According to Deere research, European contractors want a lightweight, high-hp tractor — something like the Case IH Puma 240, Fendt 828, New Holland T7.270 … So to get in on this act the Mannheim engineers have come up with the ‘lightweight, high-hp’ John Deere 6230R and 6250R

It would be unfair to the engineering team to say the 6230R and 6250R are just beefed-up versions of the 6215R. But essentially that’s what you get. Well, sort of. The front axle outboard suspension has more in common with the 7R’s, and the air intake now resides by the cab pillar, this vacating more room under the bonnet for extra cooling for the 6.8-litre PSS twin turbo motor. There’s also a reinforced crank along with extra cooling in the liners and cylinder head — again, similar to the 7R.

Being AutoPowr-only, the new 6R models move to a ZF Eccom 2.9 (the 6215R AP uses a 2.4), which has led to the chassis being stretched by 100mm. This, in turn, brings a number of space-related changes. For example, as the right-hand door is rarely used on this size of tractor there are steeper cab steps, which creates enough room for a full-sized toolbox. If nothing else, Deere deserves a bit of a pat on the back just for this.

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