fendt

Any advantages one over the other?

With the ZF the range changes are done automatically so there are four parts with full mechanical drive which is more efficient. Downside is if the tractor is working at a speed where it is constantly flicking between two clutch packs you get increased wear.

On the Fendt you need to manually select between the two ranges (road/field) and it uses hydro and hydro/mechanical drive over a wider speed range so not as efficient. It is beautifully simple from a mechanical point of view. I think the AGCO video actually over complicates it.

This is why the likes of Deere and Case always argued for big horsepower tractors a poweshift is more efficient as there are less power losses than the Fendt Vario.
 
I think the Fendt Vario is a mechanical drive controlled Hydraulically and is not a Hydrostatic drive where oil is doing the driving . A lot of people think there is power loss in a vario and there is but it is not in the drive itself but in the control hydraulic system .
 
I was told that the vario actually locks up at I think 50k or near; so if you have the power to hold it there you get the efficiency; but if your hauling heavy and haven't the power, once you drop off 50k you'll notice she can stay dropping.

I remember passing a fella with lights like an airport but I cruised by at 1700 rpm at 50k and this was up a slight incline coming into Birr, with the L70c and tree spade on the Lowloader.

Any more of a hill and she'd drop to 30k; there's a few hills near home, that really tested her.

The four speed zf unit is more efficient, but as said if your doing something that has it constantly changing at a certain speed, this can cause wear but also variation in speeds.

I'd love to drive a NH equivalent.
 
I think the Fendt Vario is a mechanical drive controlled Hydraulically and is not a Hydrostatic drive where oil is doing the driving . A lot of people think there is power loss in a vario and there is but it is not in the drive itself but in the control hydraulic system .
You are right to a point, the hydrostatic controls the speed of the mechanical parts but at certain speeds the hydraulic input is very high and can be 100% on a fendt I think. Where as the Steyr one never has more than 30% hydraulic input and there's 4 points between 0-50 where there is no hydro input, as in the hydro motor is more or less stationary.
 
This doesn't look like bad value unless the Vario is goosed :scratchhead:

https://www.donedeal.ie/tractors-for-sale/2002-fendt-412-s-n-14077-2/23234919

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But saying they won't service them or provide parts is abit rich. I see olf on YouTube had a hydro problem on a 8530 he imported from the uk and john deere paid for half.

It’s a small world and parts can be got from any country,personally I’d vote with my feet if a manufacturer wouldn’t supply parts.
 
Export of used tractors from Europe to NA. I know of one farmer in Canada who bought a couple of Fendts from Parris.

Just a case of covering their arse if there is an accident involving a tractor not meeting the local market safety standards.
Theres a couple of lads from holland i think that specialise in importing tractors to d usa. D speed thing i can understand as any equipment iv used had no brakes at all. Everything was left to tractor brakes i always thought it was silly but surely they could be plugged in and pull down top speed
 
It would be much more practical if AGCO supplied a kit to modify the tractor to the local market. Jcb do this with an emissions strip off kit for certain markets not Stage IV for instance
 
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