Deutz-Fahr 5100C on test
Deutz-Fahr 5100C
Price £59,015
RANKING: 4th
Cab
The Deutz’s four-pillar cab wasn’t the biggest on test, but it was a comfortable place to sit. The controls were well laid out and the primary colour scheme makes it easy to know what’s what.
From the outside, the massive, moulded plastic roof looks a bit like they’ve bolted a kid’s sandpit on the top. But despite its bulk it had one of the best roof windows, with an excellent view of the loader at full height.
Storage was limited to say the least and the sloping floor under the seat means anything you stash there is in danger of ending up under your pedals.
Build quality was fairly good, though, and it was more stylish than most. Our model was missing a passenger seat, but it’s standard in the UK.
Engine
With its rated power of 95hp, the Deutz’s 3.6-litre, four-cylinder was joint smallest in the power department along with the three-pot Valtra. When hooked to Maha’s dyno this dropped to 85hp, while the Valtra managed to develop 90hp. Fuel consumption was a lot better than the Valtra’s, though, and in most situations it performed better than the group average.
The 5100C was one of the few tractors to have a programmable engine memory. It was really easy to set by pressing and holding a button by the hand throttle and was great for setting different revs between work and headland turns.
- Auto pto and brake-to-neutral function
- Quick steer
- Best roof window in test
- Engine rev memory function
Gripes
- Small cab with limited storage
- No passenger seat
- Poor steering on the road
- Disappointing turning circle
Transmission
The Deutz was fitted with a two-range gearbox with five gears in each and three powershift steps. That gave it 30 gears in forward and reverse and a decent overlap when working in the field. Our only complaint was that the gearstick was a bit too far from the operator, particularly as it was home to the powershift buttons. It also let out a loud and pointless screech if you pressed the upshift button when it was already in the top powershift step.
There was no automatic shifting of the powershift steps and no speed matching, but you could adjust the aggressiveness of the forward/reverse shuttle. The stop-and-go function on the brake pedal was a handy feature too, and meant there was no need to touch the clutch while shunting around.
Four-wheel drive and diff-lock were both on rocker switches with no automatic functions.
Despite being one of the smallest tractors on test, the Deutz has a disappointing 10.6m turning circle and the steering was not the most accurate on the road.
It did have a quick-steer function, though, that halved the number of turns to go from lock to lock.
Back end
The Deutz had Cat 2 link arms and pretty short lift rods, but it managed to hover around the group average, lifting 4.6t. Controls were simple to use with a large dial for depth control and smaller ones positioned nearby for lift speed, drop speed and draft control.
Lift and drop was controlled using two green buttons that some testers thought were the wrong way round.
As with all Deutz tractors, the 5100C had a linkage and hydraulic lock. In the past this has been a bit of a performance to deactivate, but it’s now a lot simpler. All you do is jam your thumb on the stop button for three seconds and it releases. Our tractor also came with three mechanical spools. Two had float, but none had flow control.
Pto speeds were plentiful, with four coming as standard. The plunge lever for selecting normal or eco mode at the side of the seat is not ideal though. If you wedge anything bulky down there – like a heavyweight jacket or jumbo Thermos – it can knock it out of gear.
It also had an auto-pto function, which was one of the most straightforward set-ups we’ve come across.
Loader
The Deutz was fitted with a Stoll-built loader that had a similar cable-operated joystick to the Case. There was no soft ride function fitted, though, and it didn’t have a third service either.
Cycle times were middle-of-the-road and it managed to lift just over 1.9t in our tests, which was above average.
We thought…
The Deutz had a decent mix of features for a tractor of this size. We liked the engine rev memory, brake-to-neutral function and auto pto. The cab was small, though, and the hydraulics weak.
