a tractor that's at least 20 yrs old. If it's been well maintained, and is well maintained in the future, it should have at least another 2000 hrs left in it. How much do you plan to use it per year?

 

[Reg312]

Plan to use it at the lake. A few hours brush hogging every week. May drill a few holes. Blade / rake lake road. Maybe move snow. Probably put on 40 to 75 hours a year.

 

[wcpeabody]

I agree with the comment about how well it was or was not maintained but I would specifically want to know if it has the original clutch or if it had been replaced.

bp

 

[Pharoah72]

I have a Deere 850 - bought new in 1982. Maintained like a champ... over the last 10 yrs I've pretty much put into it what it's replacement cost would... if not more.
It only has 1500hrs but I've had the following problems.
Replaced Block - Hydraulic Pump off front flywheel sheared the the gear and egged out the bearing pocket in block. Inserting it w/ sleeve was 1st attempt to fix but the True Postion of hole wasn't held properly so the center distance of gears was wrong - Tight mesh condition caused Failure again, so had to get a new block.
2. New water pump & radiator and all hoses - Pump uses a simply supported impeller off a bearing that reached it's life expectancy - Radiator was clogged up pretty good.
3. Cracked Head - I am guessing had a small leak the Head gasket that allowed coolant to get into cylinder maybe..... incompressible - cracked head....? or possibly thermal cycling from bad water pump - I did overhead a few times b/c of poor cooling performance from old radiator and pump -- not sure "chicken or egg".
4. My next guess would either be the clutch or transmission to go up - tranny always makes mis-match / lagging noise in higher gears - we'll see.

Point of the story is - a tractor of this age needs maintance b/c the parts were not designed to live forever.
I'm at the point where I've reached the end of a bulk of the major items and I've already invested a lot of money and time to keep this GREEN machine running... therefore I won't replace with new until the next MAJOR problem
But I will continue to dream of that day

 

[TUG HILL ADDICT]

I own an 870, the next genreation of this tractor. Over 2000 very hard hours. Excellent machine. Other than replacing parts due to abusive wear and tear the only parts that have gone bad are the battery cable. No tranny, clutch or engine issues (knock on wood!)