Comparison Gear driven or HST

[texasjohn]

These threads do give me an opportunity to harrass all those quiche eating girly guys though!! Keeps an old man occupied.

It's his entertainment. Experience? Bah, humbug

[jenkinsph]

Thanks to everyone that replied to this thread. TripleR makes a great point. I should have given you all more information. I have 6 acres of land, four has been cleared and two are wooded. I use my tractor mainly for the FEL (spreading dirt, hauling cut wood, etc.) but I'm planning on grading a driveway about 50 yards long and 10 feet wide, brush hog the other two acres, to thin out the under brush and with a rotary tiller for a small garden. I'm leaning toward the HST so my wife and daughter can use the tractor. My main concern between gear driven or HST is which one would need less maintenance. I have a small gear driven grey tractor now with less than 150 hrs that needs a clutch already. This is my first tractor and has been an expensive experience. I purchased it used about 15 months ago with 70 hrs. As for the other half of the question, should I buy a Kubota B3200 or L3200. If I wanted to sell it later on which one is the more popular. They both are about the same tractor except the
L3200 is a lot more beefier.

I see lots of guys post about buying a hydro so the wife can operate the tractor, think thats funny. Most women aren't any more spastic than men from what I see. I recommend buying a hydro if it best suits your own uses. Operating a small tractor on a few acres I can't see the need for a gear tractor at all. Clipping pastures all day, plowing large fields then a gear tractor saves fuel and becomes much more important.

[jenkinsph]

If you go back and read most of the threads (over the last ten years or so), you see I mostly promote gear transmissions rather then demote HST.
You're correct...most responders do not have adequate experience in both types of transmissions to make an educated post on the merits. Even the relatively few hours I have on HST is likely more then most have on gears.
What I mostly promote is the OPs get on the tractors and see what they prefer most. They are the ones going to be living with their decision.

But, it's just an internet forum and harassing the girlyguy HST owners is fun. That's what it boils down to...

I agree for the most part, I enjoy arguing with old gear tractor guys who have little or no experience with hydrostatic transmissions.

[k0ua]

I agree for the most part, I enjoy arguing with old gear tractor guys who lave little or no esperience with hydrostatic transmissions.

Bingo! oh, and are we having quiche for dinner?.. and should I wear my tutu and toe shoes ?

[k0ua]

I agree for the most part, I enjoy arguing with old gear tractor guys who lave little or no esperience with hydrostatic transmissions.

Bingo! oh, and are we having quiche for dinner?.. and should I wear my tutu and toe shoes ?

[94BULLITT]

I prefer on hydro on a tractor. I prefer a manual on a car or truck.

[JerryK]

It not just gear/HST... there is hydro reverser in the middle somewhere there, which is a great comprimise... I can see gear for farmers plowing and discing fields all day ... and those too set in their ways to admit they were too cheap to get an HST... [ ]

[TripleR]

If you go back and read most of the threads (over the last ten years or so), you see I mostly promote gear transmissions rather then demote HST.
You're correct...most responders do not have adequate experience in both types of transmissions to make an educated post on the merits. Even the relatively few hours I have on HST is likely more then most have on gears.
What I mostly promote is the OPs get on the tractors and see what they prefer most. They are the ones going to be living with their decision.

But, it's just an internet forum and harassing the girlyguy HST owners is fun. That's what it boils down to...

Can't argue with that and we all need to have a good sense of humor.

When soliciting advice and assigning a value to the posts it is really helpful, or at least it is to me, to know someones background and personality if possible.

In the end all most of us have to rely on and put forth what has worked best for us. My brother knows far more about tractors than I and he is as happy with his newly purchased Synchro-Shuttle Kioti as I am my L5740 HSTC; now he likes HST, he just likes gears better.

I see lots of guys post about buying a hydro so the wife can operate the tractor, think thats funny. Most women aren't any more spastic than men from what I see. I recommend buying a hydro if it best suits your own uses. Operating a small tractor on a few acres I can't see the need for a gear tractor at all. Clipping pastures all day, plowing large fields then a gear tractor saves fuel and becomes much more important.

I don't recommend HST because I think "women are more spastic than men", but rather in my experience with my wife, two daughters, two sons and working with initially a 50/50 split men and women, it has been my observation that men are more likely to be familiar with or willing to learn gears in cars/trucks than women and I have taught quite a few women to drive geared cars who did not grow up using them, lots of burned clutches. I may be the only one, but I find it easier to transition someone from a geared car/truck to geared tractor though it is certainly not a smooth transition.

Now I live in a rural area in which the demographics are different than an urban area, but even when I worked and lived in a large city, men were far more likely than women to drive something with gears even if it was a sports car. With each succeeding generation, the likelihood of either using gears is, I believe, decreasing. My brother recently tried to find a geared Chevy 1/2 ton pickup and now owns his first automatic pickup. He kept his old gear drive though. Again, I'm not saying geared cars/trucks/tractors are the same, just more alike than geared cars/trucks and HST tractors.

My wife drove geared cars and trucks for over thirty years and has pretty much said she is done with gears on anything. She keeps promising to learn at least enough to move the M8540 out of the way, but in two years has only managed to start it to charge the battery and warm the engine up. She will jump in/on anything with an HST, so sometimes some of us have to take the women in our lives into consideration when buying.

Please don't tell my wife I think she is spastic or it could get ugly up in here; now my youngest daughter, the one who ran over her brother's bicycle with the lawnmower...

[Agent Blue]

I have a manual/gear that I bought new. If I ever do it over, it will be a HST without a doubt. In addition, I've heard its about a $3000 job to replace a clutch where as its only about $1000 more for a HST so its probably much cheaper in the long run.

I think you have them mixed up. I have replaced clutches, disks and plates. The labor is getting to it... not the expensive parts. A bobcat with the seperate sunstran pumps for the hydrostatic is just as labor intense and fifteen times more expensive. Nothing is cheap about hydrostats.... ever fix one? Probably not because they are replaced, not repaired.
I had a TC45 NH that I listened to the hydro whine for three years. Went to pull another tractor out of a sink hole and it had a terrible time trying to spin those large tires when weighted down. Traded for a TC 55 with power reverser and have never been happier. If I can't find a range in twelve gears it isn't worth doing. The hydro pumps never seem to have the power to efficiently run the drive and loader at the same time. This is true of tractors less than 100 hp. My deere lawn machine ( 4110 ) is hydro and for minimal tasks it works just fine. Depends on the task.... pulling a chisel plow gear... getting the mail and grading the drive hydro. Each has a place but I will never believe a hydro can be repaired cheaper than a clutch.

[ddb123]

I had a TC45 NH that I listened to the hydro whine for three years. Went to pull another tractor out of a sink hole and it had a terrible time trying to spin those large tires when weighted down. Traded for a TC 55 with power reverser and have never been happier. If I can't find a range in twelve gears it isn't worth doing. The hydro pumps never seem to have the power to efficiently run the drive and loader at the same time. This is true of tractors less than 100 hp.

The lesson here: don't buy a New Holland.

I had to say it....

(disclaimer: I have never owned, operated, or heard anything bad about New Holland)