Value of a John Deere 790 (about a 2001)

nybirdman · May 4, 2015

Had a family member stumble across this cherry JD 790+FEL with 176 hours.Garage kept and looks new.Owner has passed and his wife is looking to sell.We would like to make a fair offer for both parties.
Our first offer was $10,000.She said the paid $17,000 when new.
We are not a big fan of gear shift tractors but this one is so nice it's hard to pass up.

KevT · May 4, 2015

Not a fair comparison but I just traded in a 2002 JD790 with FEL that I bought at an auction 2 years ago, and it was abused when I got it, then spent 2 years of being rode hard and put up wet. It had a leaking cylinder on the fel, clutch was about gone, and it was pieced together with duct tape to keep it running, and they gave me $7000 trade for it. So because of the year of it IMO your offer is a fair one.

Craftsman51 · May 5, 2015

I bought a 2001 790 with 200 hours 5 years ago and have been totally happy with it. I bought it on Ebay, it was a cherry, garage kept with routine annual maintenance. I did the annual maintenance, ran a 60" Woods bush hog with no issues. I added a MidMount PTO this year and a 60" midmount mower and I could not be happier. For what I do this is a machine that is totally reliable and up to the task.

sixdogs · May 5, 2015

Assuming it's FWA, I would think it would be worth more than $10,000. It's great if you could it for that but if she advertised it for $12,000 or $13,000 I'll bet it would sell pretty quick.

metalcaster · May 9, 2015

A dealer in Michigan has allowed $11700 in trade for my 2005 with loader, box, tire chains, fork attachment. Indicates they plan to sell it for more.

RoyJackson · May 9, 2015

I'd say $10K is a good offer...probably wouldn't go much higher than that.

I paid about $14K for my 2003 790...it was extremely clean and only had 24 hours on the meter...this was in 2004 and was purchased at a dealer.
Traded off for a 4400 in 2009 and got $11K trade in value.

The 790 is a great tractor. The two biggest problems are (IMHO) a lack of weight, so get a ballast box for it, if you buy. The other problem was the transmission. I'm a gear guy, but the 790's 2 range (high/low) gearbox meant reverse was real slow in reverse-low and too fast in reverse high.

BTW, make sure it has a dual stage clutch!