bluesurf

does anyone have one? How rough is your motor. Mine is quite rough till med to full throttle. I know the 3 cyl is rough but when is it too much? Other questions if anyone responds. Thanks

fbx22

yeah they are rough. go get an international and be done with it

pind

every three cylinder JD skidsteer I have seen, vibrates way too much for my liking. That being said, the small bobcat loaders with the 3 cylinder Kubota have the same problem.

I find this odd, as three cylinder engines 'should' be very smooth, but in these cases, they just aren't. I ran a JD unit a couple years ago, and I thought it was going to come apart. Then I talked to a JD tech, who worked on them all the time, and he assured me it was normal.

If that is normal, I think I'll stick with my 4 cylinder Kubota power.

The funny thing is, the JD is rough at idle, then smoother at running speed, the kubota is reasonably smooth at idle, and starts to vibrate in the working range... hmm

bluesurf

exactly, rough idle smooth at full power. I have run all types of ss and by far I love the jd. It is so stable and does a ton of work. But anyway I was worried a bit about the shaking. Wanted to make sure it wasn't just mine. Thanks

manureman

I used to work for John Deere in engineering and can give you my opinion. The 3 cylinder Deere was a shakin & rattlin engine. but wasn't all that bad for durability. It was alot heavier built than engines used in competitive skid steers. However, it is an unbalanced engine, as are all odd # cylinder engines. THe 4 cylinder engine Deere builds is balanced and alot smoother running. The new 300 series John Deere skidsteers have all new engines in them. The 3 cyl was replaced by a new, small displacement 4 cyl. And the old 4.5L 4 cyl was replaced by a small displacement 5 cyl. The 5 cyl has also been a shaker and rattler like the 3 cyl was. Again, not a balanced engine because of the odd # of cylinders. As for the Deere skidsteers, I think there are much better quality units on the market. The pre-2003 models were built in Tennesee....pure junk! After that, they were moved to Dubuque, Iowa. After the move the workmanship got better, but design was still junk! The new 300 sereies were supposed to be better, but really aren't much different. I still would buy a Bobcat any day! Kubota engine is far superior in quality & reliability, visibility is better, plus better resale too. I also like the Case skidsteers also. Local Case dealer has had some trade ins with well over 10,000 hours on them and still run good! 3.9L Cummins is a much better engine than Deere...hand down! The new Cases run Iveco engine, but I don't know how they are yet. Deere designed the 200 & 300 series skidsteers to be a 2,000 hour machine and that's all. They used to tell us that after that, the machine was technically past it's usable life and was pretty much a throw away.

bluesurf

2000 hours and throw away!!! that sounds crazy to me. Since mine has 2900 really hard hours on it. I have not had any major problems other than broken hyd hoses. I love this machine compared to bobcat. This machine is never tippy and always lifts more than it should. I agree the kubota is awesome and the cummins is wonderful. JD is what I 'll have for a while. And since they don't hold value that great I benefit from buying 2 year old machine for half the price of a 5-8 bob cat. And around here it seems that bob cat's prices are way inflated for parts. Once again I know my jd is not the best but 2000 hour machine is really hard to believe. Is there anyone else with a jd ss that has over 2000 hours out there please chime in and let me know of your experience good or bad. Thanks for the info even if I don't like what I am hearing, Brad