7x00 Series Question

I am looking to upgrade to a 7500, 7600, 7700, 7800 JD tractor for comfort. Either of these will fit my needs, the biggest item may be a JD Chopper said to require 130HP.

I see a lot of the 00 series with rebuilt transmissions. Here is an example on Craigslist:

1996 John Deere 7800 MFWD
5800hrs
150hp
50 hrs on in frame over haul
Transmission was rebuild in 2014

I don't consider this a tractor with hours that should need a transmission rebuild, this is not the only one I have seem.

Is there a problem with the transmissions and/or engines with this series of tractors? What about the 10 series?

Thanks.

Paul

Which transmission???

I have had a little experience with both. We were "loaned" a 7800 with Power Quad once when one of our horses went down. The dealer said, "well, C range doesn't work. There is some plastic linkage, and that needs to replaced." I'm not sure what it was, but it tooks some doing to be repaired. We only used it in a PTO application, so we got along OK.

The second experience was that of a friend of mine. He has a 7800 power shift. Somewhere along the line, the tractor was placed in park while still moving a bit. Those have an aluminum transmission case, and that action cracked the case, and it started to leak. Sooo... the dealer repaired it for him. Needless to say it was a big job. And of course, something didn't get reassembled correctly, and my friend called the dealer when it was making an odd noise perhaps a 100 hours later. And of course the dealer said, "well, it'll be OK to drive it home." So he did... and something let loose, and took out the transmission and the gearbox that drives the MFWD. There was some serious arguing over who was paying for that.

So, in short, yes, stuff can happen to 7000 series transmissions. I would suggest looking to a later 10 series tractor or something older like a 50 or 55 series.

Another thought... there was a dealer near here that in the day would NOT sell a 7800 new to anyone. He had had enough trouble. If someone wanted one, he would price them an 8100 with the 540 PTO option...

I dont have any experience with the 19 speed powershifts in those but have heard they can be spendy to rebuild. Also don't know anything about 7500's, might be a European model maybe? Anyways we have a 7600 mfwd powerquad that dad bought new with a loader. Hour meter shows 17,750 hours right now. The engine has never been opened up other than valve adjustments and new injection pump and injectors. The transmission is another story. Almost all of our issues have been with the front section which is the 1-4 portion, fwd-rev, and main traction clutch. It has been opened up twice now. In my opinion(correct me if I'm wrong someone) a lot of the transmission problems with the early powerquad is because of the hodge lodge of linkages to control it. And ours being the main feeding loader tractor for many years saw a lot of fwd-rev use causing a lot of the problems we had. A tractor with strictly field use may not have these issues.( again just my opinion). The ABCD portion or Rangebox will grind and kick out but again found it to be worn linkages. The 7510 powerquad left hand reverse loader tractor we had was at 12,000 hours when we traded it and never had a lick of transmision trouble. I think the 7x10 series were a lot better with either Righthand reverse( 3 lever setup with linkages) or lefthand reverse(electronic fwd-rev control) but that's just what I've seen. Otherwise been a great tractor for us.

Sorry for the long post
Adam

our 7800 with 6-7000 hours hasn't given us any major issues. it has the power quad, the power shift 1 2 3 4 is the smoothest shifts we have ever had with power shift tractors, granted our newest tractor is an 8400 and i know the newer ones 8x10, 8x20 ect shift smoother than the 8000. we have had the shift linkages get stiff, then you have to crawl underneath with spray lube and lube up everything that moves while someone else works the levers. usually occurs after sitting dormant through winter or summer, if used regularly it would probably not be as much of an issue.

now my uncle had a 7810 with the 19 speed powershift, he was always grumbling how rough it shifted even after multiple calibrations. i ended up going through that transmission last year at work after he found clutch disk material in transmission oil. over half of the disks had the material separating from the steel disk, not sure why. he ended up trading that for an 8230 before he really had a chance to use it much so not sure if the rebuild help with rough shifting or not. his had around around 5500 hours i think.

we have been through at least 4 or 5 19 speeds and maybe more in the 5 years i have been working where i am. inthat time frame i dont recall going through any power quads.

ill also add that our 7800 seems kinda like a dog for its size but of course this is compared to the 8400 which is 100 + hp stronger so probably holding it to to high of standards. also they don't turn very short unless front wheels are moved out.

Had both a 7200 power quad and a 7600 power shift. The power quad was a far nicer transmission than the power shift for smoothness and getting the power to the ground. There were some gears that when you switched between on the power shift that were extremely jerky. The power quad was never jerky. The 7200 with power quad had noticeably more drawbar hp than the 7600 when used on the same implement so I would think the power shift eats up quite a bit more power. I don't remember what hours they had on when they went down the road but I know it was less than 5000. They were both virtually troublefree except for a few minor electrical glitches. I would definitely take the power quad for your uses over the power shift because I would think it would be the more trouble free transmission over the long haul.

Thanks guys for your comments. They were very helpful. Paul

My in-laws had a 7800 with a power quad they bought new. They finally traded it at 10k hours. The engine came apart on it when it was still under warranty, but never had to get into the transmission, or had anymore engine issues. A lot of those hours were hauling manure and pushing silage in the bunkers. Was a very good tractor.