A NIFTY MACHINE
THE ONE THING YOU NEED IN A SKIDDER IS
plenty of power when you have a heavy drag on the back.
There’s power aplenty in the new John Deere 684L-II, but you do need to be careful how and where you use it.
I was probably a bit accelerator-happy on my first drive down the track and soon had the wheels spinning in very soft ground and going nowhere. A bit more circumspection and earlier use of the lockers might have provided a better outcome. Lesson learned.
Once I got used to how the power is delivered and the ground conditions became drier, everything stepped up a level. It takes a while to get accustomed to the way a CVT works, but I really got to enjoy it as the test progressed.
On a good flat track this thing will get up and go. Even on this relatively short extraction track you could see the potential.
First impressions on getting into the cab is that the headroom is a little limited, knocked my head a couple of times. But once you are seated there is ample room. The seat is excellent, swivelling around on both sides – first time I’ve seen that – and everything is at your fingertips, either on the joysticks or adjacent panel on the right, which goes with you when you turn the seat. I prefer that to having certain functions on a stationary dash. There is no dash in the 648L-II, just a screen that you only go into to change things around or check on how it’s all working.
When swivelling the seat you need to activate the forward/reverse switch on your left joystick to make sure the steering is the same. And when underway, I do like how the JD steers it feels direct and responsive, not overly – so it’s very controllable.
Vision is mostly good, although approaching the stems in reverse requires caution as it is still not easy to see through the arch and crane. The grapple clamps firmly onto the wood and never felt like it was going to lose them. You have to hit the close button and the auto hold at the same time, whereas others I’ve driven have just an auto hold. But it works well enough once you get used to it.
The crane lifts the butts nice and high, and I used that to help ‘suck’ everything in on the greasy uphill rises. The diff lock switches are on the right, at your fingertips again. Hit to activate and it brings in everything, hit again to deactivate. You can lock the front and rear diffs individually, too. Didn’t use any of the
gears. Just left the CVT to change itself as I wanted to concentrate on steering.
I only used the blade at the end of the test to nudge the stems into place, the control is on the right, by the joystick, next to the one for the winch. It blades well, very controllable.
Very impressed with the quietness, hardly heard the engine, only the distinctive whirr from the CVT. Interestingly, there’s no key to start the machine, just click the button on the side panel once and then press it again to start. Then a button to turn the hydraulics on. At day’s end, just remember to kill everything with the master switch by the battery. On cold mornings you’ll also want to use the heated seat. Then you’re set for a nice comfortable day’s work.