JD 4720 pull type forage chopper.

[JDseller]

Any of you guys been around one??? They only made them a few years. They where to be the next big pull type. Then JD decided that the market was going to self propelled choppers and dropped the JD 4720. I had never seen one in person until yesterday. I have a guy wanting to trade me one in on a tractor I have for sale. The numbers will work for me if the chopper is in good shape.

I could not find many on line for sale so I am kind of having to use JD 3970 prices on the value. It really looks a lot bigger than the JD 3960-70s. Was wondering if they did have that much more capacity.

 

[NW MO Poppers]

Here's one online
4720

 

[NW MO Poppers]

Never heard of one until today. Sounds like it was a white elephant from Deere, too big for it's own good. Looks like a beast from the online pictures I found! Cant imagine a 4 row head on a pull type machine!

 

[rrlund]

The feed throat doesn't look any wider than my CaseIH 881.

 

[Cooney Minnie]

What I know of the 4720...

It's a pull type with a self propelled cutting unit... a good guess would be the cutterhead, etc of the 5720/5730 models.

The story as I heard from someone who owned one and then worked for a dealer... these were made to fill the big pull type market, which in the early 80's dried up very fast. NH had a similar unit, I believe a 1600?

Anyhow, Deere made a pilot run, most of which were marketed in WI. A college freind of mine from NY told me his father had ordered one, but never got it as production was cancelled after the pilot run.

I think production was between 50 and 200 units, probably on the low end.

The four row corn head was one that also fit self propelled of the day. I have seen them for sale with 3 row heads and the 7 ft pickup.

I do have a parts book we printed out of the computer. I can't recall if I got it online, or off a parts CD.

Those parts common with self propelleds will be very easy to obtain, other stuff may be ver hard to find.

Where is the chopper located? Don't worry, I'm not interested. However it is a neat part of Deere history, and not a part that many people are interested in.

 

[RodinNS]

I've never been around one or even seen one... I just remember looking at it's specs in one of the long green line books back in the day. IIRC, it's a LOT more chopper than a 70. Something like 4" more head than the 70 and a HP requirement somewhere over 200.... mabey 250 with NO upper limit.
I would think the market for such a beast might be quite limited and thus a fairly cheap harvester...

Rod

 

[JDseller]

It is in north-west Iowa. He is looking at a JD 4450 I have. He bought the JD 4720 new. He has the four row narrow and a seven foot hay head. He says it has cut less than 500 acres in its life. He did not have cattle a number of years in the 1990s. It is in real good shape. Paint is not even worn off the heads. I am kind of thinking of keeping it myself. Brother has a JD 4960 to run it with.

 

[Cooney Minnie]

It would be a very cool collector's item someday, that's for sure!

 

[ihman73]

Looks like it was made to compete with the 1600 NH which also had a short sales life. I never could figure out why a 4 row pull type would be desired over a self propelled other than not wanting another engine and drivetrain to maintain.

 

[Cooney Minnie]

There are many advantages of pull type over self propelled:

1) Lower cost.
2) Easier to maintain, as parts are much more accessable... especially true in 80's vintage machines. Working on self propelleds, especially older ones, usually rerquires wiggling under the cab or some other equally inconvienient location.
3) Flexibility... if something happens with tractor, find a different one to hook to the front.
4) In the days of pulling wagons behind a chopper, believe it or not, the pull type is a lot less likely to jack knife on a steep hillside. Four wheel drive on the self propelled helps a lot with this, but is still not as good as a pull type with a good sized tractor on the front.

That being said, a selfpropelled can open fields while knocking a lot less down, and offers better visibility with wide corn heads. Chopping into a truck negates the whole jack knifing thing.

Both these big choppers hit the market in the mid 80's, not a good time in agriculture in America. The self propelled offering was also VERY popular in Europe, and still is. It was marketable on 2 or more continents, the pull type only one.

 

[RodinNS]

Far, far lower cost for someone who already had a big power plant (probably sitting doing nothing at that time of year) to run it. It's probably not as productive as the SP unit... but when you chop the capital outlay in half or mabey more for the same capacity... it makes a number that's hard to argue with.

Rod

 

[RodinNS]

Far, far lower cost for someone who already had a big power plant (probably sitting doing nothing at that time of year) to run it. It's probably not as productive as the SP unit... but when you chop the capital outlay in half or mabey more for the same capacity... it makes a number that's hard to argue with.

Rod