HST or gear drive ?

[Alan L.]

It probably has something to do with the terrain in Oz. If you're putting a new yelllow brick road, the gear tractor speed control is probably the way to go /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.

Alan L., TX

 

[jinman]

...and did the Tin Man have a hydraulic lift? ...Enquiring minds want to know. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

JimI

 

[Rowski]

Gordon

I was talking to a farmer a while ago and asked about the hi-tech gadgets in the big farm tractors. He explained to me that the gps and "computer" work together to keep the tractor more efficient. Effecient meaning wheel slippage. He claims that if your disking and you have a certain percent of wheel spin and you add that up for a full day of work you loose time, and fuel. Kind of sound like a digital draft control? Could be this guy was pulling one on me! Has anybody else heard this too.

I'm sure the gps and computers would get used for other things too. Do they?

Derek

 

[cowboydoc]

Rowski,
Some good friends of mine are huge farmers here. They farm about 25,000 acres. That have all the latest gadgets. They use the GPS, huge tractors, everything. I've gone with them a number of times and the tractor even drives itself!!!! It has a screen that adjust for wind, traction, ground texture, everything. You feel like you're onboard the Enterprise or something. Through the GPS it automatically regulates the depth of planting, discing, etc., puts on the right amount of fertilizer, weed spray, etc. It's really pretty amazing what it does. They figure that they broke even on all the equipment after three years of using it in saved costs.

 

[DVerbarg]

Rowski,

Some of the farmers in this area with large tractors have the gps and computer stuff. I not sure how they can change wheel slippage dynamically but know that they use the gps to determine actual ground speed and the tractor's digital display to show wheel speed, the difference being the slippage. They change the weight distribution (guys I know reconfigure the front weights) accordingly. They also use the gps in relation to harvesting to know what fields (or which part of which field) is giving what yield. Some of them then change their fertilizing methods accordingly.

DaveV

 

[MChalkley]

Derek - As DaveV said, yep, it's true. There's actually an optimum slip percentage, but I don't remember what it is. By comparing the "speedometer" speed with true gound speed, as measured by the GPS, the gearing and throttle can be adjusted to get the right numbers...

MarkC

 

[Bird]

Even without GPS, I'm pretty sure a neighbor of mine told me his John Deere has both a regular speedometer and a ground speed speedometer. I, too, have forgotten what the optimum slippage is, and have to admit that I still don't understand it; just seems to me like no slippage would be the optimum, but it ain't.

Bird

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Ag engineers over the years have determined the ideal slippage should be between 10 – 15%. When you have more than 15% slippage, excess tire wear occurs, fuel use goes up and of course production goes down.

Adding ballast will reduce slippage, increase drawbar pull, increase fuel consumption, and soil compaction… and reducing slippage down to 0% greatly reduces the life of the transmissions and rear axle assemblies and increases mechanical failures. /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

 

[DFB]

Gordon,

Totally agree on the need to have accurate settings to lock in ground speed on the newer HST compacts. Especially for repetitive work. I guess function gave way to form somewhere along the line.

On the older Ford 1210 HST my wife's stepdad has, there is a lever for the speed control that is set along a numbered slot (kinda like a rockshaft control) then locked in place. Repeat settings are easy to accomplish. Definitely designed right for agricultural type work. A truely superior system than the push the pedal/pull the handle setup thats currently on my Deere.

When I got info from the Holland Transplanter Co about a mulch layer and planter for my 4100 they highly recommended having the HST because the smaller tractors didn't have a creeper gear (only available as an option on the 4600 and 4700 JD'S) and it would difficult to keep ground speed slow enough otherwise.

So interestingly enough, out of the three tractors he owns the 1210 HST is the one used the most for row planting of the greenhouse starts.

DFB

 

[gordon]

Ok now other than suitcase, saddle, undercarrage weights what is a major problem that alot of farmers have when it comes to tractor preformance???----------Give ya a hint it has to do with pressure.

A great deal of tractors in general have this problem. It's one of the most simple to fix. All you have to do is check them. Have you checked yours lately???

Gordon