Donald Lehman
Well-known Member
Where Jeff buys his TMR, the lodaer tractors are a pair of JD6430's with cabs. Been using one or the other of them for a year now. Occasionally if they are tied up with something I have used the owners Case backhoe to load up. Today, one of the 6430's had a flat tire and the other 6430 and the backhoe was off doing road repair work so I got to use a CIH 140 Puma. Interesting to compare the feel of the two. The CIH loader protrudes further away from the tractor and the visibility of the bucket isn't quite as good but no big deal. The cab is much roomier than the JD. Even had an extra seat for a rider. Again different, but a wash as far as I'm concerned. The controls are similar, but the CIH has a different feel. The CIH joystick for the loader is shorter so it takes less movement to get things to happen and the action is totally different. The foot trottle on the CIH is a bit less sensative, which I like better. The hydraulic action of the loader on the JD is a tad smoother, but that may be more from my lack of experience on the CIH than anything. Again I say 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. Visability out of both cabs were excellent. The CIH front drive unit is much smoother in short turns. Much less clunking and lurching as the limited slip compensates for the short turns. I prefer the shuttle shift action of the JD to the CIH, but again it's no biggie. I don't think it would take long to adapt to the CIH and feel right at home in it. Now comparing them to our 1850 and 1955, they have a sophisticated feel the older tractors don't have, of course. However having worked with clutch and gear trannys all my life I don't feel any great disadvantage in cyle time with the 1850 compared to the new tractors. And I lay the palm of my hand on top of the two remote levers and use one finger on each remote lever on the 1850 to manipulate the up/down/dump on the 1850 and see no advantage what-so-ever to the 4-way joystick. The big difference is the 1850 hydraulics are a bit slower, but not THAT much slower. Anyone who grew up on a manual clutch and gear tranny can load just a smoothly as the shuttle shift tractors. The big advantage I can see in the shuttle shift on a long day would be much less fatigue. Both are very nice tractors and I would be happy spending my day in either one of them. Still I am very comfortable on the Olivers in spite of their lack of sophistication compared to the newer tractors, and certainly don't feel any burning desire to run out and lay down $100,000 or more to buy either one of them.
And this opinion is worth exactly what you paid for it. (smile)
And this opinion is worth exactly what you paid for it. (smile)
