A local governmental road maintenance agency called me and said they had a Demo 140M if I wanted to see it. I've got some video that I shot of it in action but I can't get it to download. It's MPG file type and around 20mb in size. Anyone know how to do that?
As for the still pics attached, they aren't much but they do make a couple points. First impression was that you can't see the front tires. Visibility straight forward is not good. Blade visibility is comparable to C model or earlier JD blades. It's better than our current D model JD though.
Second thing I noticed as soon as I entered the cab was how dirty it was inside with only 200 hours on it. Unless they ran with the doors open, it's got issues with the filtering system. Again, I'm comparing to a JD which keeps the cab very clean.
Third thing I noticed as I ran it around the circle drive, steering the front wheels, rear steering and raising/lowering the left blade at the same time is a challenge that would take a little practice. I only played with it for about five minutes. I found myself causing machine action that I didn't intend. For example when twisting the left joy stick to rear steer I had trouble maintaining a constant front steer angle and once found myself adjusting the blade height unintentionally.
As shown in one pic, the hydraulic hoses for the AWD system at the front wheels is dangerously exposed. Not sure why they did it that way. Looks like an afterthought so they just hung them on there. They are actually held up by a cheesy looking rubber strap.
The operators here said it has no engine guts compared to their 140H. They liked the tightness of the table and said it was an improvement. They said after a couple hours they adjusted to the joysticks until they would get in a tight spot or haul butt down the road, then they were still nervous. One operator said he had to look at the rear steer gauge to tell when the machine was straight because you aren't looking down the backbone at the front tires like the H model. They hadn't used the AWD at all so had no opinion about that.
As for me comparing it to our JD770D, I didn't like the limited visibility straight forward. If you want to know what's going on under the front axle or just in front of the center of the blade it's an effort and requires you to move around in the seat, which then changes your hand position on the joysticks which are very sensitive.
I struggled as I said above with the complexity of the two steering functions and blade lift all on one stick.
The fuel tank appears very exposed.
The cab has shrunk quite a bit with little to no space for extra clothing, cooler, etc. The cab doesn't appear to seal very well.
The hydraulics appear to be about the same speed on the blade as our JD. JD turntable might be a little quicker but lift/lower, sideshift, blade tilt seems to be comparable.
An operator that lives near me is getting a new 140M in a couple weeks. When it shows up we'll park it beside our JD770D and get some really detailed pics for comparison.
If someone can tell me how to load these videos I'll post them up.
As for the still pics attached, they aren't much but they do make a couple points. First impression was that you can't see the front tires. Visibility straight forward is not good. Blade visibility is comparable to C model or earlier JD blades. It's better than our current D model JD though.
Second thing I noticed as soon as I entered the cab was how dirty it was inside with only 200 hours on it. Unless they ran with the doors open, it's got issues with the filtering system. Again, I'm comparing to a JD which keeps the cab very clean.
Third thing I noticed as I ran it around the circle drive, steering the front wheels, rear steering and raising/lowering the left blade at the same time is a challenge that would take a little practice. I only played with it for about five minutes. I found myself causing machine action that I didn't intend. For example when twisting the left joy stick to rear steer I had trouble maintaining a constant front steer angle and once found myself adjusting the blade height unintentionally.
As shown in one pic, the hydraulic hoses for the AWD system at the front wheels is dangerously exposed. Not sure why they did it that way. Looks like an afterthought so they just hung them on there. They are actually held up by a cheesy looking rubber strap.
The operators here said it has no engine guts compared to their 140H. They liked the tightness of the table and said it was an improvement. They said after a couple hours they adjusted to the joysticks until they would get in a tight spot or haul butt down the road, then they were still nervous. One operator said he had to look at the rear steer gauge to tell when the machine was straight because you aren't looking down the backbone at the front tires like the H model. They hadn't used the AWD at all so had no opinion about that.
As for me comparing it to our JD770D, I didn't like the limited visibility straight forward. If you want to know what's going on under the front axle or just in front of the center of the blade it's an effort and requires you to move around in the seat, which then changes your hand position on the joysticks which are very sensitive.
I struggled as I said above with the complexity of the two steering functions and blade lift all on one stick.
The fuel tank appears very exposed.
The cab has shrunk quite a bit with little to no space for extra clothing, cooler, etc. The cab doesn't appear to seal very well.
The hydraulics appear to be about the same speed on the blade as our JD. JD turntable might be a little quicker but lift/lower, sideshift, blade tilt seems to be comparable.
An operator that lives near me is getting a new 140M in a couple weeks. When it shows up we'll park it beside our JD770D and get some really detailed pics for comparison.
If someone can tell me how to load these videos I'll post them up.
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