Nominate the best and the worst 4wd!!

[ALLFARMER]

Some times I think the hour meter is a bit
overused for judging life span of a machine. Take
for example a Cat 988 loader I looked at. It had
47000 hours on it.....hustling gravel! And that was
before it ran all this summer. Kind of changes
your perspective.

[TOM4CWB]

Best 4wd's on our frm,

JD05 9220 PS with Mich radials 710/38's...is light... has never been stuck yet. Pulls 56' with TB380bu and then 3000nh3 tanks... NO chip. 325hp with great fuel eco. Keeps pulling and pulling... like 500hp... just does not slip with PS... just gear back. Great Snow plow that does not sink on BIG piles 20'deep over banks.

97 F150 5.4 4x4 1/2m KM

Happy New Year!

[highwayman]

First 4wd we ran 1978 8430 which had poor
tourqe rise and hard on fuel. Fw60 ford/Steiger
with 903 cummin good solid tractor. 9682
newholland had very poor shifting transmission.
9400 John Deere descent tractor but not great
power or tourqe rise. Currently run caseih Steiger
535 on 850 trellborg tires and very impressed with
over all tractor performance. Added 600
quadtrack for 2013 so it will be a very interesting
comparison of wheels to tracks. Flotation of
trellborgs very good but slippage can be improved
upon. Suspended cab on new Steiger greatly
improves ride. New DEF engines do seem to
have better fuel efficiencies.
Three icons we've run and still have on the farm
IMO are a 67 4020 power shift, 82 4440 and
7830 mfwd power quad. All very solid tractors.

[hedgehog]

got my first 4wd last year, a fw60 ford steiger tuned to 420hp.great for discing and subsoiling. should have had one years ago.

[ALLFARMER]

Good info highwayman. I think your going to like
the quadtrac. My neighbor got a 500 and nearly
no problems. They are using more Def then they
had figured thou. They do seem to get stuck more
than they had hoped thou. There pulling a 68'
bourgault so that may be part of the problem in
wet ground lol. I assume your getting Def by the
tote and electric pump? I think he has around
2500 hours on it already.

My 4440 has 10600 hours on it and is still going
strong. I required the cables and put in to 12 volt
batteries replacing the 2 / 6 volts. Now she starts
great. Going to see if she can pull my new 12'
Kello bilt breaking disk this spring maybe going to
have to buy a 150hp front wheel assist. We need
a second tractor anyway. The older used 4wd's
are just so cheap now because the modern grain
farmer has little use for a 200 to 250 hp 4wd.

[ALLFARMER]

Hedgehog / kind of what I was thinking.... why not
get something bigger.

[ajl]

Best 4WD would be the 9300 series CaseIH
especially the 9390 which had the dual
hydraulic pumps. Personally own a 9370.
Another of my favorites is the 895
versatile. It had the intercooled 855
and heavier planetaries than the 875. I
don't think there exists a 4wd tractor
that I don't want. Some where better
performers than other but you can't beat
a 4wd in the cool department. I find
the 300 hp front wheel assist tractors
down right silly. Not for me.

[highwayman]

So far we are not experiencing that much DEF use in our 4430 patriot but do expect more consumption in tractors and combines because of higher power requirements. Did buy a tote and 110 volt pump for stationary fill station last spring but will have to add a mobile fill unit to our service truck this winter for the upcoming season. Have heard from others as well that the quadtrac will get itself stuck easier than one thinks.
Adding to the list of poor performers in the 4wd catergory, I would include some golden oldies, the white 4-150 with cat 3208 engine (unreliable bottom end) and last but not least the international harvester 2 2 series aka. anteater, 3588 and 3788. Pulling wrenches with IH 30 years ago these tractors were #1 at keeping the service department busy. Weak transmissions and clutch alignment.

[RD414]

I had a Case 500 last season, oil filter problems, very noisy cab when using lots of hyd. flow, lots of coupler issues and a service manager in Kindersley who was a troll. Used 25% more fuel than the 535 case pulling same load.

[ALLFARMER]

Ya the biggest disappointment with the 500 quad
is how noisy the cab is, kind of unbelievable. The
best feature is the road mode...the throttle then
can be used like a hydrostat leaver.

[pourfarmer]

cant believe no one said the infamous
triple nickel yet!!!

[TOM4CWB]

Pourfarmer,

Longest running 4wd on our farm...today... a 276 Versitile 1992 I believe.

[ALLFARMER]

276 bi directional?? Those were good tractors.
The c frame was weak on the 2360 loader but the
7414 loader was good. 9030's good the tv140 I
have no idea.

[Jagfarms]

We had a versatile 875 for over 16 years and around 5000 hours and only thing that we had to repair was the water pump one time.
We replaced it with a JD 9200 in 98 and are still using it to this day with very little trouble and it is very good on fuel.

[furrowtickler]

Bought a CIH 9270 new in 1993, still running strong 7500hrs original tires - never touched it yet.... bought a '99 9370 with 2300hrs so far so good. Very fuel efficient and they pull awesome.