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John Deere CT series owners/users please chime in

Canuck Digger

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2012
Messages
263
Location
Mission, BC, Canada
Occupation
Business Owner, Equipment Operator, Fishing Guide
As per my recent post, the RH side drive motor went on my 322. The other side isn't looking that great either. With only 1300 or so hours, it's pretty disappointing to say the least. With 18-20K in repairs, the machine is pretty much a boat anchor. Wondering if anyone has encountered the same drive motor issue as I have? Is this a fairly common problem with this model of machine or a freak accident. Main reason I'm asking is should I try and find the same machine and have replacement parts for a really long time recovering portion of the loss in the long run, or stay away from the machine all together. How many reasonably trouble free hours do you have on your CT? Thanks
 

Construct'O

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2007
Messages
928
Location
SW Iowa
Occupation
Dozerwork,tiling plus many more!!!!!!!

pafarmer

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2010
Messages
883
Location
Somewhere in the woods !
Occupation
Land clearing, demo, site prep etc. Ex Pro Motocro
The drives do go bad pretty quickly even with proper maintenance and care. Where is the 18 to 20 k figure come from ?
Drives are expensive but certainly dont cost that amount....
 

hmearth

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 10, 2014
Messages
238
Location
Australia.
i did both side on my 329D at 2000 hrs and jd or hitachi replaced
both side and to what i uderstand they where not quite right in the housing. When they replaced them l got two new drive motors as well.
what i found was change your final drive oil every 250 hrs helps and i do sos or probe sample at the same time.
 

Canuck Digger

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2012
Messages
263
Location
Mission, BC, Canada
Occupation
Business Owner, Equipment Operator, Fishing Guide
Hey pafarmer. Here are the numbers...... from a us dealer I can get a drive for $3500 plus 20% exchange rate and shipping. So $4500. My dealer here wants 6K for the exact same part. Go figure. My mechanic took the other drive apart as well and it has some funny wear marks on the back where there should not be any. He thinks the other drive isn't too far behind. So 9K for 2 drives. The pump that controls the boom functions is toast as well, and another one needs a partial re build. Plus all the misc. things incl. filters/oil to flush out the system. Figure about 4-5K in labour to get her up and running with flushing all the lines etc. Parts about 13K and labour about 5. Once she's back together, it'll be a matter of what will be next. If the machine had 3-4K hours on it I'd say oh well. With only 1350hrs. it's a shame. So I'm kinda stuck. It's tempting to get another of the same and have a parts machine but if this is a common issue with the JD CTL's not sure I want to be stuck with 2 parts machines..... Just don't know what to do......
 

Construct'O

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2007
Messages
928
Location
SW Iowa
Occupation
Dozerwork,tiling plus many more!!!!!!!
It's not just an issue with Deere it is and issue with all brand skids.If you read the link i posted then others are mention also.I agree at those hours it isn't good.It goes back to if maintance and operation of your machine.The harder you run it the more issue you will have,no matter what brand.

The 250 hour oil change would be what i would do and use synecthic oil helps.
 

pafarmer

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2010
Messages
883
Location
Somewhere in the woods !
Occupation
Land clearing, demo, site prep etc. Ex Pro Motocro
It's not just an issue with Deere it is and issue with all brand skids.If you read the link i posted then others are mention also.I agree at those hours it isn't good.It goes back to if maintance and operation of your machine.The harder you run it the more issue you will have,no matter what brand.

The 250 hour oil change would be what i would do and use synecthic oil helps.

Agreed, The same drives are used across multiple brands....was speaking in generalities...1350 hours isn't many to have
Such major drive failure. We replaced a few on one 333D at approx. 3000 with superb maintenance. Changed at 50 hours and then every 250 and still failed. Poor design, bad drives, hard to say really. Only known fact for me is they fail prematurely no matter how well they are cared for....
 

Shortone

Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2014
Messages
8
Location
Sw Minnesota
I have a ct332 with 3500 hrs on it and my machine has been used and abused. But less than 100 hours ago I had lost power on my right track motor so I sent in both for rebuilding. The rebuild company asked for the power pack also since the drive motors aren't to bad the just needed seals and bearings and a couple of gears in the final. So sent tin the whole power pack they said it was a mess and rebuilt every thing. They give me a 1 year 1000 hr warranty on the rebuild. It cost me 9800 for shipping and rebuilding both track motors and the entire power pack. It took me about a week in shop time and about a week waiting for the parts to get rebuilt.
 

Canuck Digger

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2012
Messages
263
Location
Mission, BC, Canada
Occupation
Business Owner, Equipment Operator, Fishing Guide
So what I'm hearing is such major failure is not common at those hours. It's not necessarily a reason to shy away from the CT line. Everything else being equal, with proper maintenance/operating habits it's not unrealistic to get 2,500-3K hours before these types of issues show up..... Thanks to all that have helped shed a little light on this thing.
 

Shortone

Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2014
Messages
8
Location
Sw Minnesota
Most of the larger tracked loaders around here doesn't matter the brand are rebuilt about 3000 hrs. And the wheeled are about twice that. The ctl's I think are less hours since they see a lot more abuse than a wheeled.
 

JBGASH

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2011
Messages
758
Location
Missouri
Occupation
Plumbing & Excavation Contractor / farmer
I also replaced both drive motors on my Bobcat at 2000 hrs - was painful at $7500. Bottom line is these CTL are just outright expensive to keep running.
 

KSSS

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2005
Messages
4,316
Location
Idaho
Occupation
excavation
There is no doubt they are expensive to run. I have always been of the opinion that anything your doing with a CTL that can be done as well or close to as well with a rubber tired machine, is costing you money (perhaps more than we even realize). I try to ensure that each hour on the CTL is one in which the machine is in its element. Doesn't always work out that way but that effort is always made.
 

Canuck Digger

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2012
Messages
263
Location
Mission, BC, Canada
Occupation
Business Owner, Equipment Operator, Fishing Guide
There is no doubt they are expensive to run. I have always been of the opinion that anything your doing with a CTL that can be done as well or close to as well with a rubber tired machine, is costing you money (perhaps more than we even realize). I try to ensure that each hour on the CTL is one in which the machine is in its element. Doesn't always work out that way but that effort is always made.

Amen........ Where I live it's quite wet, quite often, so when the wheel guys are sitting at home I'm still working...... That's about the only way I can justify a CTL. Also, in my opinion I'm yet to see a final grade with a wheel machine to be as good as it gets with a CTL in the same/close amount of time........
 

pafarmer

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2010
Messages
883
Location
Somewhere in the woods !
Occupation
Land clearing, demo, site prep etc. Ex Pro Motocro
Amen........ Where I live it's quite wet, quite often, so when the wheel guys are sitting at home I'm still working...... That's about the only way I can justify a CTL. Also, in my opinion I'm yet to see a final grade with a wheel machine to be as good as it gets with a CTL in the same/close amount of time........

Same here. A wheeled machine wouldn't even make it in to the ground we cover on a daily basis....They are worthless in my neck of the woods !
 

buckfever

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2010
Messages
813
Location
southwest pa
We have a ct332 with 5000 hours. Never touched the pumps ( knocking on wood) but have replaced the drives on both sides twice. Twice it was a failure in the gears that just wrecked everything and twice had the hydrolic side fail.

Just keep in mind that we are not easy on this machine. Pushing tri axel loads of nasty topsoil around houses and using every bit of horse power that machine has got. We don't even want to talk about the work load it takes on once the ground freezes.
 
Joined
Mar 3, 2015
Messages
14
Location
United States
i had a cat 287b that i had to replace both drive motors and drive motor pump so i dont think it just the deere ... After doing that at about 3500 arm I traded it in because ineeded 12k in more repairs.Happy I traded it in. I was at about 8500 forparts becasue i did the labor myself
 

KSSS

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Feb 27, 2005
Messages
4,316
Location
Idaho
Occupation
excavation
Every OEM struggles with this issue because the drive motors which are available simply are not as rugged as they need to be. I could deal with that if the repair/replace costs were not so high. Make a rebuild kit that allows the owner to rebuild his drives for $3k or so instead forcing complete replacement which seems to be the tactic used by most of these drive motor OEM's.
 

Mike Neibert

Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2019
Messages
7
Location
Hayward, Wisconsin
I bought a used CT 322 and had it 6 hrs and the hydraulic pump blew up sending fine particles through my whole hydraulic system ended up replacing pump, final drives hoses and flushing the whole system multiple times, have had nothing but troubles with it sence, worst 25,000 I have ever spent
 
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