Hey Mark, I refuse to even get involved anymore with folks that discuss hydrostatic as if they knew what they were talking about when its obvious they haven't a good grasp of how advantageous it is. I have so many more hours on a shuttle transmission or as JD calls it "power reverser" (sounds like it only works in reverse with that moniker I should think Power Direction Changer or Power Forward and/or Reverse directional direction adjusting device would be better) yet with 125 hours on my hydrostatic know that it is hands down nicer for most of what I do as well it seems for what many folks here use it for. I keep hearing this but
"gear tractors have a precise ground speed" so I suppose when your planting a bean in the ground you don't get them planted to close as you would with a hydrostatic. My first comment would be, so a bean planted 5" apart versus 4.9999357" is going to really impeade on the production and costs.
Secondly, do gear tractors not have a diesel engine that when loaded will slow down (my "geared" International does) I'm talking compacts, you know the 40 HP types. For example, if your JD 4600 was carrying a 1000lb bag of bean seeds which continued to be planted thereby lowering the weight with each bean planted, unless you compensate with engine RPM, would you not start increasing in speed? Remember, we're talking limited HP, not hundreds like the real big farmers use at least here in CA. Uneven ground, soil textures and weight will all change the loads on any tractor. The careful farmer will undoubtedly pay attention to such minute detail, but then he's probably using something other then a a compact, my guess anyway. Even though I live in perhaps the most productive agricultural region of the US, I've yet to go out and actually watch them. I have noticed that John Deere seems to be the ag tractor of choice.
How many folks really use precise ground speed with their compacts to the extent that is that important to maintain it to within 1/100 of a mph, 1/50 mph or even as little as 1/10 mph? Just curious, maybe its just me that goes all nilly willy around the place at wildly gyrating speeds on my hydrostatic drive tractor which actually has a whole bunch of gears.
In the end I figure, give the new tractor buyer some info about hydrostatic, geared tractors are pretty obvious as the car you drive be it an automatic which simply shifts gears automatically hence the name or manual have pretty much the same principals. I never have followed the HST is like and automatic comparrision as if thats your thought, get going 40 or 50 MPH and stab the car in reverse. A hydrostatic can go full blast in high about 15 to 18 MPH and you can in fact hit reverse any ol stinkin time with no ill affects. Thats the real beauty about using my hydrostatic, its got Super Duper Power Reverser/Forwarder (SDPRF) , Super Duper Speed Contol (SDSC) and Super Duper Automatic Stopping Control (SDASC) and to top it off, BSHYT or Baby Soft Handling of Your Tractor)
Rat...