First time Tractor buyer

[mrlullabye]

I've pretty much made up my mind on making this guy an offer this coming week.

The two tractors I am looking at are the JD at a full $5.5k more, but it has the hydrostatic transmission with no cruise control.

The farmtract has a 12x12 non-sync shuttle shift. I have driven manual transmisson cars all my life, and have almost always resisted the temptation to shift into reverse before the vehicle has stopped rolling so I don't see this as a problem.

I personally was a little bit unnerved that the JD did not have a cruise control because our lot is 600x600' and according to the math it's going to take about 15 miles worth of laps around there to cut it all with a 5' finisher. That sounds like a long ways to hold your foot mid throttle.

So I like the idea of the shuttle shift for the grass cutting, and I anticipate for loader work shuttle is somewhere between straight manual and HST in ease of use. I tried out the low ranges on the Farmtrac and let me tell you slow does not begin to describe Low 1 on this thing. The term that comes to mind is more like glacial iceflow speed. I can't imagine needing anymore variety in the low speed ranges, so it comes down to the switching between forward and reverse.

What's you guys options of Shuttle shift for a tractor that will mostly be used to cut grass?

Also on the clutch pedal on the tractor I noticed there definately is not as much play in it as there is a clutch on a car, but in high gear it was pretty capable of spinning a wheel. Is it ok to feather the clutch a little in the higher gear or should you lower your RPM dump the clutch then rev it back up. I've heard some people say you just dump the clutch on a tractor and some say you should ease out just not to the extent you would on a car.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I suppose mostly it depends on what you are doing. If you are running a bush hog, you need to start it at about 1000 rpm and feather the clutch a little till the blades get up to speed then increase throttle to the 540 rpm PTO speed of the engine. It is just too hard on the U joints to pop the clutch at 2000+ rpm. You can either rev it up then start travelling or start travelling and throttle up, depending if you are starting on cut area or uncut area. I dont recommend riding the clutch excessively for start off, come off briskly but dont pop it like a drag car.

 

[RWolf]

One bit of advice I can give is stop thinking of a tractor clutch and a car clutch as the same. The principle is the same but the operation is totally different. vehicles have one function to transport people and or cargo form point A to point B. Tractors are a universal machine for many types of opertions. A vehicle you start in low gear and work your way up to high gear. On a tractor you select the range and gear from the start and you're not changing gears while moving.

I am surprised that the JD didn't have a throttle hold posistion (cruize). Maybe that's why I prefer gear trannies. Mine you set the throttle on the column and it also has a throttle override pedal. I use the pedal for FEL work and the column throttle for field work.


Good luck.

 

[CinderSchnauzer]

I personally was a little bit unnerved that the JD did not have a cruise control because our lot is 600x600' and according to the math it's going to take about 15 miles worth of laps around there to cut it all with a 5' finisher. That sounds like a long ways to hold your foot mid throttle.

I'm not familiar with the type of grass you mentioned, but on the JD with 32 hp / 24 pto hp I'd think you could run a 72" finish mower easily and probably 84"

I have no problems with the 72" running in Hi range on my 3320. On paper the extra 12" should take off 20% and another 24" will shave 40%. Low range ground speed is listed as 5.6mph and hi range is 12.9. I find that anything much over 5.5 - 6 mph gets too rough anyway. Maybe "cruise control" on the JD is set engine at PTO speed, select Low range and just hold the HST full down.

 

[mrlullabye]

Another noob question. If I wanted to connect something like a hydraulic thumb to my FEL. The farmtrac has two hydraulic remotes on the rear. If I went to use them what would be the best way to get those hydraulic hoses?

I could get them from someone local or I was thinking just use a length of water hose and route it around like I want it then remove it, measure it, and order hose off the internet based on that.

I am familiar with compressed air type fittings and I know about the different sizes and types, but I don't know a thing about hydraulics, except it works basically the same way.

 

[mjncad]

Another noob question. If I wanted to connect something like a hydraulic thumb to my FEL. The farmtrac has two hydraulic remotes on the rear. If I went to use them what would be the best way to get those hydraulic hoses?

I could get them from someone local or I was thinking just use a length of water hose and route it around like I want it then remove it, measure it, and order hose off the internet based on that.

I am familiar with compressed air type fittings and I know about the different sizes and types, but I don't know a thing about hydraulics, except it works basically the same way.

I'm a newbie at hydraulics too; but I'd use the garden hose method to determine your length and clearances regardless of where you get your hoses made.

The world of hydraulic fittings is a confusing one with NPT (evil in my opinion), ORFS (O-Ring Face Seal), ORBS (O-Ring Boss Seal), JIC (37-degree flare), BSPP (British Standard Pipe Parallel), BSPT (British Standard Pipe Taper), JIS (Japan Industrial Standard), Metric, Komatsu's proprietary version of JIS, and I'm sure I missed a few.

Until I get confident with what I'm doing, I've been buying from Parker's franchise outlets called Parker-Store. Although the nearest one is 20+ miles away, it's still faster than shipping back and forth if I goof on an order off the net. Once I feel like I half-way know what I'm doing I'll order more off the net like I do for most everything else.

Check out KennyD's posts as he's knowledgable on hydraulics.

 

[RWolf]

Just remember that as you route your hose take into account heat sources, vibration sources and to allow for movement of your FEL/Bucket. If you have a QA bucket or FEL I'd do the hoses in two sections one from the rear remote to the FEL arm and then the second section from the FEL arm to the grapple/thumb. In this way if you need to remove your bucket/grapple attachment you don't have to remove the entire length of hose. Also for the length you're going I'd look at using one size larger hose to minimize lose of pressure/volume.

Good luck and remember safety, Hydraulic is under enough pressure it can puncture the skin from a distance.

 

[mrlullabye]

I went ahead and bought the farm trac. Did a little fanagaling and managed to get the tractor, sunshade and 6 foot finish mower for the right price of $9100 out the door.

 

[flusher]

Another noob question. If I wanted to connect something like a hydraulic thumb to my FEL. The farmtrac has two hydraulic remotes on the rear. If I went to use them what would be the best way to get those hydraulic hoses?

I could get them from someone local or I was thinking just use a length of water hose and route it around like I want it then remove it, measure it, and order hose off the internet based on that.

I am familiar with compressed air type fittings and I know about the different sizes and types, but I don't know a thing about hydraulics, except it works basically the same way.

I have 20 foot hydraulic hoses (3/8", 4000 psi) running from the rear remotes on my Mahindra 5525 to the FEL.

Pioneer hydraulic quick disconnects on each end.

I bought four 10-ft hoses from Surplus Center with female JIC-6 (3/8" size) fittings on each end and hooked pairs together with JIC-6 male unions.

Use #12 insulated copper wire to lash the hoses to the FEL hydraulic plumbing, Not pretty, but it gets the job done are is easy to remove.

Not a difficult job. Hope this helps. Good luck.