New Firewood Beast

[luckydozenfarm]

After too many tractor breakdowns this summer I decided to trade in my tiny Mahindra 3616 for a John Deere. It's a 5075M MFWD, 75 hp cab and it has the big loader on it. I am waiting on the 3rd function kit to come in so I will be able to run my grapple bucket. This thing is a total beast, I picked up 4 round bales with it at a time this weekend, two on the loader and two on the hitch. I was beating that Mahindra up in the woods as it was just too small to safely lift logs over 500-600 lbs. Plus I couldn't get much height out of that Mahindra loader to load logs over my 4' sides on the dump trailer.

Once I get the 3rd function I am planning on getting a "skid-steer type" log splitter for my front end loader. Maybe even design some kind of bracket to hold my chainsaws too.View attachment 304612View attachment 304613View attachment 304614


However, with the loader its over 14,000 lbs. So I may have to sell my current 16k# dump trailer for a 21k#.

 

[ChipMonger]

Nice new tractor, rep on the way...How cold does it get in Hockley TX?

 

[luckydozenfarm]

it gets freezing a only few days of the year. No one around here depends on firewood to keep alive, but most like it because they like the smell of wood burning. Can't say I blame them. My house has three fireplaces.

 

[apn73]

I would say that the word "beast" is an excellent descriptive for that thing, 75 HP, good Lord! You can pull houses from foundations with that thing, will it double as log skidder? I can't look at this thread again, otherwise I will get tractor envy.:msp_wub:

 

[H-Ranch]

After too many tractor breakdowns this summer I decided to trade in my tiny Mahindra 3616 for a John Deere.

If you traded the Mahindra for the John Deere I would say you done good! :jester:

 

[XSKIER]

Very nice!

 

[Zeus103363]

I'm jealous of your little tractor! Now that nice shinny green "beast" is like a dream that won't ever come true for me! Congrats and enjoy...there are those of us that will never get to have the experience!

 

[zogger]

I like the graberrooni attachment. Never have seen one for a regular utility tractor. Of course, never thought about it either, but I guess there are probably thousands of potential attachments.

Have fun with your new ride!

I must say, I much prefer driving a tractor over any other motorized conveance I have ever used. Slow motion big fun all the time, even when doing long tedious work with them.

 

[woodman6666]

Thats twice the tractor as your previous foreign jalopy.

 

[nathon918]

Thats twice the tractor as your previous foreign jalopy.

no now its just a foreign jalopy assembled in the us that happens to be twice the size...
i wouldnt buy anything JD has made from 2000-current, now theyre just the same as any foreign tractor but with green paint, they spend more time in the shop than in the field.
plus the way JD corprate(not dealers) is running things these days, i wouldnt want anything to do with them. theyre a "quanity not quality" company now...

 

[Dirtboy]

That's quite the beast you got there!

 

[luckydozenfarm]

no now its just a foreign jalopy assembled in the us that happens to be twice the size...
i wouldnt buy anything JD has made from 2000-current, now theyre just the same as any foreign tractor but with green paint, they spend more time in the shop than in the field.
plus the way JD corprate(not dealers) is running things these days, i wouldnt want anything to do with them. theyre a "quanity not quality" company now...

Yeah and I thought long and hard about that too. The Mahindra kept breaking the pinion gear and I wasn't happy with the fact that the owner's manual was very difficult to read. So I didn't want to have that issue all over again. However my combine is a 1978 John Deere 7700 Turbo and its 100% American made. It's almost the same age as me and it's a very good machine. But it's getting harder to find parts for it and our JD 7320 and the 5510 have been good machines and I believe they are foreign made, also. Just because I can't get American made power doesn't mean I'm going to stop chopping wood.

The power of the loader on this thing is nuts, though. I lifted a 12 foot long, 30" diameter oak log right off the ground like it was made of Styrofoam yesterday. My plan is to stack my 1/2 cords on a pallet and then load the pallets onto the trailer. I lose a lot of delivery time having to reload the trailer by hand between loads in the fall.

Anyway, the 3rd function should be in this week and I'll be sure to get some pics of it up.

 

[nathon918]

does that have the power reverser transmission (shuttle shift)?
we had a 97 5400 also a assembled in the us tractor, its about the same size as yours (68 hp) has the power reverser trans, most of the time it gets used to load the log decks on the processor and mill, so the power reverser is great for that, and the rest of the time we hay with it, and we have some 25-30% grades and when pulling up the grade with just the bailer that transmission really whines, to the point you can bairly hear the bailer, in 03 when pulling the bailer and an empty wagon down the road it jumped out of range, and trashed a good portion of parts, ever since its never been the same, been to the dealer quite a few times for trans work... just not a very reliable transmission IMO.

 

[luckydozenfarm]

does that have the power reverser transmission (shuttle shift)?
we had a 97 5400 also a assembled in the us tractor, its about the same size as yours (68 hp) has the power reverser trans, most of the time it gets used to load the log decks on the processor and mill, so the power reverser is great for that, and the rest of the time we hay with it, and we have some 25-30% grades and when pulling up the grade with just the bailer that transmission really whines, to the point you can bairly hear the bailer, in 03 when pulling the bailer and an empty wagon down the road it jumped out of range, and trashed a good portion of parts, ever since its never been the same, been to the dealer quite a few times for trans work... just not a very reliable transmission IMO.

Yeah it has the 32Forward/16Rev Powerreverser transmission. That wasn't the story I wanted to hear..;((

 

[nathon918]

really not horrible tractors but they just dont compare to the older ones as far as quality and reliability goes.
what really pushed me away from them was the way they dropped one our regions largest dealers, it was the 3rd oldest JD dealer in the world, and corprate wanted them to get bigger, (new bigger building, more customers etc.) and the dealer couldnt justify it, so jd came and took all of their equipment.
they were the best dealer around IMO, they stocked parts for almost every tractor JD has ever made, and NOS parts you couldnt find anywhere else, i just couldnt believe the way it went down...

 

[Hedgerow]

Yeah it has the 32Forward/16Rev Powerreverser transmission. That wasn't the story I wanted to hear..;((

It'll be ok... Use it and enjoy it... If it starts acting flakey, go trade it in on a Kubota... Deere tractors aren't like pickups... They don't lose value near as fast...
But I'll bet it's just fine...

 

[luckydozenfarm]

It'll be ok... Use it and enjoy it... If it starts acting flakey, go trade it in on a Kubota... Deere tractors aren't like pickups... They don't lose value near as fast...
But I'll bet it's just fine...

Yeah think it will be ok. The problem I've always seen to arise is when a tool is too small for the job. The Mahindra was basically a riding lawn mower and not suited for dragging and heavy loading. I see the same thing with chainsaws, you will tear up an MS250 quick bucking 30" logs all day. I'm hoping the new tractor is just big enough to not break in my normal activities. Another good thing is South-East Texas is Deere country. We have 5 major dealerships within 60 miles of us. There was only one Mahindra dealer that did repairs and they were 100+ miles away. As for Kubota's I don't know much about them and after this Mahindra fiaso, I doubt I would buy anything else but a Deere.

 

[Hedgerow]

Yeah think it will be ok. The problem I've always seen to arise is when a tool is too small for the job. The Mahindra was basically a riding lawn mower and not suited for dragging and heavy loading. I see the same thing with chainsaws, you will tear up an MS250 quick bucking 30" logs all day. I'm hoping the new tractor is just big enough to not break in my normal activities. Another good thing is South-East Texas is Deere country. We have 5 major dealerships within 60 miles of us. There was only one Mahindra dealer that did repairs and they were 100+ miles away. As for Kubota's I don't know much about them and after this Mahindra fiaso, I doubt I would buy anything else but a Deere.

Think of a Kubota as the Toyota of the tractor world...
Just start and runnem... Very dependable...
But per HP, the Deere should be a tick heavier in weight, so some may prefer them for loader work... A bonus is, the Deere is sexy and green...

 

[Jon B.]

When Mrs. B. and I were tractor shopping, we found the Kubota to be the lightest of them all in the same HP range. In tractors, weight is king!

For a 29HP, the Case was 50% heavier than the orange one. Deere is better yet. Father-in-law (and also a coworker) traded in a near-new Case tractor for a green one and has been very pleased with it. The red ones are made in Hungary - and not well made, either. Coworker's engine had an internal balancer assembly come apart and trashed the engine with just over 300 hours. Dealer and Case ate most of the repairs ($6k) but it left a bad opinion of the manufacturer. Father-in-law had hydraulic leaks and problems. It got lots of trailer miles to & from the dealer's shop. There were mixed SAE & metric fittings, and other stupid errors.

We ended up buying a used (900 hours) JD 4600 hydrostatic with Cab & loader. I have NOT been unhappy with the decision at all. It's a very nice machine, though sometimes a bit small, at ~40HP and maybe 5500 pounds. It'll lift about 1800 pounds but you have to be very careful trying to maneuver with that much weight on the loader. In the winter, it wears a 7-foot Lorenz two-stage snow blower.

That 5075 would suit me just fine. I haz tractor envy!

Jon

 

[luckydozenfarm]

Got my 3rd function for my grapple bucket installed and my buddy seat put in this weekend. Next weekend I'm gonna put it to the test on some big logs.


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