<font color=blue>these are my opinions</font color=blue>
And so are ours; just opinions based on our experiences.
<font color=blue>As far as safety goes</font color=blue>
I think Rat has pretty well described reasons I'm convinced the HST is safer for the majority of operators. Now that's not to say a geared tractor isn't safe, but how many people have let one roll a little bit when they depressed the clutch, or have had a wet foot slip off the clutch pedal and the tractor jump? Wide open spaces, no problem, but in tight quarters, maybe critical. I figure emergency stops on tractors are not frequent, but if it should become necessary, which is faster? Just letting up with your right foot on the HST pedal (don't even have to pick up the foot)? Or moving both feet to the brake and clutch pedals (I know - you don't have to get the clutch, too, but instinct will make you try, I'll bet).
<font color=blue>kind of like saying an automatic car is safer than a manual</font color=blue>
I agree. On the wide open road, manual is great, but in heavy traffic haven't you ever been behind someone who stalled their engine with a manual transmission?
Folks like you and me learned to drive manual transmissions, whether in tractors, cars, trucks, motorcycles, etc. So yes, I feel safe enough with a manual transmission on anything, and in some cases for some uses, actually prefer a manual transmission, but overall I still think the HST is safer, even for us.
<font color=blue>If you get hurt or cause damage with a gear tractor you more than likely would have caused the same damage with a hydro</font color=blue>
I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif I think when my brother-in-law's foot slipped off the clutch and he rammed his rotary cutter through the back wall of his shed, that would have happened if he'd had an HST./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif
<font color=blue>if this forum were made up more of real farmers you'd see a different opinion on hst vs. gear</font color=blue>
I agree. They spend more time on bigger parcels of land, more room, fewer changes of direction, need to have a constant speed for long periods of time in many cases, and most importantly, HST just isn't available in most of the bigger tractors. But how many would prefer a geared tractor to PowerShift? The ones I know prefer the PowerShift (if they can afford it) and that's getting closer to an automatic.
Incidentally, in high speed pursuits on the streets of Dallas, I preferred the manual transmission as long as I had a partner to handle the radio - we didn't have hands free mikes in those days./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif But when we were baling hay, that's another matter. I would have preferred an HST. If you're cutting and baling a nice even hayfield, then a constant speed is what you want, but we cut and baled hay for a lot of folks who had some pretty sorry native grasses, fields that had been unattended for years, etc. Some places grass thick enough to go slower, some places thin enough to go faster; HST sure would have been nice, because I was changing gears more frequently than most folks would doing hay work.
By the way, when you stop when your round baler is ready to wrap and dump a bale, do you shift into neutral and let out on the clutch, or sit there with your foot on the clutch while it ties and dumps?