CAT 420D barely crawls up the hills

420 have past the weight of a Cat 436. The horsepower of 85 to weight 8 tons could be making it feel gut less sounds like it was cared for. Common to have to shift don't think about doing it while shuttling dirt, 420f I was on 17000lbs & bump in power still fall on it face on inclines.

Good point. I had thought about moving up to a heavier unit with 100+ hp, but was concerned that it might be too heavy for my pastures, etc. on the farm. I have a 115 hp tractor for most of my farm work and even it is challenged on these Ozark hills when pulling a load.

Deere500a said: 420 have past the weight of a Cat 436. The horsepower of 85 to weight 8 tons could be making it feel gut less sounds like it was cared for. Common to have to shift don't think about doing it while shuttling dirt, 420f I was on 17000lbs & bump in power still fall on it face on inclines. Click to expand... I've thought a lot about your comment and do think the relatively low HP is hurting me on my hilly ground in the Ozarks. My main tractor is a 115 HP AWD (~5 ton) and it strains hard to pull a 15' Bushhog up these hills with any speed at all. If I ever trade up, I'll be moving up to a 100 HP machine or better! I really appreciate your help.

Past company,boss had a big new Cat 450 rental hoe 200hrs dropped off at his ranch to use & from there I had to drive it out to the site 20mi/32km boy that hoe was a heavy dog 29k lbs with 130hp same 4.4L engine as 420f. The 450 in 4th/3rd was working the whole way going down the road having stop once water temp pegged out start of small hill 1st was it, slow crawl.4spd doesn't help on hills 1&2 work jump to 3&4 road speed need a 2 speed rear end like the old old John Deere hoes were industrial farm tractors with twin stick high/low+4spd or 500A was a 8 speed power shift. 420D is a fine digger just roading with new hoes is not great.

koenigs53 said: To all, I replaced the fuel filter today and it made a huge difference. I'm not certain that I've resolved all of the problem associated with lack of power under load, but it went a long way toward bringing the ground speed back up to about what i believe should be normal. Thanks to all. P.S. It solved one problem, but raised another, which I might start in a new thread if i can't figure it out. Thanks, again. This forum feedback has been quite helpful. Click to expand... Don’t forget to replace the fuel pick up tube filter.