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I have an 855 and I have told many people that, IMHO, of the tractors that I have owned, and that goes from as early as a GP to a 70D to 4020D to as late as a 4440 restored from a cab fire, that for it"s designed purpose, the little -55 compact tractor is the best John Deere that I have ever owned. They do no not like to run hot, so if you do, fast idle in the shade to cool them down before you shut them down so it doesn"t suffer from heat soak. The early type 855 and 955 routed the smoke through a hole in the left side shield, but the later ones routed the pipe out below the exhaust shield and that diverted the exhaust much better. You could install the newer pipe, and patch the hole in the side shield if you like, or route the pipe under and have it blow on the ground, or through an extended slot along a length of tube, or out the top. I"ve decided to let mine go out the bottom and works pretty good. I don"t get much smoke unless I am pulling it pretty hard and that does not happen to often. If the loader is like the 70 loader I have on my 855, it should have a basic grille guard surrounding the front grille. I have seen others install open-weave mesh or expanded metal, or simply weld on some 3/8" or 1/4" rod to form a grille guard, but I have not had any issue with "stuff" getting by as it has to go quite an end to pass the bucket and get to the grille. By that time you should probably have stopped. Maintain the front end mechanical wheel drive gear sets as outlined by the book. Those were probably the weak point if any, and it"s cheap insurance to keep an area like that lubed up. I"m thinking of buying a 955 myself and using it for the loader work and installing a small backhoe, keep ing the 2wd 855 for lawn mowing only. They are nice, easy to use machines. Frank
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