update on 762A

Have been keeping up on things on here - just haven't posted for a while. Just thought I would give an update on our 762A electronic transmission shifter issues. Found a guy - well, he found me through this awesome forum - from California - I call him California Pete - with us supplying the schematics - he was able to completely rewire the brainbox behind the seat (have manual shift only which is fine by me) and neither of us being able to find a good shifter - used a panel switch from summit racing - and we both have our JD scrapers going - Pete's is a 862 and mine is a 762A. We worked together through texting - email - and shipping various parts back and forth - they are both working great. As it was stated on another thread - these JD scrapers are great machines and it is too bad JD quit building and supporting them - both Pete in California and us here in Illinois have guys that will always take the JD over the CAT when it comes to scrapers.

So I worked for Deere 1996-2012. Many scrapers I worked on, I loved these machines they are simple. Many customers said the same thing you did JD over the Cats. Anyway in about early 2000 the start of the emission trend . Deere needed to do some updates to there machines the 762b and 862b. These were actually being made at one of Vermeer’s factory’s in Pella IA. Deere was only selling about 75 of these a year by then as some of the trend was scraper tractors, and pull pans. So Deere decided it was not worth moving the factory and a redesign due to emissions. So our dealerships bought as many as we could then. We sold ‘‘em like hot cakes. But that was an end of a good running piece of equipment. the models with rear wheel hydraulic assist. Are still repaired by one or two guys at Vermeer.

I've never been around the JD scrapers. I got into the dirt moving industry later in life(after the scraper days). They don't look built a lot worse than the Cat counterparts. Maybe not as overbuilt as a Cat. Did JD sub out the production of their scrapers to Vermeer, or was this a later situation? Was the hydraulic rear wheel drive a 3rd party add on? I read somewhere Kress made a rear wheel drive? Do you have any of the late advertising you could post? What were some of the later refinements? I've heard repeatedly the Hancock bowls loaded easier and were more efficient than the Johnson design. And why didn't Deere use the Funk transmissions in the later ones?

All I knew of Vermeer building was the last model. I work for Vermeer dealer now the last 10 yrs. in their museum in Pella, they have pictures of the deere scraper being built. But not many people there know the history. and why they quit. The hydraulic rear wheel assist was called the Max trax system by Vermeer. While working at Deere we only had one issue with one of the left rear wheel drive motors and we called Vermeer they said, they only had one motor on the shelf. They sent it to us. then billed us for just the repair cost. I believe the motors were made by POCLAIN hydraulics. they were custom made for that application. I knew of 2 contractors who had a fleet of scrapers but could only find one each with the Max trax. the one contractor was our old sales manager. He said that max trax unit was so good. he did not need to have another dozer there to push it just the others. However, I think that option was a 50k-75k option back then. as far as the transmissions go. I remember them being the same from the 760, 762, 762a and 762b but maybe not. The only difference was the controls. Mainly electric in some way. Early ones had Dickey John controller then that changed to brand xx. I don't have any literature. just a lot of memoryies. I ran field truck for almost 17 yrs. I thought they were the Funk transmission. and that would make sense as that is a Deere owned Company.

If I remember correctly, didn't Deere have a dump bed option for the 860-862 series? Wonder if that was a Vermeer build also. Never ran one with rear assist but had seen one working in Illinois back in the day - it was impressive what that would do for a machine that size.

When you say dump belly!! 1/2 of the floor moved back yes. And then the wall pushed forward so then only a couple of inches maybe all that was left on the floor.

No - I am talking about an actual off-road dump bed. I believe there were some 862's with these on them. I am familiar with scrapers - grew up on E200 and 412 Internationals - then went to 762 and 762A Deere's Still have 2 762A's

What was the last year of production for the 862B?

Somewhere in the mid 1990's I believe

99 or 2000, I know this for sure cause the new owners bought our dealership and then bought a lot of scrapers. The last 862B’s off the line had turbo problems. And I remember our new owner coming to job site to see if I figured out the problem. We had 3 new scraper’s on job site with blown turbos. But we had like 10 total scattered around the state with same issue. We went through a lot of turbos that year

tdrainage said:

No - I am talking about an actual off-road dump bed. I believe there were some 862's with these on them. I am familiar with scrapers - grew up on E200 and 412 Internationals - then went to 762 and 762A Deere's Still have 2 762A's

Click to expand...

Your saying like an articulation truck. 6x6.

Yes. Like an articulated truck. In fact I believe there was one listed on MachineryTrader in the last couple of years.