The difference is that the stick shifts are different gears for different speeds. But it is not for forward or backwards. There is no reverse on the stick shifts. Forward, Reverse and Neutral is controlled by a lever on the steering column. You can also see a "N" on the console display. When the lever is in the forward position a "F" appears on the console. And "R" for reverse.
The tractor has a clutch pedal, but one doesn't need to use it to go forward or backwards. All one needs to do is to move the lever. My problem was that after 10 seconds the tractor would automatically go to Neutral mode and the tractor would stop moving even though the control lever did not move. A flashing "N" would then replace a "F" or "R" on the console. One would have to move the lever back to the neutral position to reset it. Then one could move the lever back to forward to backward. After 10 seconds, the same thing happens. Kind of hard to move the tractor when this happens. And hard, and time consuming, to put a large hay bale out for the cattle.
Initially after numerous attempts the control lever would work and keep the tractor moving. Then when one has to shift to move the other direction, the same problem would happen again.
The tractor is so new it is still under warranty. I called the John Deere dealership. Of-and-on when the repairman could come out to check the tractor. Toss the Thanksgiving holiday in and Jack the repairman didn't make it out until December. He spent hours working on the tractor. He had a laptop to connect into the tractor as things are more electronic now-a-days, especially the control lever. Maybe a connection was acting odd. Looking at the connection it looked fine, but he said he would order a new connection to replace the one the tractor had in case the connection was the problem, and then come out to install it.
In the meantime, after he had checked the tractor out, now the tractor control lever consistently would go to neutral. Never would it start working non-stop. Moving bales got slower. Then I realized that if I didn't let the clutch pedal out all the way, the problem wouldn't happen. If I let the clutch pedal out all the way the problem happened. I didn't have to use the clutch pedal to move the tractor, but I grew up driving stick shift and always press the clutch pedal when shifting gears. Riding the clutch pedal is not good for the vehicle. Fortunately I didn't have to drive that much when moving a bale.
Weeks passed. I called the John Deere dealership. Now Christmas and New Years holidays got in the way. Finally earlier in January Jack came out to work on the tractor. He had the new connection. Opps. It didn't match the connection the laptop complained about. Finding the right connection is difficult as there are multiple connections. They are located under the cab of the tractor. To find them one lays under the tractor, or looks and reaches from the back of the tractor and under the cab.
He also downloaded a software update to the tractor in case that was a problem. Nope. He found a connection that matched the new one and replaced it. Nope. That didn't fix the tractor. Each time he came out he spent three to four hours working on the tractor.
No fixes meant the tractor had to go into the shop. Then I had to work around that. I need to put out a new bale every three days. I worked it out that I put a bale in the middle pasture and a bale in the north pasture. That would give me six days. I had to work it out that the six days would be Monday to Saturday as I imagined it would take more than a day to fix the tractor and I didn't want the six days to be over a weekend as they don't work, or get parts delivered on Saturday or Sunday.
So this Monday was the start. They had to come get the tractor and haul it to the dealership which is located on the opposite end of town. The delivery guy told me when he picked up the tractor that he already had another delivery to the Seattle area on Friday, so Thursday would be the day of return delivery. I hoped they could get the tractor fixed by Thursday.
Finally things went right. I went for a bicycle ride late Wednesday afternoon and when I got home there was my tractor. Jack was able to find the right bad connection, replaced it, and the tractor is now fixed. Finally. And this was on a new tractor with less than 100 hours of use.
Now that the tractor is working I spent some time clearing snow in the pasture before giving the cattle a new large hay bale today. I don't like setting a hay bale on the snow. Prior I used a shovel to clear a spot for the hay bale. Using the tractor I cleared a larger area that is good for three or four hay bale placements as I like to move the hay bales each time. This spreads the manure placement and reduces the hoofs from messing up the ground when the ground is not frozen.
You can see Fritz around the hay feeder. He is the smaller one in the middle of the photo.
No comments:
Post a Comment