I sold my takeuchi tl150, it was a great machine, just rode to rough. so I picked up a deere. now everyone is telling me that the drive motors are terrible. got me worried, machine drives straight is there any reason I cant make these drive motors go for another 2000 hours with tender love and care.. just wondering how long anyone has made it on these motors
You can keep the drive oil fresh, keep the undercarriage clean so that the drives are able to dissipate heat are some ideas that I am aware of. Drive motors on all CTLs are a wear item. Sooner or later you buy new ones. If the drives on your Deere have not been replaced in the first 3k hours, I would say you will be buying new ones soon. Have you found that the Deere is more smooth than the TK? It seems that since they both use essentially the same undercarriage that the ride would be much the same. Perhaps the Deere puts more track on the ground than does the TK, but if it does it cant be by much.
I have a 06 332. Like ksss said the drive motors are a wear issue. We have replaced ours twice on both side and our machine has over 5000 hours. That being said aside from little things needing fixed the drive motors in all that time were the only major repairs this machine has had. We change the drive motor oil with the engine oil and use synthetic gear oil. The stuff is expensive but you only need three quarts to change both motors.
i really love the ride quality. the tak was an absolute tank.. it was a very good machine. loved the yanmar motor. the deere motor doesn't seem to have the horsepower but it puts it all to the machine very well. I hope the drive motors can hold up. another thing I noticed on the deere was that the fan sucks the exhaust through because it is not connected. it kinda smells smokey.
Congrats on your purchase. Hopefully you got a very good deal on the machine. For a CTL the hours are getting up there and the drive motors are something you should start looking forward to. Hopefully they've been replaced at some point. After my very poor experience with its little brother, I would not touch another JD CTL.... That's just me though.....