FARM CLASSICS with Peter O'Brien
RELEASED in 1992, the Mannheim built 6000 series tractors placed John Deere firmly on the map and into the top five European market leaders. However, John Deere were striving for market dominancy and the arrival of the 6010 or 10 series tractors certainly sealed the deal.
Building on the success of full frame design of its predecessors, the 10 series was released at the Agritechnica machinery show in Germany, 1997 and brought a greater refinement in terms of comfort, power, electronics and automation. The six-cylinder line-up consisted of four models: 6510, 6610,6810 and the range topping 6910.
The TechCentre cab is similar but far from identical to the 6000 series. The red handled black over brown trim, dating back to the 40 and 50 type models, was replaced by the orange handled brown over beige colour scheme. This brighter cab featured a newly designed right hand console with master panel for lighting controls, ventilation as well as HMS (headland management system) setup.
A quieter cab with improved air conditioning, a suspended passenger seat was also on the options list.
The fully adjustable Gen 2 dash console also featured anti-glare, scratch free glass.
On the transmission side, the gear lever console is far less cluttered with three levers being reduced to one through PowrQuad Plus and AutoQuad transmissions. With these gearbox options, the shuttle lever was permanently relocated to the left of the steering wheel, while the Quad lever was converted to a button shift on the top of the main gear stick.
AutoQuad provides automatic speed-matching changes based on engine load and rpm of the four ranges in each gear of the 20X20 transmission, as well as cruise control. Furthermore, a rocker switch for the four ranges was also added in front of the linkage controls for extra flexibility. Later models could also be specified with a 50kph and air brakes option.
Triple Link Suspension (TLS) was introduced on this series, using hydraulic accumulators to provide front axle suspension with 100mm of travel.
John Deere’s newly introduced HMS system allows for the operator to pre-set the automatic engagement/disengagement of the 4WD, PTO as well as differential lock when turning on headlands. The perfect mix of electronics, power and comfort, coupled with excellent reliability, the 6910 was, and continues to be a hugely popular tractor with outstanding resale values – the only major issue is John Deere no longer makes them.
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VITAL STATISTICS
Tractor
John Deere 6910
Horsepower
135hp/140hp
Engine
PowerTech 6.8l
Years of manufacture
1998-2003
