L48 High Gear

[GregB]

I have about 20 hours on my L48TLB. I have used the tractor without the backhoe for 19 of those hours so far. Tasks so far include: plowing snow on the 1/4 mile driveway; clearing downed trees from the woods; using a 3pt log splitter; hauling firewood in the FEL; and giving the kids hay rides. So far, this has been a fantastic tractor. Everything about it is perfect!

Except: High Gear.

There appears to be almost no power whatsoever in high gear. I cannot drive from my mailbox to the garage (a minor up hill slope) on black-top, with no load, and without the backhoe, at full speed. In fact, it works VERY hard to get up to a speed which is only marginally faster than Mid Gear's top speed.

Do I have a problem with my tractor or did Kubota really botch High Gear? I would very much like to hear others' experience using the L48's High Gear. Thank you in advance.

 

[SkyPup]

That is typical for any hydrostatic type transmission.

BTW, lets see some pics of the nice L48! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[LarryRB]

I have a very steep driveway, 1600 ft long, and my 48 can do it... If you press the pedal all the way down, the minute the machine starts to move, you have to depress the pedal to keep it moving.. In fact, once you learn the feel and timing as such, the pedal will come back 90 or more percent of nuetral start... Once I get my machine going ( and I keep the hoe on) I start immediately depressing the pedal to keep moving. there comes a point, even on my driveway,, that it is easier to stop, move lever to medium, and start the last steepest part. I also, at this point am at a major thoroughfare with high speed traffic and I wish to slow down for the circumstances.

 

[slowzuki]

We just bought an L5030 HSTC with loader and loaded tires. High gear is for moving fast, I can't get up our driveway in high and it takes a bit to get going on the road but it zips right along once it is rolling. I know Rat had some complaints on his high gear in his previous L48.

I try to compare it to a gear tractor, high feels like 3 and 4 high on our old international. Needs lots of throttle on that old girl and you have to be moving before getting into those gears. Even a slight hill in top gear the old international would start slowing and the black smoke would start to roll.

 

[btolle]

Have you tried letting up on the HST pedal? I had a hard time learning that with an HST transmission you will develop more power with less pedal, not more pedal.

I was driving my B7510 like a car, when it slowed down I tried to give it "more gas" by pushing the pedal to the floor. Wrong!

Now, if the RPM's start to drop I ease up on the pedal until RPM's come back up. Yes, it slows down a bit, but it will make it up hills in High that it would not go up with the pedal all the way to the floor.

Bill Tolle

 

[GregB]

Thanks for the posts.

I have tried easing up on the pedal. That is the only way that I can make it up this hill in High Gear.

This is my second tractor with a hydrostatic transmission. The first was a John Deere 955 with loader, backhoe, and filled rears. It had two ranges - only High and Low. When set up with the backhoe, I only used Low a couple of times and then it was only to pull a stump out of the ground. When set-up with the six foot finish mower, I had to ease up on the pedal when in High gear, going up a much steeper incline than my driveway, while mowing grass that I had let get too tall.

For comparisons with gear selection between the 955 and the L48, I would say that Low on the 955 was in between Low and Mid on the L48; and High on the 955 was almost as "fast" as High on the L48 (on flat ground). So it seemed to me that since the weight (955 to L48) more than doubled, but the HP went up by only 50%, Kubota should not have made High be so "fast". OR, if the 955 had more HP than it really needed (something I suspected more than once while owning the 955), then Kubota might have been thinking that 48HP in High Gear is plenty. But, since it doesn't feel like plenty, I needed to know if I had a problem or if this is expected.

It sounds like it is expected. Thank you.

 

[slowzuki]

The bigger the machine the less hp to weight ratio is what you'll generally find. The international we had was 52 pto hp and weighted around 9-10k lbs fully dressed. It didn't win any acceleration records. You can't expect a big tractor to accelerate like a smaller one, the weight just creeps higher quicker than the hp.

They can't make high much lower and still have decent transport speeds for moving on the road.

I believe Rat's comment was medium should have been higher to fill the gap between low and high better.

Maybe this will be addressed in an L50 redesign in the near future? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif