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Zebulon, North Carolina | Looking at a 5325 with 250 hrs. mfwd and sync shuttle. Anything to look for or look out for in this series? Tractor looks brand new makes you wonder why they traded. Thanks |
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wc in | I have the 5225 with the five cyl....good engine good tractor. I probably need a more hp tractor but with weight in the tires it does what it can. but i do hate the noisy clatter of the engine/injectors. it is awful especially when first started and does quiet down a little bit....I was thinking of starting a thread about who can brag about their utility tractors which is the quietest one. |
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Faunsdale, AL | Our 5325 has been the worst of all of our collection of xx10, xx20 and xx25 tractors. Electronic problems. Stopped going forward within 6 months of new. It has done this about every 6 months since then. Sitting in the shop right now scavenged to keep some of the other 20 series tractors running that didn't have the electronic reverser.
Ours get run in the cow lot pulling a rubber scrape and doing 4 wheeler duty out in the pasture. Water, manure and electronics don't mix. The location of the fuse panel on all of the xx10 and xx20 tractors was bad. It was under the dash panel just above the transmission/clutch housing with no protection from boots, water and mud.
Then we got the 5325 and the electronics are under the sheetmetal in front of the rear axle! Talk about jumping from the frying pan into the fire! First time it quit pulling, I went looking for the fuses and couldn't even tell there was a fuse panel and electronic control in there for all the manure and mud that were packed in that space. Really bad choice of places to put that stuff. It needs to be under the hood somewhere high so it will be protected and if it does get wet, it will be dried quickly by the engine heat. Some of the fuses in the panel on the 5325 are sealed in a covered box, but there are 4 or 5 additonal ones on our tractor (MFWD is there I think) that are exposed to whatever. All the wiring harness grounds are in there as well, I think that stack of grounds is part of the problem since it takes very little corrosion to stop it from working.
Maybe you don't abuse a tractor like our folks do, but JD could have made an effort to improve this thing. We have a 5055 now. Too new to tell if it's going to be reliable or not, but it has a whole lot less electric stuff on it. Unfortunately not reverser equipped, so we'll probably be changing clutches instead. |
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Zebulon, North Carolina | Thanks for the heads up. Do you think the problems are from the environment they run in, poor quality,or just bad engineering. Sounds like you've had decent service out of the 5000 series overall. Ours won't have to do quite the volume of work ya'lls performs but don't want it in the shop all the time either. Which would you look into a 5065m or 5325? Thanks for your help. Clint |
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Zebulon, North Carolina | Oh yeah is the power reverser worth the money? Really want a wet clutch. Thanks |
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wc in | i dont have the power reverser,,,but do get it. |
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Faunsdale, AL | I think the reverser's worth the trouble ($). Ours have been very reliable. 5420 with over 10,000 hours on the meter now. Still going strong with only a few adjustments to the linkage to account for wear on the linkage/pins. The 25 is all electric, so that adds to the overall problems with mud/manure/corrosion etc. Did manage to burn out the reverser clutches on the 5320 mfwd. Lots of hours on it, over 5-6000 at least. Haven't fixed it yet $$.
The first one of these we had was a 5410 on a lease, had to replace the clutch before the 1200 hours were up, so got the 5420 with reverser. I figure that tractor would have had 4 to 8 clutches already by this time doing the kind of work we do cleaning the lots, so yes the reverser is great.
With all the trouble with front wheel bearings, we tried a MFWD 5320. Basically 4 x the cost to fix it when the bearings go out if you catch it when it's just bearings and seals. Much worse when the hub ond knuckle are damaged. Not much more reliable than the 2wd. We didn't need the pulling power and it takes an extra half acre to turn one around compared to the 2wd. The heavier front axle and bigger wheels would be an advantage for laoder work. The rims that come on them aren't much though. Really easy for our guys to fold them up if they 'curb' it. Not enough steel there in the beginning and then some rust..........! Finally welded 22.5 truck rims onto the centers. They've only managed to bend one of them once!
I really think I would skip the xx25 series and go for the 50xx unless there is a real big difference in price. The 5325 is a lot more tractor than the 5320 in many ways, but the increased electrics on it are not progress in my opinion. You may not have trouble with yours like we have, but the potential is there if you operate in any kind of situation like we do. One of my uncles was invited to go to JD's focus group for owners of these 50 series tractors for several years in NC? After our experiences, he "told it like it is" and yet the '25 series comes out with the electric panel in even a worse place than the earlier tractors.
I would get a bottle of electical connection grease and go over every fuse and relay on any of these tractors you purchase as soon as you get it....might head off some trouble.
Edited by ccjersey 1/16/2012 10:33
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Zebulon, North Carolina | Thanks for the info and advise. Tractor would probably see 100 hrs a year but still want something pretty reliable down the road. Yes the 5325 is cheaper by far over the 5065m because its an older series, but I can still find them with 500 hrs or less pretty easy. Just didn't know which one if any to stay away from. Will be used as chore tractor and light field work and will spend its life under the shelter when not being ran. No loader work required but I do want mfwd and would like to find one with the reverser. Thanks Clint |
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Faunsdale, AL | I think you'll like the 5325 for that kind of work. They're nice tractors, lots of well thought out maintenance and convenience design on them.
Engines have been trouble free except for fuel filters, starters, alternators, water pumps etc.
Reverser pretty rugged as noted,
Transmission has lots of choices of speeds, we never use anything but C range. Do be careful with the park. If someone slams it into park, it can snap the pawl. Haven't had trouble with the 5325, yet.........One of the 20 series tractors still has no park.. We fixed the first one and it's a bitch to get into them to replace it too. Tractor was holding a cable tow irrigator and driver knocked it out of park and when it took off backwards, he didn't think, quickly slapped it back into park. Amazingly, it caught and popped the pawl. The one that's not holding now, probably has a spring broken instead of the pawl.
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Zebulon, North Carolina | Thanks for the help ccjersey. I have 2 shank KMC strip till that I run on about 12 acres a year for test plots running at about 14". Will a 5325 mfwd with reverser handle this ok? Been running that rig with a MF 451 mfwd (47 pto hp). Probably trade the MF in on JD. Thanks again. Clint |
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5 cyl in John Deere 5325 any good?
