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| My second year running a 16 row 4905. Bought it brand new last year. It ran nearly perfect last year. Had two pinhole leaks in the hydraulic reservoir, but Kinze replaced it no questions asked. I am not a fan of that reservoir and all the hoses, wires, fan, cooler, etc. Definitely not a fan of that stupid heavy pto pump either. Obnoxious. Weighs well over 100 pounds and is $9,000 if it ever goes bad. This year I had several issues on the planter. -had 4 row control modules fail ($750/piece) warranty covered those. My dealer nor Kinze knows why they are failing or losing communication. There are several across the corn belt having the same issues according to my local Kinze rep.-had a downforce weigh link fail, $350. Changed it and worked fine rest of the season.-I planted some very large 65 lb seed and the meters actually locked up and then seed meter motor has to reset leaving blanks throughout the field because the seed was so big that the brush wouldn’t handoff the seed to the conveyor belt and was passing through the brush then getting lodged between the plate and meter housing.The opposite also happened with very small 40 lb seed.It was small enough that the brush wouldn’t knock it off the plate and would pass through resulting in skips. I lowered vac pressure a bunch also. It planted 55 lb medium rounds perfectly. These true speed meters are identical to the Ag leader sure speed meters. I believe Kinze sells to Agleader, but not for certain. -had a downforce cylinder start leaking. New one was $750.- Blue Vantage display abruptly quit charging on the dock 3 separate times. I checked connection and it is fine. This resulted with the display battery dying and shutting planter off when going through field.-Blue Vantage display froze twice, resulting in planter shutting down and making it impossible to figure out where in the field it quit planting. Had to get out and dig. Had to manually power down display and restart. The Blue Vantage display is awesome! One of the main reasons I bought the planter.-Bulk tanks do not empty all the way. Rows will run out with about a bag left in each tank.-Pinched Ethernet cable due to poor cable and hose routing from the factory. Not that big of a deal, people make mistakes.After running the planter for two seasons, I’ve definitely learned more about it. Loved it for the first season still liked it this season. We’ve run Kinze planters for 30 years, but I feel like after this year I have found more on the planter that I don’t like than what I do like. Inside the Row unit and along the toolbar could be cleaner. The new 5000 series for next year seem to have made a few improvements with greaseless gauge wheel arms, but have gone backwards in quality by making the entire row unit housing all plastic with no latch, just plastic on plastic snap together. I’m sure it will be fine, but I like seeing some sort of metal within the meter and meter housing. Overall it planted very well when it was working. I hope it was just software that caused some of the module failures. These “high speed” all electric planters are definitely not simple.I’m tempted to stay with an electric meter but maybe go back to a seed tube delivery. Just one less thing to go wrong. Any other 4905 owners have similar issues? Kinze makes a great planter and all brands have issues. Just a little frustrating.
Unfortunately.
Edited by barnhome86 5/10/2023 23:29
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my KINZE 4905, two year review
