Valtra B900 Tractor Test - Basic necessities

Date: 31.08.2005

Valtra’s B900 is designed to be a simple tractor that anybody can jump on and use, writes Terry Stevenson

Valtra is a brand synonymous with quality and durability, so it’s no surprise to find a farmer now on to his second Valtra in 15 years. Kevin Hickey is a contractor who also runs a 51ha bull farm at Maihiihi, near Otorohanga. Hickey bought his current farm in 1970 after sharemilking with his father, before getting into cultivation and pasture renovation in the late 1970s to early ’80s. After years rearing around 200 calves with the aid of a farm worker, he now finds it easier to look after the farm himself and buy yearlings in, which dovetails better with his contract work. Down to 60 heads over winter, Hickey said he will buy additional yearlings in spring to total around 100 over the summer months, before selling off the rising two year olds. Much of Hickey’s contract work is ground cultivation, although he started out in the 1960s at the age of 12 doing the usual hay and silage. The same with any farm, most of his old machinery is still on "shed display", and is used less and less as each year passes. It’s a different story with Hickey’s newer gear, though, which is neatly positioned in a dedicated shed, in a clean state, with easy access. Twelve months old with almost 300 hours on the clock, the Valtra B900 is the newest farm addition, replacing a 10,000-hour 1982 Valtra 6610. With a production pedigree of small- to mid-sized tractors in Brazil spanning 25 years, Valtra has kept the B900 price down, and the quality up. So why did Hickey choose the B900? "It was a basic tractor. Price was involved – but it was basic. It didn’t have any electronics, it just had a hunk of steel to put this in and a hunk of steel to pull that out. I think the only two solenoids on the tractor are one for the service on the front of your loader, and one for your fuel cut off." Hickey is a firm believer that a farm tractor shouldn’t have a cab, although he did admit to driving around recently in one of his cab tractors with the heater on! Another feature he likes is that it is easy to get on and off, and has plenty of room. The B900s square-look bonnet has sufficient drop at the front to offer good visibility for loader work. The roof extends further forward than most ROPS tractors and comes standard with a pipe frame right around the canopy. The extra length of the roof limits loader visibility, however does offer better weather protection. Take your pick. The twin-pipe ROPS protection bars are over-engineered to offer extra protection in the event of a rollover. The exhaust stack is quite a bit higher than the roof, keeping noise and fumes away from the work area. The first thing you notice when sitting in the driver’s seat is the lack of controls. It looks sparse because the 3455kg B900 is designed to be a simple tractor that anybody can jump on and use. It has a flat floor with rubber matting, basic analogue instruments, two-speed PTO with a manual PTO lever – which Hickey says gives better feel than the soft start unit on his 6850. The turbocharged 4.4-litre powerplant is cradled by a heavy cast steel "H" fabricated frame, which also forms the fuel tank. Which leads me to perhaps the main point of difference on the Valtra B900. The four-cylinder 90hp engine will happily rev out to 2400rpm, but the Sisudiesel’s forte is its capacity to hold its revs in the lower end of the rev range, thanks to the long 120mm stroke engine design – around 15mm longer than most of its competition. A few drives up a small but relatively difficult wet slope bore this out. There seems to be little gained much above 1800rpm, on other tractors this could be of concern but not with the B900. At 1500rpm, I could feel and see (on the rev counter) the torque rise take over as the tractor lugged its way over the rise. But it was exactly the same story at only 1100rpm! Only better, as it surprisingly held onto its revs without dying on me. In fact, I thought I had some sort of problem half way up, but this turned out to be the tyres gripping, and shifting a large quantity of soil underneath the wheels as it continued its drive up the slope without slowing! The B900’s torque rise is low because it is already pumping out bulk torque from 1000rpm, as I found out, before peaking at 1400rpm (350Nm). So an engine with a high percentage torque rise will have less power at the bottom to start with. "Because they [the Valtra brand] have a very low torque rise, they just hold on," Hickey says. "When it gets to 1400, it doesn’t matter if it comes down to 1000. It is still pulling like a freight train." Hickey really likes the Syncromesh 12-speed 40kph gearbox, however my opinion is that it wasn’t quite as smooth or easy to change gears as I was told. On the driver’s left is the forward reverse lever, and to the right is the high/medium/low ratio and gear change levers. My biggest comment is they are quite long levers, which means a lot of arm movement to change gears. Not the end of the world, but the longer levers should also offer better feel on gear engagement than I thought they did. A unique feature on this model is that the hydraulics are separate from the gearbox – it has its own tank and filter system. So if you borrow somebody’s gear, you won’t contaminate the gearbox oil and perhaps damage the transmission. The two hydraulic outlets at the rear pump out a maximum of 52 litres per minute, and it comes with a high flow return for post drivers. Both outlets are easily controlled by a single joystick lever, instead of two. A handy feature I liked was the hand diff lock. Another Valtra feature is the heavy wheel weights anchored inside the rear wheels. Not fitted to our test machine, the B900 comes standard with front guards. As with all Valtras, you can order your tractor in whatever colour you like, with about any option too. As an example, Kevin’s Valtra 6850 was specially sign written at the factory with Hickey’s Dream on the cab! The factory supplied Valtra 740 front-end loader is a rebranded and heavy fabricated Swedish-built Quicke, featuring overlapping double U-profile beams for extra strength. During the drive-by noise test the B900 averaged 88dB at 1000rpm, and 89dB at 1500rpm. Stationary at idle, on the left-hand side and the front, we recorded 92dB, but it was noticeably quieter from the driver’s seat, recording 86dB, with 92dB at 1500rpm. North Island Valtra dealer Stuart McFarlane, of Doug McFarlane Ltd, is an excellent pilot who delivered us with good speed and safety directly into the paddock of our test site in his Robinson R44 service helicopter. He says the engine is what sells the tractor. "The feedback we are getting is that everybody wants a basic tractor now. No electronics, so the water is not going to affect anything if you hose it down with a high-pressure hose. It’s an honest, low-spec but high quality tractor. There’s a lot in that same market, but when you put them side by side, the engineering of ours is quite substantial. It has a big solid platform, and the safety frame is a big seller with the large twin-pipe frames." Hickey has the final word, "Things have got to be reliable, if they’re not reliable, then they’re down the road. That’s the beauty of Valtra, they are built for 15,000 hours." by Terry Stevenson Specifications B900 Engine: 4200SR Max power (DIN Hp/rpm): 90/2270 Max torque (Nm/rpm): 350/14400 No of cylinders: 4 Turbo Displacement: 4.4 Stroke/bore (mm): 120/108 Transmission: Full Synchro No. of gears (fwd/rev): 12 + 12 Operation: L/H Shuttle Speed range (kph): 0.9 to 40 PTO speeds: 540/1000 Height (to roof, mm): 2700 Length (mm): 4043 Wheelbase (mm): 2712 Ground clearance (mm): 495 Weight – shipping (kg): 3455

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