So John Deere has introduced an automated range change for the 6M — well, whoop-dedoo you might say. Stick with us, though. This transmission development is actually rather interesting.
We don’t usually give up page space to solely chat about a new gear selection system. But our justification is simple. John Deere is currently the UK market leader by some margin, and the 6M is responsible for a sizeable chunk of those sales. So it follows that there’ll be plenty of folk who will want to know more about CommandQuad Plus. What’s that? John Deere has come up with a new transmission option and not made a marketing meal of it? In a nutshell, yes. We did give it a mention in our Agritechnica 2015 report, but it then sort of disappeared without any real fanfare.
So, we took the first CommandQuad Plus-equipped tractor to be sold in Ireland, a 6155M, for a spin..
Mechanically, CQ Plus sports the same five or six ranges and four powershift set-up as on the PowrQuad introduced in 1992 on the 6000 series. But, like its competitors, it now gains a solenoid to switch ranges rather than having to manually move a lever in the cab. The ‘new’ transmission is only available on the 6M range and not on the higher spec 6R where you would have to opt for DirectDrive (see profi 01/2013) to enjoy a similar non-gear lever tussle, driving experience. In the cab, operators get a neat little pod with four buttons and an AutoPowr-style stick with a thumb wheel. Lastly, in a nod to the 1990s, Deere has retained a big lever for engaging the park gear.
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