Well, I've been so busy putting the new girl to work, I have been remiss in posting. The tractor did arrive second week of July and it took the dealer two weeks to prep it out. It makes my old tractor look puny. I had some trees cleared in April with a big dozer to run some new fence. I had already cut off the stumps and moved most of the trees and stumps out of the field. There was still two large root balls I couldn't move pulling with the 4x4 truck while pushing with the 5300. I brought the new girl around and hit one of those root balls, and she never even grunted. I pushed them with hardly a bit of wheel spin! She is a beast. Over the last three months, I've cut hay, baled (squares and rounds), stacked hay, graded dirt, cleared trees, and bushhogged with it. The 5100M has is performing great. It is way more comfortable to operate. I love most everything about her. The plus up features I ordered (never saw one on the lot) was the 3deluxe SCVs, deluxe cab (sunroof), and third function mid-hydraulics. I added a KA Attachments scrap grapple and working logs, brush, rocks is purely fun now. The extra features were worth the money to me. While the 16x16 power reverser is nice, I sure wish I had opted for the 32x16 trans. For cutting hay, I find a need for speeds making me shift between B4 and C1 gears. Oh well, it was my fault. I knew I should have gotten EVERY option and then I wouldn't miss anything. So, loads of great stuff on this tractor but I should also post a few quirks found so far. First, the brakes seem weak. I'm a big guy and when I have to stand on the petal to stop, it means it takes too much! The dealer checked them out and claim they are normal. It is a real PITA re-acclimating when switching between the tractors.
The H260 loader is solid and powerful, but a couple of points on it: 1) with the bucket level, the lip is 2" or so above grade. The lift cylinders are fully retracted. I'd prefer the boom to go all the way to the ground. 2) at least on the cab version, the loader frames are more forward on the tractor than my old 520 loader, giving a lot more leverage on the rear wheels. I have my rears fully loaded and max width but I still need significant rear weight to lift a full bucket of dirt without having them come off the ground. You can guess how I know! Fortunately I dropped the bucket fast enough to get them back down before the tipping point. I recommend a good 2000 lbs of implement ballast if you want to safely maximize the loader capability.
All in all, an awesome machine that is comfortable and capable. She will be part of our farm for a long time.
