NEW McCORMICK X6 415 ROAD TEST

Right, howdy folks. So today we're having a bit of a look at the X6 415 McCormick compared to Darren's 24 year old MTX 140. And talking of Darren, who is, I would class as a McCormick, you're an enthusiast, aren't you? I like the product. You like the product? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, so we're going to get your thoughts. Obviously you own the MTX 140. Yep. Have done for quite a few years now. coming up four years. Go on that'll get it. Just on it. They're a good eye. Yeah these are better than the fast track I put on this morning. Yeah they're a stretch on that but these are in good position. There you go just like that. Easy peasy. He just caught it. What? Your hook. Oh yeah. The only just like yeah. It was that precision that wasn't it? It was yeah I knew where it was. But in all fairness, how easy was it to see the hook? Pretty easy I think? Oh yeah. Yeah, when that was fully out. I didn't even have to lean over the seat really. No. No. We did it with the window shut, didn't you? Yeah, it's actually really come down just far enough. Yeah, yeah. Right, we're on. There we go. That's not going to hurt, is it? So your MTX 140 is from the era when they were at a joint venture with Pace IH? No, they just... McCormick had just purchased the case factory in Doncaster. This was the result? Yeah, I think they took a licensing agreement where they were building some case MXs for the European market, not for case, and in return they were building these, which are basically a case underneath, painting them red, but they had to use a... Perkins engine yes yeah whereas the cases were Cummins these were Perkins yes so you've got six cylinder Cummins in here 140 horsepower six cylinder Perkins in there even yeah I know what I mean the new one similar horsepower yes but a four cylinder which is typical of the modern stuff you have to normally up to 180 you're in four cylinders quite often and it's the case with that new McCormick so um Yeah, look around there, there are little touches that you can see. Similarities? Yeah, the lineage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, even bits like that, it's a very similar style button for on the new one. Yeah, yeah. And you've got the stop and an engagement rather than one button for the two. Yes. The inner ones, I'm guessing, are your up-downs. Up-downs, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we'll see that in a minute. We're very similar in... Even the indicator stalks. these mount brackets yep i'm very very similarly shaped same sort of design sort of design yeah yeah so inside now the transmission in this is a four range four speed power shift that's it yep yeah so you've got four touchdown four gears if you like and in each gear four power shifts yeah yeah three spools or manual spools again when we get into the new one you'll see that design is carried over into the new one So you've got your draft control there on a little knob. It's in a different position but there's still knobs very similar to that. Yeah, exactly. So there we go. Yeah, it's quite a nice simple cab. It's a bit weather-worn in places. But she's over 10,000 hours, isn't she? She's over 10 now. It's worn very well, really. It really has. There's the range change. Now we're in just top range. Third, fourth. fifth and sixth half that's top gear. Yep, just like that. And we're already doing 50k. Yep. See that whole suspension working down there like. We've also got an exhaust brake on it. Oh yeah, we haven't tried that yet. Yeah, we haven't tried it yet. Oh yeah, definitely feel it slowing us down. So for a little track it's got a lot of... Are we going straight over for the little roundabouts? Yeah, we'll go up the bumpy road because it's this, on the side of the roundabout it's a really rough road. It is rough, yeah. A good test for the suspension. Yeah, for a little tractor, you know, it is a little, you know, today's standard is a little tractor. It's got a lot of features of it, a lot of big tractor features. Light exhaust brake, light brake to stop, full power shift. Power beyond. Power beyond. Front suspension. Smooth gear changing. Yes, you can feel the range change, but you can on most tractors when they're, you know, on a power shift, uh, range change. So, like that. Yeah, this is it. That's 50k, just over 50k. And this road is usually making you bounce around all over the place. You'd be flying about in your tractor, given no suspension. Yeah, yeah. So we've just loaded up with some straw that was out in the field. A few rounds on the back, some squares on the front. There's a fair bit of weight on there a lot, especially with the low loader as well. So now we'll take her back to the farm, see how she pulls with the load on. So we're in... full auto mode. You can see on the where my hand is here on the right you've got the hand throttle there nearest here next to it is another hand throttle but that selects how aggressively it revs to reach the next gear so if you have it all the way that will rev near enough all the way to the top of the rev range before it changes gear so if you've really got a really heavy load on and you really want to gearbox to really make use of the gears, have it all the way up. If not, can have it down a little bit. But I tell you what, we're on a nice little single track road at the minute. Rough old track. It is good. I'm not mucking about it. It is very, very good. It really is impressive for a little tractor. No weight on the front. Heavy load on the hook. Brakes are good. Obviously we've got air brakes on the trailer as well. And we've got the brake to stop on as well. Decent mirrors. Quite compact mirrors, but decent mirrors. You've got wide angle either side at the bottom. So that was just the range change we went through there. Up through the gears. We're in fifth power shift. That's it, we're in sixth. We're in top gear now. Steady climb up. We're doing 42k. Don't forget, this is a little four-cylinder engine in here. You can get equivalent horsepower in a six cylinder up to the next range though. You'll be in the X7 range then. But this is a lovely little compact tractor. I say compact tractor. There you go. Just popped down the gear now. This is a good steady uphill pull up here. But it's the comfort. I can't get over how comfort it is. It's a lovely big airy cabin here. Loads of glass. Loads of air if you know what I mean. Seat's lovely and comfortable. Lovely little tractor. Quite happily spend a day on here. Up and down the road as well. Lovely little thing. And I'll tell you what, build quality, you know, these plastics in here, they're a decent quality. You know, they're not the real thin, flexible plastics you can get, like. There's a feel of quality in here, like. Like the joystick, all this armrest. feels solidly built so she's pulling you know we're crested the hill now she's pulling hard we're up to 54k beautifully stable awesome absolutely awesome the first things you notice with this is the front axle and it's one of the smoothest front axles ever fitted to a tractor so it's a carrara front axle twin wishbone twin wishbone so you've not got a solid axle So independent suspension basically. Basically it is independent corner suspension. We've just got the carrier on this one. Obviously you can spec it with front linkage if you want but yeah this one has just got the weight carrier. This one is also got load of brackets on it, ready to go. You've got the quick cutler there. Do the thing and that will clip in there. That's where your drawer bar is stored. which is actually quite an easy place to get to like you know you can get quite close to it and move that out good size drawbar that model designation on this is x6 so that's the model four indicates the cylinders of the engine and the one five is the horsepower so yeah 150 horsepower finished in the lovely uh deep mccormick red mechanic yeah metallic paint very nice paint really sets the machine off doesn't it yeah so around here we've got your battery uh under there You've got a positive pole there for jump-starting things. Quickly pull that little clip out. Steps fold up out of the way. Then you've got access to your batteries. Simple as that. Nice little toolbox there for your bits and bobs. Well, the controls are replicated both sides. You can see what I was saying. Very similar style linkage controls here with the on and the off light. Nice little... combination rear lights LED outers this is actually got a halogen work light package on it which is okay because that means you can then take them out and put you TV's in because they will be superior to anything that any tractor maker fits unless they're fitting you TV's for you like so but yeah good good I tell you what they're well spaced because you got a nice little mounted around the corner All four of them facing backwards. Shooting backwards like, yeah. So it's good all-round lighting. Good solid Cat 3 linkage on the back. Nice solid stabilisers. Got the two air tanks there. Yeah, because of course it is on air. It's not on air. You shouldn't have mentioned that because that doesn't... Well, it's not on air. It's got air brakes is what I meant. Yes, yeah. So we've got air brakes. We've got cool cab suspension as well as the Carraro front axle. There's your air, twin line, hydraulic brakes, ABS, three spools. One of them's being used for the push-out hitch. Dramon push-out hitch, that's a good hitch there. There's pretty good clearance there as well for your drop arms. Quite often you'll be wrapping knuckles on the pick-up hitch arms there. Axle level is on a proper gauge now rather than a dipstick. So easier to see. Yep. There's your washer fluid. Not too bad to get to. I have seen some that are on bigger tractors that are up here. I mean, how are you supposed to get to that? But at least you can get to that. Put something in it, yeah. Here you've got flow controls for your purple and your white. The green one is a fixed flow. But you've got Power Beyond. Power Beyond on it as well. Yeah, good solid back end on her. Nice handle for getting in. Yes, yeah, we've all mentioned that. I think we even spotted that at the show, didn't we? It's a nicely placed handle to get up into. You haven't got to hold the seat? No. Yeah, really nice. Three steps, not too much of a stretch, nicely staggered. A nice little passenger seat there. Actually padded as well. Yeah, properly padded. Yeah, properly padded. Not too loud at all. So... got an electric battery isolator there down the front there there's two d-plugs uh for power down the front there's also a d-plug there another one there and an old-fashioned cigarette lighter as well plus you've got your radar pick up there that little little one get your radio up there and all your lights controls climb it's this side so you've got here you've got a little electronic um button that you particularly like, don't you? Because you can go like that. It just lifts the steering wheel out of the way. So it just locks the steering wheel out of the way. If I press it, that's it. And it's a... I'll let go. And it just locks the steering wheel in position. It's not a ratchet. It's infinitely... Yeah. Wherever you... Just pinches it off. Yeah, wherever you stop, it stays. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just quite like that. Yeah. Silly things. And like we were saying earlier, when we were in your MTX, so there's your... Oh, yeah. In position, obviously. Mine's a big black. dial and this one is just a small blue side dial. And behind it you've got the smaller one is drive control. And then this little black one where you've got the camera down here is for your dashboard. Scroll through and exit. But you can see that same sort of design, I guess it's obviously more modern, it's on the armrest control now, it goes with the seat. But you can just see how it works. and they're carrying it on. It worked 25 years ago. Exactly, yeah. All right, we're coming down the slip off now. Good opportunity to try the exhaust brake. You can feel it working. That would probably help as well if we were in manual. But if you really wanted to make this slip, get it into manual mode and keep the revs high. Obviously, the exhaust brakes work better with higher revs like. But they're so composed on the road. A lot of it is to do with that front axle. Very composed. So we'll try it a bit different now. We'll come down with the gears manually. So you can just override manually. There you go. That's a lot different. I'm not touching the brakes at all now. Just the last bit now. Just touch the brakes. What a lovely little bit of kit. Honestly. You just do a double tap to drop a range change. So I'm in fully manual mode at the minute. What a lovely little tractor. You know. This is how good a little X6 is. I really cannot wait now to try a big X7. Now Ibbits have got an X7. We're in neutral there. In the yard, ready to go. X7 624, so 240 horsepower. Variable transmission. That'll be the next one we try, but look how smooth it changes direction as well. Absolutely lovely smooth. A bit faster. That is pretty damn smooth. Faster still. So quite high res now. No braking involved. That is good. I mean that is really good. That is just a lot. It's quick as well. It doesn't delay. I tell you there is a lot to like about this tractor. A lot to like. That is impressive.

https://ibbetts.co.uk/ have let us have a look at a McCormick X6 415 to compare how McCormick tractors have evolved in the past 24 years compared to Darren's McCormick MTX 140.