Guest Tractoring Primer and Review: Deutz Fahr Keyline 5080D

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Please give a warm welcome to Rich J, whose mighty tractor towers above my Yanmar YT325! — jb

In 1993, on the 4th of July weekend, a friend and I were driving back from Boulder, Colorado to Ft Riley, Kansas after a long drunken weekend in his hometown.  The 700R4 transmission  on my 1983 Z28 ingested a good-sized portion of the torque converter sleeve, leaving us limping down the shoulder on the Kansas border in 1st gear.  We took the next exit, found a place to leave the car, and called our unit and First Sergeant who extended our pass and was surprisingly understanding.  It was 100 degrees, at least, and we decided that, this late in the day, it was best to find a cheap hotel, a 12 pack, and attack this problem bright and early.  The next morning, we thumbed a couple rides across Kansas, the second in a ‘75 Camaro that didn’t  drop below 100mph except to pick us up and drop us off.  Drop us off he did, just outside of Wichita and not that far from Fort Riley.  We could see a truck stop on the horizon, far across a wheat field (and the horizon in Kansas is a long way off), but we were resilient young soldiers (strong and dumb like bull) and started hoofing it across this field.  About 1/2 mile into this endeavor, a guy in a huge Massey Ferguson tractor, 6 wheels, cutting wheat with something that looked to be 40 feet wide, pulled up and asked us if we are okay and if we need a ride, which we gratefully accepted.  There was room in the cab for all three of us with one hanging out the open door.  He had a CD player and a cooler full of cold Dr Pepper, and I remember him replying when asked that he spent 12 to 14 hours a day in there, so the amenities were worthwhile.  He dropped us off at the truck stop, we called a friend to come get us, and that was the end of that journey.  The Camaro would be recovered another day, but that’s another story.

I didn’t really see myself as a tractor owner until 25 years later.  Tractors, like a lot of things, are sort of a gateway drug.  In 2018, after retiring from the military, I bought a small piece of property with a house on it in Georgia and took a job nearby.  It quickly became apparent that even a commercial level zero-turn mower was not up to the task of managing 5 acres of coarse pasture.  A little research revealed that the closest tractor dealership was about 20 minutes away, and sold Kubota, which, I was pleased to learn, are mostly put together in Gainesville, less than an hour from my house.  I ended up coming home with a BX23S, a subcompact 21 hp tractor that comes with a hydraulic front loader and a removable backhoe.  It was adorable, and also impressively capable.  It would happily pull a 4 foot rotary cutter (BushHog would be the parlance, like Coke is to soda) and made short work of the pasture.  It’s also like having a strong friend who is unemployed and lives behind your house—need to set four 20 foot treated 6x6 posts in concrete to attach the staircase for the incomplete deck on your wreck of a house?  No problem.  Haul a couple of big cedars to the back of the pasture after you cut them down?  Ditto.  Good for filling raised beds, moving gravel, and the backhoe was actually up to the task of digging holes up to around 4 feet deep, but it turns out this is something that is rarely needed so the backhoe just sat on it’s sponsons by the basement entrance most of the time.  Eventually, I discovered that small tractors have their limits — in this case, lifting a barber-chaired 80 foot poplar off of a gate so I could cut it into piece.  I sold the Kubota and bought a lightly used John Deere 3032 E compact tractor, this one with hydraulic loader and a 5 foot rotary cutter.

Let’s digress a moment, and, for those new to tractors, a brief primer.  Tractors come in a variety of sizes from something that will fit easily in a lawn shed to leviathan 8-wheeled (or even tracked) horizon-obscuring monsters that will do farm stuff to sections of land effortlessly (a section being 640 acres or one square mile).  The little Kubota was in the subcompact class, about the smallest thing that would really be considered a tractor.  These are typically 3 cylinder diesels, which is a pretty common tractor architecture, and, while rated by horsepower (which is important for PTO use) are almost always over-endowed with torque.  Most, if not all at this point, are equipped with hydrostatic transmissions, supremely simple to operate—push one pedal to go forward, push the other on to go back (some have a rocker, but the principle is the same).  Some have 4 wheel drive or a low range or both.  The 3032, at around 31 hp, is quite a bit larger, but still hydrostatic drive.  Both are support systems for robust hydraulic systems which control the front end loader, elevation of rear PTO driven implements, and can have additional functions added as needed, as most are at least somewhat expandable.

Tractors, almost by definition, also have a PTO, or Power Take-Off, a source of many rural emergency room urban legends involving someone being completely flayed or having an important member ripped off.  This is a splined extension of the driveshaft extending from where the tractor’s anus would be. 

(I never thought of it that way — jb)

When in proper operation, it is designed to spin at 540 RPMs.  This will be important later.  Implements are attached to the rear of the tractor on hydraulic arms to control elevation and angle, and frequently powered by the PTO via a driveshaft extension with a universal joint proximally and a clutch, gearbox, etc distally / terminally.  They can legitimately fuck you up and should be respected.  Modern variants do have a lot more safety features that makes sense and don’t really produce any negatives, so I typically do not disable these.

From compact, we get into the weeds a little, typically seeing utility tractors and then the agricultural behemoths.  This is where I found myself earlier this year, having completely retired from medicine in disgust and moving to a 27 acre sort-of farm in northeast Georgia near a nice lake.  The 3032 was a trooper, but it was simply not up to the task of improving this much larger piece of land—I should mention that the rotary cutter is sort of a mainstay of grassland maintenance when you aren’t cutting it for hay or doing something else with the land.  A five foot wide one is about the maximum size you can tug around with the 3032E.  The engine output is 31 hp, but PTO hp out at the end of the line is only 25, and you need about 5hp per foot of whirling blade.  The answer to this equation is a really long time to cut a lot of grass.  There were trees that needed felling and stacking into piles for burning, shit-tons of brush and crappy cedar and the omnipresent Chinese privets (thanks, China).  Bear in mind, eventually, I plan to farm something on this land (not sure what yet), but it’s been neglected and needs a lot of upkeep before it’s ready to till.  

Off to various tractor stores we went (my long suffering wife has learned more than she ever bargained for about such things).  Having had some (ahem) negative experiences with the John Deere mafia down here (AgPro is the only dealer and is somewhat wanting in the ethics department, from my experience) I started cross shopping larger utility tractors.  These come in roughly 10 to 25 hp increments: 50, 60, 75, 100, etc., and each step they get bigger and more capable, but also more complex to operate.  There is not much after 50hp available with hydrostatic transmissions—seems they are just not able to handle that much torque and destructive force, so most are standards or shuttle shift (shift quickly from forward to reverse without using the clutch using a secondary lever).  Anything bigger than this gets you into the true agricultural territory, and, in addition to being very large, they are really spendy.  

I cross shopped Kubota, Kioti, Bobcat, New Holland, and Deutz Fahr in the 75hp range after my neighbor, with a 60hp Kubota, told me he wished he’d gone bigger.  All offered similar features at remarkably similar costs, but the dealer for Bobcat, Kioti and Deutz Fahr was the most pleasant to work with and put together a package deal that was a great value, so I took delivery of the 5080D Deutz Fahr with a 7 foot rotary cutter (BushWhacker, at less than half the cost of a BushHog, so if it shits the bed I can still buy another one without going broke), a 7 foot box blade (a towed implement for scraping and smoothing dirt, gravel, etc—the front end bucket on tractors is for scooping loose stuff and carrying it around, not digging), and, most importantly, a 6 foot Dirt Dog hydraulic grapple which required a third hydraulic function on the front (1-raise and lower the bucket or grapple, 2-tilt bucket or grapple, and 3-open and close the grapple).  This is a true game changer, but we will get to that in a bit.  I say I took delivery because by the time you get this thing and the cutter on a trailer, you are into commercial transportation weights, so don’t plan on towing it around much.  The dealership offered to perform services on site at a reasonable cost, which was also a significant selling point.

The 5080D is advertised as 80 hp, although it’s probably more accurate to put it into the 75hp range.  It’s truly massive compared to the JD, but for perspective, the 110hp version at the dealer made it look like a civic next to an F350.  This is the first tractor I have had with a cab, which comes with AC, a Kenwood stereo and two little speakers, and a bevy of work lights.  It also has 5 mirrors (2 externals on lengthy stalks with attached wide angles below, and a wide angle inside that would be big enough to obscure vision in most cars, but the glass box on this thing is vast), and, weirdly, a nicely upholstered seat for something that is going to be filthy most of the time (I was surprised to see this is the norm, rather than offing a few Naugas).  Sturdy ROPS and a lap belt are there for safety.  It came with a rotating amber beacon on the roof, but this got knocked off pretty quickly driving under trees.

The 5080D comes with a 2.9L inline 3 diesel engine, with gross HP of 80, but rated HP of 75. It produces 252 lb-ft of torque, which doesn’t sound like much, but it has 15 potential gear ratios (three ranges, 5 speeds each, with full range both forward and reverse, so in tractor terminology, 30 gears).  It has a shuttle lever to the left of the steering wheel to allow you to shift from forward to reverse simply by pressing the clutch (old school, a bit of a workout, don’t skip leg day) and flipping it forward or back.  Tractors spend as much time going backwards as forwards in most cases, so having an equitable distribution is handy. 

Supposedly, it will go 25mph in high range, 5th gear.  I haven’t driven it that fast.  Most importantly, it does not require DEF or regeneration, because something something something and also Euro something.  Honestly, every tractor company would probably like California and Europe to just fuck off into the sea so they could get back to building useful shit for the rest of us, but this is a European tractor (German company, at least part of it was built in Italy, as noted on various component stickers) and as such, has to meet some fairly stringent criteria including having a full complement of lights and indicators and rotating amber warning lights and a sticker on the back that indicates it shouldn’t go faster than 35KPH, which is probably a good idea because it’s got essentially no suspension beyond fat tires and some front axle articulation.  It also weighs 6800 lbs before adding 20 gallons of diesel, 25 gallons of water and antifreeze in each rear tire, and 200 pounds of cast iron to the rear axle, with an 83 inch wheelbase and a cab high enough to require two steps, so dynamic she is not.  That said, it’s not as spooky to drive along a grade or hillside as the smaller ones were, and, with a little practice, is quite agile.  This isn’t very important with the mundane task of dragging the cutter around and around and around for hours (although this is where AC and a stereo are truly wonderful), but getting down into the low areas to pluck 500lb boulders out of the stream, into the hilly woods to pull out truly impressive piles of brush and tree trunks, or edging up the previous barbed-wire fence line (now denuded) to pluck out about 160 T posts (cast iron metal fence posts with a 5 inch blade across the bottom, driven 18-20 inches into the ground…10 years ago).  Using the front loader and grapple changes the center of gravity quickly, especially when lifting something heavy or when a fence post gives way abruptly, so moving slowly and deliberately is the key.

It’s a lot of work, and not rewarding in the same way as getting better at driving the Corvette which got sold to pay for it or even riding my SuperDuke, but it is rewarding.  Mastering this much mass, 15 gears, unlinked brakes, 4 hydraulic functions, and a PTO in a package this big is truly enjoyable, and honing that ability to be able to grab a 1 inch wide cast-iron fence post with the grapple and pull it out of the ground, and do so repeatedly, is not unlike finding that perfect line through a corner at maximum speed on a curvy mountain road, the V8 roaring, tires strangely quiet just at the limit of their adhesion…nah, it’s nothing like that at all, but it’s cool, nevertheless.

The PTO system took some practice to get right.  With a hydrostatic transmission, you just turn on the PTO, and then increase the engine RPMs until the PTO RPM is at 540, the optimum work speed.  Then you just push the pedal, and, depending on how far you push it you go faster or slower.  With a multi-speed manual transmission like this, you have to rev the RPM up to get the PTO to 540 (in this case, engine RPM is 1900 or so) and then choose a gear ratio that will give you a proper work speed (for the rotary cutter, that turns out to be low range—not crawl, which is even lower—4th gear, which gives you 3.2-3.4mph, which, in turn, cuts 2 foot grass to 5 inch grass with a nice clean cut 7 feet wide and does not necessitate a second pass).  So, math and stuff, but it becomes habit with minimal repetition.

The grapple, with some practice, is one of the most useful items I have run across.  Just be sure that whatever you are picking up isn’t something nice that you want to preserve, because it will crush the shit out of it.  It easily will stack and then pick up an entire tree with a 12 inch trunk (you will want to reduce it to 15 foot length or thereabouts, lest you take out a fence or gate while moving it, and vision suffers, obviously, with a huge tree in front of you).  It takes about 7-10 minute to change front implements from grapple to bucket and back again, and, like most modern tractors this size, it uses Skid Steer mounting for the buckets, so you don’t have to be loyal to any particular brand.  Implements are going to take a ferocious beating, so spending a ton of money on something really nice is not the most prudent path.  Front implement control is via a right handed joystick, adjustable for reach.  Forward and back control the arms, left and right the attitude of the implement, and left and right while depressing the correct trigger with the index finger controls, in this case, the jaws.  It has the capability to add a 4th function on the front, so maybe if I add a belt fed weapon to the terrifying jaws I can actuate it hydraulically, I don’t know.

The rear hydraulic system is currently set up to simply raise and lower an implement to the correct working height, and to adjust its angle to ensure it is level or not level, as desired.  There are three more possible hydraulic functions available, for more complex stuff like hay balers and the like.  I’ve not explored this capability yet, but the future is nebulous in this case—not sure I need one, and they cost as much or more than an actual tractor.

What does the future hold?  A hydraulic rotary tiller for sure, and likely a harrow (like a plow, but for shallow work), pallet forks for the front, and, should the need arise, a hydraulic auger for the front as well (easier to see than the more traditional PTO driven rear auger, and you can reverse it if it gets hung on roots or the neighbors internet cable or whatever).  Gateway drug, no doubt.

In summary, through roughly 5 months of ownership, I’ve found this tractor to be supremely useful and versatile.  It has about 70 hours on it now, and remains undefeated; every task asked of it has been completed without evidence of sweat or drama.  It’s massively more powerful than the JD, is painted in a pleasing green color with nicely contrasting grey wheels. It’s comfortable as long as you aren’t too noise sensitive. With some practice, it’s easy to operate.  It gets reasonably  good mileage, has required no maintenance so far (first maintenance at 100 hours), and requires no special diesel management fluids or regeneration (a pain in the ass for tractors, which must be run at constant engine speed periodically to burn out diesel  particulates, and it decides when you need to do this, typically at a really inconvenient point and it can take an hour or more).  The AC struggles in 100 degree weather, likely because it’s small, designed for Europe, where it’s cooler, and also because the sheer square footage of the aquarium you are in.  Tint would be a good idea.  The Kenwood stereo is merely adequate, but for something this utilitarian, Mark Levinson would probably be overkill (although when you get to the upper tier combine harvesters, some over $1M, it gets pretty lush in there).  The biggest con would be the traditional clutch, which will wear out and require replacement—a clutchless shuttle would be  nice to have.

Overall, it’s a great ride, and a pretty reasonable value, and probably more useful for farm chores than a Grand Sport.

Price as tested (including delivery, 7 foot rotary cutter, 7 foot box blade, 6 foot hydraulic grapple): $63,000.