brand new John Deere r4049, utterly gutless

[roy_the_boy]

Hello all,

Last year dad bought a John Deere r4049. It's a 50hp tractor with hydrostatic transmission. Sadly, it's utterly gutless. But the dealer says that's perfectly normal, and won't do anything about it.

There are 3 ranges: Low, Medium and High. On the road, without a trailer, it will only pull in High if the road is flat. You can thrash it all you want and ease pack on the forward pedal, but the engine still slowly die under the load. Any slope over 10% and it won't even pull in Medium, and your forced into Low (3 mph, flat out). Put a trailer on and you're almost always stuck in Low.

Now, I've never driven a tractor of this sort, so I'm wondering if it is normal? Other farmers locally can't believe how poor it is, and the neighbour's fifty year old ford 2000 comfortably out-performs it. But, as I said, the dealer says it's a low hp tractor with hydrostatic transmission, and does all we might expect. Our previous 40hp kubota (with hydrostatic) was perfectly capable of pulling a trailer.

So I have two questions: Is it normal that a tractor of this sort struggles so much? If it isn't, it's either got a problem on this unit or the tractor is just not fit for purpose. But how do I force the dealer to act?

 

[spin cycle]

if it can't get itself along the road in top gear something must be wrong

 

[Kildare]

Put it on a dynometer

 

[Martyn]

Hello all,

Last year dad bought a John Deere r4049. It's a 50hp tractor with hydrostatic transmission. Sadly, it's utterly gutless. But the dealer says that's perfectly normal, and won't do anything about it.

There are 3 ranges: Low, Medium and High. On the road, without a trailer, it will only pull in High if the road is flat. You can thrash it all you want and ease pack on the forward pedal, but the engine still slowly die under the load. Any slope over 10% and it won't even pull in Medium, and your forced into Low (3 mph, flat out). Put a trailer on and you're almost always stuck in Low.

Now, I've never driven a tractor of this sort, so I'm wondering if it is normal? Other farmers locally can't believe how poor it is, and the neighbour's fifty year old ford 2000 comfortably out-performs it. But, as I said, the dealer says it's a low hp tractor with hydrostatic transmission, and does all we might expect. Our previous 40hp kubota (with hydrostatic) was perfectly capable of pulling a trailer.

So I have two questions: Is it normal that a tractor of this sort struggles so much? If it isn't, it's either got a problem on this unit or the tractor is just not fit for purpose. But how do I force the dealer to act?

We have a JD 3036e as a scraper think its around 35hp totalling gutless!

 

[Cotswoldperformance]

A tractor that can barely drag itself along is unfit for purpose. I take it the engine is naturally aspirated, not turbo’d?

 

[Martyn]

We have a JD 3036e as a scraper think its around 35hp totalling gutless!

Aslso broken down an awful lot for a tractor with just over 1000 on the clock!

 

[roy_the_boy]

A tractor that can barely drag itself along is unfit for purpose. I take it the engine is naturally aspirated, not turbo’d?

My feeling exactly, but it is (or should be) turbo-charged. Something to check.

 

[Wheatland]

I've got a 4066m (66hp otherwise identical) and it's heroic in what it'll do! It's first job to loosen it up was on a 2.6m verge mower

It wouldn't lift it but it drove it quite well. It also pulls our 12m header (weighs 6t) around at harvest although it does struggle up hills on the road

 

[Flat 10]

I've got a 4066m (66hp otherwise identical) and it's heroic in what it'll do! It's first job to loosen it up was on a 2.6m verge mower

It wouldn't lift it but it drove it quite well. It also pulls our 12m header (weighs 6t) around at harvest although it does struggle up hills on the road

What is it’s main job. To the OP if it’s much worse than your previous smaller kubota hydro machine go and complain long and loud to the JD dealer. However I would expect an old school 2000 to out perform it.

 

[Wheatland]

What is it’s main job.

It's mainly topping with a 1.8m flail and spraying non cropped areas and grassland. It's now got a loader fitted and is surprisingly useful around the yard.
To the OP, get the dealer out and make them drive it, dyno if possible. If the transmission is overloaded on ours an alarm goes off and drive is reduced. Does yours do that or do the engine revs drop first

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Our previous 40hp kubota (with hydrostatic) was perfectly capable of pulling a trailer.

Too bad you don’t still have the orange one...

YouTube video of the old Kubota out pulling the spankin new JD in a tractor pull might’ve concentrated minds somewhat!

 

[roy_the_boy]

It's mainly topping with a 1.8m flail and spraying non cropped areas and grassland. It's now got a loader fitted and is surprisingly useful around the yard.
To the OP, get the dealer out and make them drive it, dyno if possible. If the transmission is overloaded on ours an alarm goes off and drive is reduced. Does yours do that or do the engine revs drop first

No alarm, engine just dies under the effort.

 

[Sparkplug]

The engine is clearly not powerful enough to drive the Hydrostaic System, I came across this many years ago with a Manitou Forklift when my customer went for the new model, as soon as it hit a slight gradient, the hydrostaic slowed down, allowing the engine then to increase its revs so off it went until the pump pulled the engine down and a repeat of slow down / speed up. We tried all sorts with Manitous engineers but in the end had to be honest with the customer and say it is working correctly. They had gone from a 4 cyl Toyota engine of 55hp to a poor Perkins 3 cyl of 50 hp just to save money but it was clear that the 3 cyl engine had not got enough power to run the Hydrostatic Transmission, but 4 cyl Toyota had!

 

[Timbo]

Is it mechanically injected? Am sure a little adjustment til you get just a small haze of soot will liven it up, but that said, as others mention the hydrostatic drive is very power hungry so its never going to be a rocketship

 

[roy_the_boy]

The engine is clearly not powerful enough to drive the Hydrostaic System, I came across this many years ago with a Manitou Forklift when my customer went for the new model, as soon as it hit a slight gradient, the hydrostaic slowed down, allowing the engine then to increase its revs so off it went until the pump pulled the engine down and a repeat of slow down / speed up. We tried all sorts with Manitous engineers but in the end had to be honest with the customer and say it is working correctly. They had gone from a 4 cyl Toyota engine of 55hp to a poor Perkins 3 cyl of 50 hp just to save money but it was clear that the 3 cyl engine had not got enough power to run the Hydrostatic Transmission, but 4 cyl Toyota had!

This describes exactly what we are experiencing, thanks for the input.

 

[tweedale terrier]

Definitely get it on a dynamometer. For all you know it could be putting out 20hp. Until the horsepower is known anything else is speculation