750A wear & tear

Louis Mc

Member
Location
Meath, Ireland
How is everyone finding cost of running a 750A?

I love the drill & it matches my tractor colour scheme so not thinking of changing it anytime soon.

I think the drill has done 6 to 7000 acres but can’t remember, it’s a 4M bought new in 2016

It has liquid fert which is probably only used for 5 to 10% of those acres

So far the big issues have been

Firming wheels bearings (I imagine I have replaced them all by now, there’s a chance the liquid fert is to blame for this as the wheel get covered in it)

Gauge wheel bearings (we have the spoked wheels)
Guttler wheel bearings
I have also had to replace 4 disc bearings at this stage, and I imagine they will continue to fail sporadically the way they going

The spoked gauge wheel rim comes in 2 parts and I have had to replace a lot of these

There’s a decent bit of play in the main pin that the opener hinges on and the press & firming wheel arms are all a little sloppy

I also had to remove all the openers last winter and press out the gauge wheel arms as they were all seized

Am I just a complete animal On machinery (I don’t believe I am) or is this just par for the course for 750A ownership

Drill gets greased at least every 200 acres and usually more often than that

I feel the liquid fert is not helping me (no sh!t Sherlock)

Anyway all thoughts welcome
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Without doubt the worst thing about the 750a is it’s maintenance. Reliable in work but a lot of rebuild and service time went into ours pre spring and pre autumn along with very regular greasing


Not expensive in parts but expensive on time, certainly not a drill you can park in the nettles until next time you need it that’s for sure.

It’s a machine where charging stuff before it fails or is completely worn out pays I learnt, not helped by being difficult to work on unless you are a contortionist

Yours does sound particularly heavy on parts though
 
The jd spoked wheel is a lemon. In nz they are bringing out an upgrade to try and stop the crackin of the outside plate.

Sourced some tri spoke wheels via needham in the USA. Still wide not like the green needham ones and have a soft tyre (you can put the jd rubber on them).

Regarding the seed boot slop. Bush it. Jd seed boots lasted 1200 ha on a 4 meter drill. Needham ones hardly worn the paint off by comparison.

Agree with Clive though. The jd drill is high on maintenance.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
The jd spoked wheel is a lemon. In nz they are bringing out an upgrade to try and stop the crackin of the outside plate.

Sourced some tri spoke wheels via needham in the USA. Still wide not like the green needham ones and have a soft tyre (you can put the jd rubber on them).

Regarding the seed boot slop. Bush it. Jd seed boots lasted 1200 ha on a 4 meter drill. Needham ones hardly worn the paint off by comparison.

Agree with Clive though. The jd drill is high on maintenance.


Useful info - I haven’t heard of uk users with spoked wheel failures but they haven’t been available or here for long yet
 
Useful info - I haven’t heard of uk users with spoked wheel failures but they haven’t been available or here for long yet


I was trying on my phone so it was a bit sort, hope it didn't sound too blunt.
In nz we are using the JD drill to go into a lot of stony ground (stones/rocks/boulders) so they get a fair beating.
Several owners I know have reported failure of the JD spoked rim.

The JD update is to put an extra ring around the outside to strengthen the piece that breaks.

Needham wheels use three bolts per spoke instead of 2 that JD uses so more points of contact. Plus the needham stuff seems to be slightly thicker metal & beter quality of metal.

Just bought a 3 meter second hand Allen Custom drill (NZ made) to do the steep hill & stony ground, hope to give the JD a better ride. The Allen drill is triple disc, so will not be as good in wet conditions closing the slot, but it will fit a purpose.
 

David_A

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Fife
How is everyone finding cost of running a 750A?

I love the drill & it matches my tractor colour scheme so not thinking of changing it anytime soon.

I think the drill has done 6 to 7000 acres but can’t remember, it’s a 4M bought new in 2016

It has liquid fert which is probably only used for 5 to 10% of those acres

So far the big issues have been

Firming wheels bearings (I imagine I have replaced them all by now, there’s a chance the liquid fert is to blame for this as the wheel get covered in it)

Gauge wheel bearings (we have the spoked wheels)
Guttler wheel bearings
I have also had to replace 4 disc bearings at this stage, and I imagine they will continue to fail sporadically the way they going

The spoked gauge wheel rim comes in 2 parts and I have had to replace a lot of these

There’s a decent bit of play in the main pin that the opener hinges on and the press & firming wheel arms are all a little sloppy

I also had to remove all the openers last winter and press out the gauge wheel arms as they were all seized

Am I just a complete animal On machinery (I don’t believe I am) or is this just par for the course for 750A ownership

Drill gets greased at least every 200 acres and usually more often than that

I feel the liquid fert is not helping me (no sh!t Sherlock)

Anyway all thoughts welcome

Very similar story here Louis. We have replaced all our firming wheel bearings as well as a few gauge wheel ones too, Same age and size of machine with very similar acres too. Agree with Clive, aircraft style maintenance is what's required. We will do a major strip down of the whole machine this coming winter. Our ground is pretty stony which won't help. We don't go over 10km/hr when no-tilling.

Very interested to hear how the Avatar users get on when they get to similar age, area covered relative to machine size.
 

moretimeforgolf

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
North Kent, UK
Same experience here. Great drill but requires plenty of maintenance ....but then again, we're not changing cultivator or plough metal.
Does anyone know the size and thread of the grease nipples on the coulter? I'm guessing its UNC ? We've lost a couple.
 

H.Jackson

Member
Location
West Sussex
Same experience here. Great drill but requires plenty of maintenance ....but then again, we're not changing cultivator or plough metal.
Does anyone know the size and thread of the grease nipples on the coulter? I'm guessing its UNC ? We've lost a couple.
Think a 6mm nipple fits from memory.

Agree on not mixing grease types did it once never again.

Not replaced a bearing on our 2014 drill put an M12 bolt on every seed tube reduced boot wear significantly and improved seed placement.

Louis are you using chads tubes for fert placement and how far are your shut offs from the fert tube? ie are you getting a lot of dribble lifting out of work?
 

bitwrx

Member
Think a 6mm nipple fits from memory.

Agree on not mixing grease types did it once never again.

Not replaced a bearing on our 2014 drill put an M12 bolt on every seed tube reduced boot wear significantly and improved seed placement.

Louis are you using chads tubes for fert placement and how far are your shut offs from the fert tube? ie are you getting a lot of dribble lifting out of work?
Not heard this. What's the issue with mixing? Thought grease was just, er, grease!
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 77 43.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 35.0%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 28 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.3%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,286
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top