No more room in the shed...

ace10 · May 30, 2011

My new-to-me John Deere 5625 arrived on Saturday. My machine shed is now full to capacity. It's a 24X27 with 9' OH doors. It's squeezed into a tight corner on my property and was built to house three machines and smaller landscape stuff only.

Here she is:

I had been shopping since this past November. 70-95 HP range. Orange and Green were where my eyes were looking. All in all, it was a maddening process. Up to the point I found this one. Then it all fell into place quickly.

I didn't need a tractor this very exact moment, but to be honest, the floods put a scare in me with the possibility of unknowingly buying a "restored" tractor.

This little creampuff has 450 hours. She's outfitted pretty comprehensively:

24/24 Tranny. 3 Mids, 3 Rears. Air seat. Insane lighting package. Rear wiper. 542 FEL with 3rd line. 84" HD bucket. Fenders. And the electrohydraulic 3 pt control. It's probably got some other stuff too, but I just haven't found it yet.

I did have to take down the beacon due to clearance issues with the header on my OH door.

I don't think the PTO has ever been used in anger. Nor has anything ever been hung off the 3 Pt.

Once we get past the Springtime rush, I'll get her checked out by my service guy.

Here's her roommates.

I took the bucket off the 5625 because I wanted to use it on the Bobcat to move mulch around. The one thing I learned from that experience is that it is no easy task to use the FEL with any real precision. It's nothing like a skidsteer. It's a whole entirely new skill set that I'll need to develop. When you're in the cab, the bucket feels like it's 25 feet away. Yikes.

Anyway, I thought I share my pics. I'm pretty happy with the stable at this point. Plenty of shopping to do for attachments now. Tops on the list are a set of forks and mower.... probably a flail. I do have plains to cut in a road later this year, so there's plenty of research to do there in terms of blades, planes, etc.

beenthere · May 30, 2011

Nice. That one should be a lot of fun. Look forward to more pics.

JB4310 · May 30, 2011

That machine looks awesome :thumbsup:

You'll get the "feel" for that loader with time. I was clumsy with mine at first but now it's 2nd nature. you need a bucket level indicator, I can't tell from the pic if you have one. Also The float function comes in handy for certain tasks, especially snow removal from hard surfaces.
Forks on a loader are still a little tricky compared to a skid steer though.

JB.

ace10 · Jun 3, 2011

It does have the bucket indicator, but I can't say that it really helped much while I was playing in the dirt last evening.

With the Bobcat, you don't even really look at the arms or the bucket. You kinda just know where they are. With the tractor, it feels like I need another pair of eyes and arms to operate everything efficiently.

For now, I'm just going to get comfortable with the basic controls and the dimensions. Knowing how to stop or slow that beast in a hurry was my first priority. So check that off the list.

SixHoeBob · Jun 3, 2011

Your shed is not full, the walls and floor are still visible.

daveinnh · Jun 3, 2011

Verrry nice find.

kday64 · Jun 4, 2011

My BX2330 FEL is not clumsy at all. She is smooth operator with class and good looks.

You will get the feel for it before the end of the break in period I am sure.

jenkinsph · Jun 5, 2011

ace10,
Nice looking tractor and well equipped too, I suspect once you get the right implements to utilize it you will be very happy with it. I would suggest you get top n tilt for the TPH, landplane grader and a rearblade. You can do quite a bit with the road building and smoothing the property with those items. With the right attachments and implements on the rear this should be a very capable tractor. Post some more pics when you can.:thumbsup: