JCB AgriPro DuelTech Variable transmission, anyone using one?

[Blue.]

I've hydrostatic in my weidemann,standard 4 speed in my Jcb's ,4speed auto in my Volvo,the Volvo is the best by a country mile.

Always told merlo don't lift the spec weights,my 535s will pick 4t up will a 3.5t lift merlo do the same?

 

[JJT]

I've hydrostatic in my weidemann,standard 4 speed in my Jcb's ,4speed auto in my Volvo,the Volvo is the best by a country mile.

Always told merlo don't lift the spec weights,my 535s will pick 4t up will a 3.5t lift merlo do the same?

3.2t merlo here and a grain bucket that weighs 1059kg empty and can get 2.2t wheat in. Handles it fine and can boom out quite a bit before it feels unstable.

 

[Farma Parma]

Had an dualtech here for a couple of days, thought it was a really good gearbox and after an hour of driving it thought it was the bees knees.

I think the biggest advantage with this gearbox is the torque lock you have on the road when it jumps into mechanical drive. Never driven a full hydro on the road but know a few moan about the lack of balls they have towing and when they meet a hill

Agree Hydro on the road is ok until you need to pull a fair weight & then up a hill
they struggle to be honest.
JCB has poss cracked the best of both worlds with there idea & fair play to them

 

[Farma Parma]

3.2t merlo here and a grain bucket that weighs 1059kg empty and can get 2.2t wheat in. Handles it fine and can boom out quite a bit before it feels unstable.

2.8t merlo here 7m boom
Strimech Bucket is 500kg empty & handles max of 1350kg of dry wheat or peas in & suits the loader
perfectly any bigger & its either unsafe or too much for it.
can keep boom out a good couple of foot all the time when loading wagons with this combo.
Id only have a bigger bucket if the loader was 3.5-4t spec.

 

[Farma Parma]

People that are used to hydro for example Merlo and Claas will only buy a hydro. So should JCB say ‘go and buy a Claas’ or should they say ‘buy an Agri Pro’.
From their point of view they want to increase market share. Someone said they’re up to 55% now.

Says it all then folks have been wanting this.
As much as i like the jcb's i wouldnt go out my way to get one with the powershift trans.
so they have now given us Hydro users an option.
Justifying the vast outlay on a New Handler is eye watering money now tho.

 

[Andrew]

Says it all then folks have been wanting this.
As much as i like the jcb's i wouldnt go out my way to get one with the powershift trans.
so they have now given us Hydro users an option.
Justifying the vast outlay on a New Handler is eye watering money now tho.

We run 3 handlers and have always had JCB - we do pull trailers with them sometimes and hated the hydro in other makes, so it was always JCB or Manitou for us. If Claas or Merlo had come up with the Agri Pro box then it would have been a chance for them to increase market share, and your quote would still apply - some people always want torque convertors, some always want hydros.
I don't think JCB can be blamed for wanting to sell a few more handlers.

I always maintain all makes of loaders should have a plug and play joystick - if you have a Manitou on demo the first thing you'll say is 'I hate the joystick'. If you could put a JCB or a Merlo or a Class control in there then you don't have a negative impression from the start. In my opinion the first manufacturer to do this will take out quite a few other makes.

 

[ACEngineering]

We run 3 handlers and have always had JCB - we do pull trailers with them sometimes and hated the hydro in other makes, so it was always JCB or Manitou for us. If Claas or Merlo had come up with the Agri Pro box then it would have been a chance for them to increase market share, and your quote would still apply - some people always want torque convertors, some always want hydros.
I don't think JCB can be blamed for wanting to sell a few more handlers.

I always maintain all makes of loaders should have a plug and play joystick - if you have a Manitou on demo the first thing you'll say is 'I hate the joystick'. If you could put a JCB or a Merlo or a Class control in there then you don't have a negative impression from the start. In my opinion the first manufacturer to do this will take out quite a few other makes.

Really the jsm joystick is the best on the market? I was actually speaking to a guy today who had a kramer on demo and he didnt like the joystick. The jsm is a really easy stick to use. Forward reverse is much hander and easier to operate than a jcb which has a really stiff switch imo?

 

[ollie989898]

Really the jsm joystick is the best on the market? I was actually speaking to a guy today who had a kramer on demo and he didnt like the joystick. The jsm is a really easy stick to use. Forward reverse is much hander and easier to operate than a jcb which has a really stiff switch imo?

Some of them are plain weird though. You have to agree that making the joystick a swap option would give a unique selling point. If Merlo let you have more than one paint option even you might grow to love them.

 

[ACEngineering]

Some of them are plain weird though. You have to agree that making the joystick a swap option would give a unique selling point. If Merlo let you have more than one paint option even you might grow to love them.

I'm quite sure merlo will paint them any colour you like just like other manufactures will if you ask and pay.

And no i hated them since i first drove/serviced on 15 or so years ago so that isnt going to change any time soon

Maybe others should just fit the jsm stick people will soon get the hang of it

The new agi manitou can be customised with regards to the switches etc. (Designed by accident!)
You can pull any of the square push button switches out and swap it with another and it'll still work.
Quite why one would want to do that i dont really know

 

[Andrew]

Really the jsm joystick is the best on the market? I was actually speaking to a guy today who had a kramer on demo and he didnt like the joystick. The jsm is a really easy stick to use. Forward reverse is much hander and easier to operate than a jcb which has a really stiff switch imo?

I didn't say one was better than the other. Personally I like the JCB as it's what I'm used to - I don't think about what I'm doing. I get on a customers Manitou or Cat or Claas and I have to think all the time. The Claas from memory had forward reverse where the JCB extend retract is.

If the demo Manitou brought to us had had a JCB joystick, we would have been able to concentrate on the actual machine, rather than driving it. Because we couldn't get used to the controls we hated the machine and Manitou lost a sale. Yes we may be stuck in our ways but most humans are. I dare say if we had grown up with Manitous joystick I'd have hated the JCB machine for the same reason.

I agree the ideal solution would be for all loaders to have the same joystick layout, however I doubt this will happen - they'd never agree which one to use. I believe 360's can have about 3 control layouts, some of which can be chosen on a screen and as a rule they are used in areas with much more stringent health and safety than farming.
Agricultural JCBs are joystick left/right for tip/crowd, but industrial JCBs are joystick left/right for boom in/out - as they use extension more than tip crowd I think.
So what are the chances of everyone using the same control layout?

The second best option is swappable joysticks. The demo Claas is going to a JCB farm. The demo driver puts a JCB stick in it. Then it's going to a Manitou farm. The demo driver puts a Manitou stick in it. It just lets farmers concentrate on the actual machine rather than the controls. Yes if it's on farm long enough, people get used to them, but what dealer wants to leave a demo machine somewhere for a month while someone gets used to it. With electronic controls it'd be easy enough to implement.

 

[ACEngineering]

I didn't say one was better than the other. Personally I like the JCB as it's what I'm used to - I don't think about what I'm doing. I get on a customers Manitou or Cat or Claas and I have to think all the time. The Claas from memory had forward reverse where the JCB extend retract is.

If the demo Manitou brought to us had had a JCB joystick, we would have been able to concentrate on the actual machine, rather than driving it. Because we couldn't get used to the controls we hated the machine and Manitou lost a sale. Yes we may be stuck in our ways but most humans are. I dare say if we had grown up with Manitous joystick I'd have hated the JCB machine for the same reason.

I agree the ideal solution would be for all loaders to have the same joystick layout, however I doubt this will happen - they'd never agree which one to use. I believe 360's can have about 3 control layouts, some of which can be chosen on a screen and as a rule they are used in areas with much more stringent health and safety than farming.
Agricultural JCBs are joystick left/right for tip/crowd, but industrial JCBs are joystick left/right for boom in/out - as they use extension more than tip crowd I think.
So what are the chances of everyone using the same control layout?

The second best option is swappable joysticks. The demo Claas is going to a JCB farm. The demo driver puts a JCB stick in it. Then it's going to a Manitou farm. The demo driver puts a Manitou stick in it. It just lets farmers concentrate on the actual machine rather than the controls. Yes if it's on farm long enough, people get used to them, but what dealer wants to leave a demo machine somewhere for a month while someone gets used to it. With electronic controls it'd be easy enough to implement.

could be done with electric controls yes trouble is they cant even use a standard headstock so a interchangeable joystick would stand no chance

 

[Hilly]

I've hydrostatic in my weidemann,standard 4 speed in my Jcb's ,4speed auto in my Volvo,the Volvo is the best by a country mile.

Always told merlo don't lift the spec weights,my 535s will pick 4t up will a 3.5t lift merlo do the same?

You must listen to some fuking jack asses.

 

[ACEngineering]

Some of them are plain weird though. You have to agree that making the joystick a swap option would give a unique selling point. If Merlo let you have more than one paint option even you might grow to love them.

the weirdest one I used was in a schaffer, you had to twist the stick to work the extension they don't fit it any more or at east not on UK spec machines anyways.

 

[Andrew]

could be done with electric controls yes trouble is they cant even use a standard headstock so a interchangeable joystick would stand no chance

Not interchangeable between makes. Say Manitou come out with the changeable joystick first. They would put in their version of the Claas or Merlo or JCB etc.
As you say they can't decide on a standard carriage - but when ordering a new JCB you can spec it with a Manitou carriage. So why not a Manitou joystick while you're at it. (Not a real Manitou joystick obviously, but JCBs copy).

 

[Clever Dic]

Personally I have always liked the hydro transmission on a Merlo seamless speed uptake . We run 2 handlers and moved to Merlo about 10 years ago my 3.2 7m is a great compact package for yard work. and the current one has 8000 + hours and has been fabulously reliable.
My larger machine is a 4.2 7m with cab suspension it's predecessor was a dog but this one now 2 years old has been fair for reliability but to me the big plus and I cannot fathom why others have not followed yet is the cab suspension. For field work with cab and boom suspension combined they provide a perfect ride.
I honestly won't even demo another make for field work till they catch up.

 

[General-Lee]

You must listen to some fuking jack asses.

Thought he’d be better than listen to pub talk!!

 

[Hilly]

Thought he’d be better than listen to pub talk!!

At least in the pub you gt a free laugh.And everyone knows who the Donkeys are and you can go home when they start eee orring.

 

[Hilly]

Personally I have always liked the hydro transmission on a Merlo seamless speed uptake . We run 2 handlers and moved to Merlo about 10 years ago my 3.2 7m is a great compact package for yard work. and the current one has 8000 + hours and has been fabulously reliable.
My larger machine is a 4.2 7m with cab suspension it's predecessor was a dog but this one now 2 years old has been fair for reliability but to me the big plus and I cannot fathom why others have not followed yet is the cab suspension. For field work with cab and boom suspension combined they provide a perfect ride.
I honestly won't even demo another make for field work till they catch up.

That 4.2 7 with cab suspension just ozzes quality one of them will be my next handler.

 

[ACEngineering]

Not interchangeable between makes. Say Manitou come out with the changeable joystick first. They would put in their version of the Claas or Merlo or JCB etc.
As you say they can't decide on a standard carriage - but when ordering a new JCB you can spec it with a Manitou carriage. So why not a Manitou joystick while you're at it. (Not a real Manitou joystick obviously, but JCBs copy).

nice idea but Manitou designed there JSM in house and I think its patented?

 

[Blue.]

You must listen to some fuking jack asses.

I've probably read more sh1t than I've heard.