# John Deere 1025r Issues!



## neblawncare23 (Feb 5, 2015)

So I just bought my 1025r this winter and have approximately 65 hours on machine now.
45 of the hours are on the 52 inch sweeper and 20 hours are on the snow blower. This past week while using snow blower, I could start feeling a vibration, it keep getting worse and worse, shaking the whole tractor. So I go to my local deere dealer, and the driveshaft the goes from mid mount PTO to the snow blower had a bearing going out, in the knuckle right before it connects to front PTO.
After doing some research on internet, it appears this is happening a lot, almost every 50 hours of operation. Any one else a having these issues? And is there something that can be done so this don't keep happening?
Mark O, are you having these problems on your 1025r's?


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## Triple L (Nov 1, 2005)

Too much grease..... Left in the grease gun....

I spray the bearings with fluid film all the time... Usually get 200 hrs out of a bearing... They are only $10 may as well replace bi annually


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## rick W (Dec 17, 2015)

I know we now live in a disposable world but its always so disappointing to see what garbage manufactures hand us as "commercial" or "heavy duty" but its just race to the bottom..who sell us the dream and hands us a lemon...but we just take it.

My 6 month old 80K truck is showing serious rust on the chrome bumper. Just garbage. My 66 mustang bumper looked like new when i sold it a few years ago. Progress...my ass. Everything is built so crappy now.

You telling me JD or their offshore sub factory really cant use a bearing that has a life of +200 hours? That is shameful.


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## neblawncare23 (Feb 5, 2015)

I grease my entire machine after every snow event. Usually takes 10 hours to get over all my accounts. So machine is greased every 10 hours!


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## John_DeereGreen (Jan 2, 2011)

We've got over 100 hours on our broom alone and haven't had any driveline issues. And it's defiantly not greased that frequently.


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## Mr.Markus (Jan 7, 2010)

Wait, is it the bearing or the u joint knuckle you’re referring to, or both?


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## John_DeereGreen (Jan 2, 2011)

Reading his post it appears to be the u joint just behind the carrier bearing is failing.


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## SDLandscapes VT (Dec 17, 2008)

Running it in the full up position?

We have over 100 hours each on two new blowers and have had issues but not this one


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## Triple L (Nov 1, 2005)

rick W said:


> I know we now live in a disposable world but its always so disappointing to see what garbage manufactures hand us as "commercial" or "heavy duty" but its just race to the bottom..who sell us the dream and hands us a lemon...but we just take it.
> 
> My 6 month old 80K truck is showing serious rust on the chrome bumper. Just garbage. My 66 mustang bumper looked like new when i sold it a few years ago. Progress...my ass. Everything is built so crappy now.
> 
> You telling me JD or their offshore sub factory really cant use a bearing that has a life of +200 hours? That is shameful.


I agree with this but a 1 series compact from Deere is far from commercial and has never been advertised as such, it's estate / homeowner use at best but that being said I am very happy with myn


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## John_DeereGreen (Jan 2, 2011)

Triple L said:


> I agree with this but a 1 series compact from Deere is far from commercial and has never been advertised as such, it's estate / homeowner use at best but that being said I am very happy with myn


Agreed. They aren't meant for heavy duty commercial use like we're doing. 6-8-10 hours of nearly constant brooming or blowing probably isn't what the engineers had in mind.

I bet some of us put more hours on these tractors in a week or two of decent winter than most buyers put on them in a year.


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## SDLandscapes VT (Dec 17, 2008)

I disagree the tractors are well done it's the attachments that are homeowner


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## Triple L (Nov 1, 2005)

SDLandscapes VT said:


> I disagree the tractors are well done it's the attachments that are homeowner


The attachment system is the same that's been around since the 90's so I can imagine at that time it was engineered for residential use and they just decided to keep going with it


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## Mark Oomkes (Dec 10, 2000)

We've replaced 1 but it had well over 200 hours on it...possibly closer to 400, I can't remember. 

50 hours is BS. Unfortunately ours don't get greased that often either.


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## neblawncare23 (Feb 5, 2015)

Sorry, it is the knuckle right behind the carrier bearing. It started vibrating so hard that I dropped the drive shaft nearly to the ground! And made the short PTO shaft to blower come apart! When it dropped the drive shaft the carrier bearing of course moved.


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## neblawncare23 (Feb 5, 2015)

Why cant someone make equipment like this, that will stand up to commercial use?!


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## Aerospace Eng (Mar 3, 2015)

neblawncare23 said:


> Why cant someone make equipment like this, that will stand up to commercial use?!


They do, but are you willing to spend the $70K or so it takes to get it?


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## Triple L (Nov 1, 2005)

The cheapest commercial duty machine in this size would be a Wacker wl38 with loader arm delete and front plow quick hitch, decent road speed, and hp but still every penny of 75k Canadian... From there is goes into trackless mt and holder machines at 150k+ and trust me they might even break down more then the 1025r


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## DeVries (Nov 27, 2007)

Is there no way to get an aftermarket bearing that has a better build quality?
I know we have done this with belts on some summer equipment.


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## neblawncare23 (Feb 5, 2015)

I would like to know that answer, let me know if there is!


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## DeVries (Nov 27, 2007)

Take the part in to a supplier that carries that sort of thing and see if they can match, most times its possible


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## neblawncare23 (Feb 5, 2015)

You would have to take the whole drive shaft in im guessing?


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## Aerospace Eng (Mar 3, 2015)

I'm not familiar with the 1025r. However, before I simply blamed the bearing, I would take a mental step back and figure out where the load is coming from. Calculation of bearing life is complicated, but even a "better" bearing won't last long if there is a fundamental problem like a slightly bent shaft, or one out of balance, or if the angles are slightly wrong.

It sounds like this is the front universal joint on the pto driveshaft? A universal joint should only ever see torque. What other bearings are there on the driveshaft? 

As an aside, on my small Kubota GR2110, there aren't any intermediate bearings. Just a universal at the transmission and one at the blower or mower, depending on what you have installed. 500 hours (over 10 years use at my house, so "homeowner" usage pattern), no problems.


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## MIDTOWNPC (Feb 17, 2007)

I just went and checked mine. Seems they forgot to even install the pto on mine. Good thing all we use is the plow. Dealer is going to bring us the back ordered pto in couple days. Perhaps there is a reason it was back ordered.


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## neblawncare23 (Feb 5, 2015)

Its not the bearing that's causing the trouble its the knuckle right behind the bearing where the shaft angles up to go trough bearing.
My dealer also told me the front PTO and bearing is back ordered as well. They are replacing that plus the entire mid mount drive shaft on mine.


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## Aerospace Eng (Mar 3, 2015)

Can you post a diagram or picture of the PTO driveline?


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## wishfull (Nov 22, 2017)

We have been running 52" brooms commercially for 8 years or more sweeping snow, cleaning small parking lots in spring and spring and fall yard clean ups. We have run them on a X595 JD and X748 JD's with the same h.p. as a 1series JD. Wore one broom completely out (gear box finally blew) but have never had a drive shaft bearing or knuckle problem. Are you 100% sure the drive shaft is not bent and is running true? Running with the broom lifted too high or using in too deep of snow will raise holy "h" with the drive system. Have had to kick operators butt more than once about that.


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## JohnDeere2320 (Dec 12, 2009)

We used a 2320 for about 6 years with the 54" front mount snow blower. The only problem we had with it in about 700 hours of snow use was we discovered the chain drive on the snow blower to be a high maintenance item. Once we discovered that chain tension should be checked and the chain greased after every event, we had good luck, and replaced the chain and sprockets every 75-100 hours. So keep an eye on the chain drive if they still use that system.

As to your problem, if by "knuckle" you mean the universal joint, I'm guessing as others pointed out you may be running it with the blower lifted too high. When lifted more than 4 inches off the ground with the pto on, it started making a nasty noise and started vibrating. It would get progressively worse the higher it was lifted. It was effectively putting more of an angle on the U joint than it was designed for which can kill the joint in short order and well as the 2 bearings. We never had a problem with the bearings or U joints, but were always careful not to lift it more than a few inches with blower engaged. 

I have no clue why Deere would not design the blower to be lifted fully while it was engaged. The new 3039R we replaced it with has the 59" blower and can be lifted fully with the blower engaged.


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## SDLandscapes VT (Dec 17, 2008)

mine just went last week and they did it under warranty--makes quite a racket. ~130 hours


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