JCB 525-50 farm special

rodders

Well-Known Member
Going to look at a 525-50 farm special tele handler later in the week, anyone on here got one? What are they like? Thanks.
 
Yeah that’s right.
Nice handy loader, check engine mounting area for cracks, it’s a major job to repair these if they’re bad. Engine is bulletproof unless they’re run without antifreeze, then the timing case can rot out from the inside mixing oil and water. Haven’t had to repair any other areas, missed out buying one a while back for handy money. Have you a link to it for pictures?
 
Farmer Phil on YouTube has one but it rattles and shakes quite a lot!

Nice compact loader though.
 
Know a lad who was interested in one but after seeing it he walked away. Said it would be a killer getting in and out of it.
 
I used to drive one on the roads,it all ended in tears when I hit a raised manhole,put my head through the windscreen and snapped the transmission from its mounts.
Hateful things to get in and out of.
 
Maybe I'm wrong but did @BasilSeal have one at one stage?
Well i've got bits of one...

JCB were initially intending to make a tier 4 version of the 520 / 525 50 and stripped the running gear out of a couple to use as test subjects to work out how they were going to fit the tier 4 engine into the chassis, this loadall has the L shaped boom that pivots at either side behind the cab, i think they were going to have to make is a mono boom machine like a standard loadall to fit the tier 4 engine in, they got as far as working out the design drawings for how to do this. The project got shelved when they closed the Cecily Mills factory in Cheadle. I managed to buy the stripped out running gear from the butchered machines via someone i knew in the factory and i was tipped off that the machines with the missing running gear were going in the auction, so i figured i'd buy the machine and build myself a 520 50 with the bits i already had.

Now you'd think the machine would have been worth more to me than anyone else but it didn't go down like that, some dipshit on the internet bid me up to eight and a half K. and my mate had just bought a complete machine up and running for ten and a half k, so i was buggered if i was going any more for one with the guts ripped out of it, even if i'd got the parts.

I was later told by the guys at the sale ground that the buyer turned up not realising he'd bought a machine with no running gear, and not just no engine, i mean no engine, gearbox, cooling packs, props, valve block, even the steering orbital was off it. he actually tried to sue the auctioneer for stitching him up but they just showed his solicitor the photos on their auction site, there was a photo of the engine bay where you could see the grass under the machine, and not much else.

Anyway, i bought some more bits when they had the closing sale at the cecily factory, and i've sort of got half the machine in kit form, i'm thinking one day i'll drop on a burnt out one, or one that wants a rebuild, i've got a new chassis and a new cab and most of the running gear, so i'm half way there,

The machine itself is a pretty bomb proof compact loadall, you've got the simple perkins engine and the chassis and boom are a strong and robust design/ some people don't like the design of the cab where you have to climb up over the wheel to get in, but that's a matter of taste, once you're in it's all simple and easy to use, you've got proper axels, proper gear box and everything can be fixed and serviced in a decent farm workshop.

they replaced it with the 525 60, which is a real turkey. when they first made them they were breaking down before they got them off the production line. everything is ECU controlled and fly by wire, and they were getting water ingress in the wiring looms because the guys in India making the looms weren't using the correct crimp tools.

It was designed to 'have the DNA of the larger loadalls', which is bullshit speak for they wanted it to look like a larger loadall that had shrunk in the wash, which it does. But because they were copying the big loadalls they put the big Q fit headstock on it, (anyone familiar with JCB machines will realise they have a baffling range of different quick hitch designs) then they realised that they needed to put larger wheels on it so it would follow the ruts left by a tractor, then they realised that most of the customers were replacing machines that had the mini tool carrier type brackets, and would likely spec it with a mini tool carrier headstock so all their existing attachments would fit, then they realised that when you put the mini tool carrier headstock on these, the attachment has to be crowded down to reach the floor because when your bucket's level the toe plate is 4" off the floor.

The 525 50 and 520 50 were good machines, look for wear in the headstocks and axels, but overall they're a simple machine, they work, you can fix them, you wouldn't want to keep any of the current models once the warranty had expired, i'd take one of these older machines any day.
 
Is there a difference between the 520-40 and 520-50 in the cabs, I was just looking at them on done deal and the on the 50 you seem to have to climb in over a step
 
Is there a difference between the 520-40 and 520-50 in the cabs, I was just looking at them on done deal and the on the 50 you seem to have to climb in over a step
the 520 40 is hydrostatic, it's quite a different machine, because it's on wheel motors rather than axles the access to the cab is more direct. it's straight off the floor you don't have to clamber over the wheel.
 
the 520 40 is hydrostatic, it's quite a different machine, because it's on wheel motors rather than axles the access to the cab is more direct. it's straight off the floor you don't have to clamber over the wheel.
Whats d hydrostatic like for traction?
 
Whats d hydrostatic like for traction?
The machine i've got is equivalent to the 515 mini loadall that's the next one down from the 520 40, it's actually the prototype machine for the 515 but it's essentially the same as a 515 but with a few odd prototype parts on it. that's hydro and it's fine in terms of traction, in fact it's amazing how much push it's got for a small machine.

what i'll say about the smaller machines is they'll do the same job that the 520 50 will do in terms of design, but they're no quite so robust, i think they're really better used in conjunction with a bigger machine for the bigger jobs, they'll do the bigger jobs but if you're using them like this all the time expect to be doing a fair bit of maintenance. the trunnion bearings and steering links are weak spots on the 515, and a friend of mine had a lot of trouble with the pump coupling on his 520 40 but not sure if that's a common problem or if he was just unlucky. and of course the parts are monstrous money.
 
Going to look at a 525-50 farm special tele handler later in the week, anyone on here got one? What are they like? Thanks.
nice tidy loaders. but unfortunately like everything else they all have their problems. been working on a few over last few yrs seen them have bad valves for steering alignment, constant pumping, engine mount cracks just keep an eye on them small things . good build quality all round. very similar to the jcb 2cx in terms of 4 wheel steering and 2cx is way easier to get into!
 
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