I have two John deere 6920 . They are just two years old with 2800 hours on each in that time i have had three sets of brakes in one of them and lots of smaller things going wrong with it.The other has had two sets of brakes new power quad new trust bearings in the diff,and lots of other little things.In total i have had to spend nearly £10 000 on these tractors with no help from John deere.They do 85% of there work towing 14 tonne trailers on the road all trialers are commercial axels with abs and loadsencing.The other work is grass land based contracting. Is anybody doing simlar and with what sort of tractor because i can not carry on like this thanks

The wife wants me to turn to computer off, Peter Kay on telly, so lets keep it brief.......

You are not the only one to have brake problems with JD, I know several 6020 series owners that have had this problem.  We all have problems from time to time, its just JD purchasers do'nt want to admit it on the forums.  Thats why you have'nt had any relpies yet.

follow any tractor on the road at the moment and see how they sit on the brakes, tractors aint built for this sort of work they cant hack it and as for tractor repairs our fendt has now cost 12 grand in repairs 6 grand on tyres and is now having her gearbox looked at, all from a tractor with less than 6000 hours on the clock

Preciseley......?

All the problems you mention seem to be transmission related.  It sounds to me like bad driving, or at least operating with excessive speed.  If you're going to push a machine to its limits, you have to expect this type of wear.

The only alternative I can suggest is a Unimog, they are the only "tractor" built for road work, and will work well on grassland ops too.

It dont matter what tractor you have the tractor brakes will do the job they are designed to do, if you buy a 40 or 50 K tractor the brakes will be designed around this & its carrying capacity!!

Question is even with commercial brakes (or so you or the guy who sold it to you says), are they doing their job????? What size shoes are in the brakes???? When did you last adjust & service them??? usual question for most of us is never, we service the misses car & the tractor or Land Rover sometimes but not our trailers!!!!! 

The traliers are checked over every week with the work they do. The brakes are 180's and i think JD have not upgraded to 50k from 40k.

It's OK to drive at 40k on the open road (although maybe not legal) but doing this speed just 20 or 30 yards from the gateway then ramming your foot hard on the brake pedal will cause excessive wear.  Likewise, jamming the gearstick from one gear to the next without even giving the tractor time to de-clutch will wear and chip teeth from the transmission, again causing severe wear and breakdowns.  Some drivers enjoy working this way, at high speed all the time, and it just wrecks the machines.  Either drive sensibly and carefully, or be prepared to pay the extra cost.

does warranty not cover this if its only 2 years old?

the problems you are having with JD is a very common problem but as usual every one who is green and yellow  won't discuss it ..

all you can do is vote with your feet and go try a new holland you can spec front brakes on a 40k box unlike any other manufacturer the retail price is only £800 retail

new holland have a very good range and are proving very reliable

its time to vote with your feet and show john deere they cannot be so arrogant and detached from their customers.

I know McCormick have had front brakes on their suspended axles at 40k for at least 4 years.

You could send your drivers on an advanced driving course, I've done Rospa in my car. They do all sorts of courses and I'm sure one of their commercial drivers courses will teach them about forward planning so they are not putting any more wear than nessasary on their machines, even if the way they operate the machines is not at fault for the problems it will only make them better drivers. At least if your operators are up to speed you can then start grizzling at the manufacturers with a degree of confidence 

Hi I am sorry to here about your tractor problems as i have green blood in my veins,We run 50k jd's and run alongside 50k jd's too.I can only honestly recall one of my friends being trouble once and that was the clutch pack in the back end went with 5000 hours on her.

But the power quads are not good models at all !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    and still are not right on the 30 series. Our jd dealer will even tell you this.

i'm a jd driver with green blood flowing freely and would rather have these slight problems than get in a blue machine that spends most of the time in the dealers garage.

jim75:

i'm a jd driver with green blood flowing freely and would rather have these slight problems than get in a blue machine that spends most of the time in the dealers garage.

I know a couple of people who have NH and apparently they have had loads of transimssion problem and there always in the workshop. we have all JD's i drive the 6830 (08 plate) and 6930(07 plate)  mainly aswell as a 6400 (R reg). They always seem to be spot on and the rest of our tractors are all JD's (8530, 7710, 6500)

you'll find all tractors have there faults im a jd man

but we had a 7930 with a new turbo after 250 hours due to the sulphur content in red diesel

7 broken mudguards on the 4 7530's (new last harvest "57") this summer because theyre not built well enough for going 55kmph

the cab on one of the 7530's was held on with one bolt at one point last harvest (2 months old)

the 6920s (04) always seems to have problems at the moment the alternator doesnt want to work had 1 new one last week 

A friend of mine has a 50k NH and it is 18 months old and it boils the back end oil from new and NH don't know what's wrong with it.It has been off the farm as much as on,ie 2 to 3 months at a time.

She's definitely not a good one.

did they tell them where to go and get a new one or just persevering with it???

I love my 69, never let me down! 

good old girl!

JD do not know what a warranty is they were for not doing anything when the brakes glazzed at 400 hours 8 weeks after she came in the end they did stand it but only because the dealer put it through they said if JD check they will not pay. Only one side had glazzed and the lad who did the work said it was not right there must be a fault.

robexel:

All the problems you mention seem to be transmission related.  It sounds to me like bad driving, or at least operating with excessive speed.  If you're going to push a machine to its limits, you have to expect this type of wear.

The only alternative I can suggest is a Unimog, they are the only "tractor" built for road work, and will work well on grassland ops too.

hmmmm where to start??? we have just got rid of a 6920, 55plate, in its time we have had 3 lots of brakes, a new radiator and all sorts of capers, bad driving NO.

At first it was the at 431 hours then at 1200 then it had a break until 4000hrs. At first it was under warranty but the 2nd time which was 6 months later the leader demanded John Deere themselves come out as the local dealer tried to bill us, in the end we went 50/50.

The last time we refused to pay and as we have a new tractor every year we told JD we was going back to Case unless they played ball, what they did was as it was a 40km unit put a brake server for the trailer brakes that was standard on the 50km units therefore the trailers brakes would pull the tractor back too and replaced all the warped brake system. All our trailers are 3 years or less Bailey trailers with dam good brakes. Some are 14ton others 16 tonners so we know its not them.

The first thing we noticed was the oil (transmission) going black and overheating then stop lights, then complete drive loss, this was when it went in, the 2nd time again the sightglass was going black, this time JD replaced the radiator as they said it was faulty (privately saying there was a design fault) as although it was cooling the engine it was not cooling the hyd/trans oil down and to quote JD cooking the oil and therefore lose all its protective properties and allow the brake and transmission systems to fail.

Before the tractor went again we swapped it in for a 6930 in november.

Although JD did come good in the end, they were very reluctant and when threatened with future sales they played ball. Bad driving  NO