# John Deere 5100 Series for Baling?



## JimBob1907 (Sep 10, 2014)

Alright, here's my situation. I'm looking into getting a good new or low hour 4WD tractor for pulling a 4x5/5x5 round baler. I've looked at some JD 5100 series at a dealer and they look good/feel good to me. Looking to be baling about 150-160 acres of Bermuda hay. Land is a bit hilly, not much, but enough. The main things that I am concerned with is the weight of the tractor and the brakes for stoping/holding on a hill. Also, I've heard that the more gears a tractor has, the more versatile it can be, maybe 10+ gears. I'm looking to spend around $30,000-$40,000 +- a little on the tractor and I am not sold to just one color tractor, NH, Massey, Case IH, JD... doesn't matter to me!

To give a little perspective, I currently have a NH TC35D with ~800 hrs on it.

(I did not happen to see any threads pertaining to this tractor.)

Thanks for any inputs!

JimBob


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## Orchard6 (Apr 30, 2014)

They are great tractors. I run a 5105m on our apple farm. It does everything I ask it to do and sometimes more than you'd think it can!
If your not against loaded tires I'd recommend it if you have large hills. Mine pulls a 500 gallon orchard sprayer up and down some pretty good hills that are often wet and I personally wouldn't feel as safe without the tires loaded. 
A nice feature I like is that when you apply both brakes it automatically kicks in four wheel drive so you have 4 wheel braking without having to think about it. It does make a big difference when you have something trying to push you down a greasy wet hill!
Mine has the 32/16 trans. I really like having all those gearing options and being able to jump a gear without clutching. It's no Power Quad but I get along with it just fine. My only gripe would be that they should have synchro'ed the range trans, the speed trans shifts fine though.
I have used a 4x4, 634 nh round baler on mine and it didn't even know it was there, in fact I baled in the economy pto setting! But my hayfield is dead flat too.
All in all they are pretty good stout tractors. Mine has 2180 trouble free hours, just routine maintenance and and some cosmetic stuff.(orchard life is hard on plastic lenses!)

Here is a pic of it.


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## JimBob1907 (Sep 10, 2014)

Orchard6, that's great info! Thanks! That is a nice looking tractor. It's great that you were able to bale in ECO PTO mode, that was a feature on the 5100 series that interested me. The auto-locking 4WD sounds nice too, especially with 4,000+ lbs of water/baler behind.

The 5105m was the one that really caught my eye at the dealer. Is it pretty good on diesel usage? I've also heard that JD parts are expensive? Not sure on that last one though, may be hearsay. NH parts are not bad on the TC35D. I'd figure that the JD would be about the same. The parts cost is really not too concerning however.

Thanks again!!!

JimBob


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

JimBob1907 said:


> Orchard6, that's great info! Thanks! That is a nice looking tractor. It's great that you were able to bale in ECO PTO mode, that was a feature on the 5100 series that interested me. The auto-locking 4WD sounds nice too, especially with 4,000+ lbs of water/baler behind.
> 
> The 5105m was the one that really caught my eye at the dealer. Is it pretty good on diesel usage? I've also heard that JD parts are expensive? Not sure on that last one though, may be hearsay. NH parts are not bad on the TC35D. I'd figure that the JD would be about the same. The parts cost is really not too concerning however.
> 
> ...


John Deere parts will average 25-30% higher than probably what you are used to paying. The M Deere series are great tractors....not the top of line, but just below it. I will guarantee you that if you buy a M series tractor you will not be disappointed. 5105M will burn about 5 gallons per hour under full load. The M series have been very reliable for John Deere.....a mechanic friend that works at a JD dealership told me that they have very few M series come thru the shop.

Regards, Mike


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## JimBob1907 (Sep 10, 2014)

Vol said:


> John Deere parts will average 25-30% higher than probably what you are used to paying. The M Deere series are great tractors....not the top of line, but just below it. I will guarantee you that if you buy a M series tractor you will not be disappointed. 5105M will burn about 5 gallons per hour under full load. The M series have been very reliable for John Deere.....a mechanic friend that works at a JD dealership told me that they have very few M series come thru the shop.
> 
> Regards, Mike


Great! Thanks for the all the information, especially the fuel usage and shop visit stats. It looks like I'll be looking more seriously at this tractor!

Thanks!

JimBob


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## Orchard6 (Apr 30, 2014)

I use about 4.5 gallons an hour running a pto driven air blast sprayer in the orchard. That is about the hardest it works and it is quite a load. It does as good of or perhaps better than the 2 6420's we have as well.
They are a common rail injected engine and have gobs of torque. They do sound rough when you first start them and will continue to sound like that until it warms up a bit. 
Like I said mine has been bullet proof so far so I haven't needed any parts other than some turn signals and a window (did I mention orchard life was rough?) and none of those items where to outrageous in price.


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## JimBob1907 (Sep 10, 2014)

Orchard6 said:


> I use about 4.5 gallons an hour running a pto driven air blast sprayer in the orchard. That is about the hardest it works and it is quite a load. It does as good of or perhaps better than the 2 6420's we have as well.
> They are a common rail injected engine and have gobs of torque. They do sound rough when you first start them and will continue to sound like that until it warms up a bit.
> Like I said mine has been bullet proof so far so I haven't needed any parts other than some turn signals and a window (did I mention orchard life was rough?) and none of those items where to outrageous in price.


Haha! "(did I mention orchard life was rough?)" My NH TC35 sounds pretty rough when it starts in sub 32* f weather with its Shibaura 35hp diesel. Even worse when it was 14-18* f last winter! Other than a hydraulic leak, the NH has been great just like your JD. I mowed 3+ foot tall grass with an 84" Land Pride finish mower this summer in 100* f heat, it did a commendable job. The GPH stats for the 5105m seem to be about 4.5-5ish as you and Vol have said.

Thanks again!

JimBob


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