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I've had my 4100 in NE for 2 years now plowing snow and it does almost all I could ask of it. I've got the HST, turf tires (no chains), and FEL but I also use a heavily weighted rear blade. I strap on 3 5-gallon buckets filled with concrete (each bucket weighs about 100 pounds.) Between those and the 200 pound rear blade, I get quite a bit of traction using the bucket. Using the blade, it digs into packed snow and ice real well at the expense of traction. This year I'm going to try just 2 buckets and some homemade wheel weights (old barbell weights -- about 300 pounds total.) I plow my own 200 yard drive and parking area as well as 3 neighbors and have only been stuck once. As long as you keep the banks back and knocked down, your machine should do fine. BTW, there was a post on this board last year about using screw-in tire studs from motorcycle racing tires to add traction to your tractor tires. Haven't tried it but it sounded like a more comfortable method than chains. Hope this helps you.

4100 and snow
John Deere Tractors
Replies 14 Post by Tucker Herbold

I've had my 4100 for about 2 1/2 years now and a little over 200 hours. It has the FEL, 3PH ballast box (filled with about 800 lbs concrete) and the mid-mower standard from JD. Last fall I got a rear blade for help in clearing snow and this spring I made a set of wheel weight for the back wheels cause I kept losing traction with the blade. The wheel weights can add about 350 pounds total. When I first got the machine, it felt tippy to me too (having come from larger, wider bucket loaders), it took some adjustment. With the FEL on, you MUST use a fully loaded weight box (add more than just the 5 bags of concrete). Anything less and the back-end really wants to come off the ground. That's going to get you on your side in a hurry!! If you can, get Deere's wheel weights or make your own (mine are a plate that bolts onto the wheel using the regular lug nuts and has a solid shaft in the middle to suspend dumbbell weights on -- takes all of a minute to load or unload both sides and never handling more than 45 pounds at a time) they will really help. As far as mowing, take the 5 minutes to remove the weights and the FEL -- stability improves dramatically. I can mow on slopes I wouldn't even think of driving with the FEL on the machine (One slope, which I mow up and down as the path is only 20 feet wide, drops 70 feet vertically in 250 feet horizontally.) Other areas in the yard are not that severe but with just the mid-mount mower, the tractor does not feel like it wants to tip (and sometimes, I think I try just to see how far it can go -- dumb of me.) Take your time, use the proper ballasting, stay up/down the slopes as much as possible, keep the loads lighter and lower, and just practice -- these machines are a lot more stable than we sometimes give them credit for.

4100 and roll overs
Tractor Projects
Replies 16 Post by Tucker Herbold

I spent the last winter plowing quite a bit of snow with a 4100 and a 5' light duty blade here in Connecticut. As long as the snow was less than 5" deep, I didn't have much trouble rolling it over to the side. Any deeper, and the tractor moved to the side -- not enough weight on the tractor. I ended up adding about 400 pounds to the backend (homemade wheel weights) and now the blade pulls like crazy and the tractor tracks straight. Based on the amount of use I've gotten out of the blade, I'm about ready to upgrade and buy a heavier duty blade mostly for the angling feature. I'm tired of having to adjust the linkage to tilt the blade. 5' is really about the limits for traction on the 4100.

Rear blade and plow sizes
Operating and Attachments
Replies 23 Post by Tucker Herbold

Went through your situation a year and a half ago. Decided I prefered the pedal arrangement on the Deere hydrostatic over the Kubota so I went with the 4100, 54" belly mower, FEL, and weight box (plenty big for my needs--dealer kept asking if I would rather have the 455 riding lawn mower....). Hard Choice! Have exactly 100 hours on the machine and it has proven itself to me with no problems! Neighbors keep borrowing it move things around and it seems to have become the neighborhood toy (one guy has even started to bug his wife that maybe it's time to "upgrade" their lawn capabilities.) If I were doing it again right now, I would do the same thing again, except with a different dealer. As others have said, shop the dealer as much as the machine. In the 18 months I've owned the machine, I have not had one contact from the dealer! So much for customer service.

If I were looking solely at geared tractors, however, I doubt anybody could talk me out of a JD 790. HP to burn, low price, proven chassis/construction, and still relatively nimble. Creature comforts are that are lacking but at the price, it can't be beat! If you have any other questions about the 4100, don't hesitate to ask me (or my wife -- she has almost as many hours on it as I do.)

Should I go with the JD4100
John Deere Tractors
Replies 20 Post by Tucker Herbold

Woods? LandPride? York? Generic? Been looking for a landscape rake to help clear stones (grapefruit sized and smaller) and root chips out of a freshly graded (future) yard and have been conflicting stories from every dealer I've talked with. Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated. Additionally, ballpark pricing would help.Thanks.

Landscape Rakes
Operating and Attachments
Replies 2 Post by Tucker Herbold

I was in a similar situation last summer. 600' from the road and had to bring in the service. The way it works in New England (at least with Northeast Utilities who for all intents supplies all of New England), you are responsible for the trench and the conduit.

They pull their lines through and keep responsibility for the upkeep and maintenance of the lines. The conduit is still yours. (Gets confusing after a while who owns what but they supply a full spec sheet on the installation and what is supplied by each party.)

Additionally, if the distances are less than 500', they generally recommend the transformer at the street and pull the "knocked-down" lines through the conduit. If the distance is more than 500', they generally like to have the transformer closer to the house and pull the "high-voltage" lines through to the transformer. Dollar-wise, 500' is pretty much break-even between the different wires (high-voltage is actually cheaper to install but you incur the cost of the transformer and concrete pad. Knock-down lines cost more but you don't have to pay the transformer costs.)

Finally, in Connecticut, the power company now requires that all buried supply lines to a house be installed in 3" minimum conduit -- no more direct bury.

Hope this helps. If you would like more, let me know and I can send you the spec sheets they use here.

More About Electrical Trenching
Operating and Attachments
Replies 7 Post by Tucker Herbold