[challenger65]

Anyone running that new prodrive system in the 9770 or 9870 combines. Are they worth the extra money?

 

[randsenns]

Type in Pro Drive in the google search box below, and do a search of thecombineforum and you will get the last thread about this. Quite a few replies, hopefully gets you some answers. And a side note, we have it on our forage harvester and I would not order another one without. The faster road speed is very nice for us, and the diff lock has definitly helped to pull trucks where our old chopper would have sunk away.

 

[steve9870]

new to this site, but saw your post about Pro-Drive. I purchased a 9870 this Sept with Pro-Drive, wouldn't go back! Absolutely worth the money. More power, More torque, easy to adjust. Never lose speed power going up hill and never pick up speed going down.

 

[Don Boles]

I also think it's a good setup, better speed consistency up and down hills, not having to shift for uphills, I'm sold.

And you get Harvestsmart with it!
OH yeah, Harvestsmart.
Reminds me of that rant "I am so smart, S. M. R. T."

Don

 

[Jason Hildebrand]

Its NOT worth the money, 7Gs for a little convenience? I don't think so. Do I like using it? YES. But it doesn't improve capacity at all so I put it in the same category as leather seats. Harvestsmart is a valiant attempt but still fails, not quite good enough to set and forget.

 

[Don Boles]

And what % of last years gross would that be?

Don

 

[steve9870]

anyone had problems with the pro-drive? I will repeat I love the pro-drive but have had 1 problem 4 times!

There is a coupler between the pump and motor (below the feeder house) that has stripped 4 times on me. They replaced all 4 parts twice(pump, motor, coupler and spacer block) happened on new parts as well.

Now they feel they had a bad batch of spacer blocks and got a new shipment in and discarded all old ones.............but if yours has not yet failed it still might.

this is a 2009, first happened with 120 hrs on machine. When it happens - you stop, in the field or road it doesn't' matter, you still STOP.

Dealership was fantastic about getting us going as was JD warranty.
If you have a newer machine with Pro-drive on it get this looked at now while machine is sitting. A simple spacer block is all you need to save a lot of head aches.

 

[aussiedeere]

I demoed a 9870 this harvest with Pro Drive and found the range change very noticeable, it would sort of clunk through the change, very annoying if your harvesting right about the change point. Does yours clunk or was there something wrong with this one?

 

[Jason Hildebrand]

Yes it is very clunky and it does not always happen at the same speed sometimes at 4mph sometimes at 10mph, depends on conditions. I think that is normal(or JDs version of normal) and will improve with software updates I suspect.

Found out ProDrive doesn't like cold weather we were moving ours to the dealership in -20C and it threw all kinds of error codes and went into limp mode. The combine was in a heated shop previous and drove right out onto the road and made it half way there, I think the dealership drove it the rest of the way in limp mode = aprox 2mph

 

[Don Boles]

Does anyone else think that bad batch of X and piss poor engineering are synonymous?

Don

 

[crusty]

We had a new 9870 this year with pro drive and we had two hyd pumps go out, shelled out 3 pump couplers, and twisted of the pump shaft.

I like how the pro drive works once you figure it out. If you have your max speed for your first range set over 9 mph then when you are on the ends of the fields or driving to a truck it will clunk and jerk the combine. It sure was nice in the mud when you could lock the diff in. We run 800/38 duals on front and it will spin them no problem.

All in all if they could get it to be more reliable then I think it would be the only way to order the combine.

 

[willerd]

My 9870 with pro drive made the noise too but they reprogramed it and took the noise out. Never noticed the downshift. It takes some getting used to the feel of the hydo handle but ordered it again for next year.

 

[steve9870]

Does anyone else think that bad batch of X and piss poor engineering are synonymous?

Don

No, i don't feel this is accurate. if the new blocks fix the problem, then it was bad blocks. If, on the other hand they ripped out the whole system and replaced it with a fully revamped system--then yes -poor engineering.

 

[thor1ststech]

The "clunk" everyone is talking about is the shift between first and second. The Pro Drive from what I have found is very pickey. The OM says to change the tranny and main engine gearcase after the first 100 hours for clean up purposes and I have always recalibrated the tranny when I did this. I did have a couple that I had to recalibrate when the weather got cold, around 30's, and it didn't shift hard again.