Why no front brakes on tractors

[ZJ_HR]

Hmm, That's not totally correct.
Tractors in Europe which have top speed 40 km/h or more, 2wd or 4wd, MUST have braked front wheels.

There are 3 type of braking on 4wd tractors.
1. Engaging 4wd when brakes are pressed - tractor have on load 4wd engaging with multiplates
2. Independant drum/disk on drive shaft, braked when rear brakes are engaged
3. Disk brakes in front wheel hubs. 4wd can be engaged mechanically. This is only possible way for 4-wheel braking on 2wd tractors.

My SAME tractor has 4-wheel, oil immersed disk brakes. And they have selectable action:
- When press BOTH pedals, all, front and rear wheels are breaked (can't be disengaged)
- When press single pedal, both front and rear wheel on one side, are braked (normal setup) - tractor turns really sharp on grass or on field covered with fresh spreaded manure.
- When press single pedal, just one rear wheel is braked (this can be engaged by turning special valve under dash).
This, 4-wheel brakes option (with front diff. lock) is available on 30 km/h versions, too.

I can say, from personal experience, that stopping distance is very small with 4-wheel breaking, so sometimes is feeling that I'll fly out through front window from cab /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

BTW, NH TN tractors (version 40 km/h) have 4wd breaking by engaging 4wd (type 1), and oil immersed front disk brakes (type 3) are available as option (in Europe, don't know for US).

4-wheel brakes setup is particullary recommended for hills for safety, because, when you engage brake on normal 4wd, one wheel can turn forward, and another one back, and braking possibility is reduced.

 

[slowzuki]

Big NH's here engage 4wd when pedals are locked. I think it depends on the tranny choice maybe to get this option?

 

[MarkV]

I think it would be great to see front brakes on compact tractors. Many of you responding have experience with larger ag tractors and I don’t so my perspective is more that of a small tractor user. As well engineered as I consider my little tractor I have always felt like the brakes didn’t come close to matching how well the rest of the machine was built. For the most part my brakes are use less except as a parking aid. Fortunately for me the HST tranny does the braking for me so it hasn’t been an issue except for a few critical times. Part of my use is at a mountain weekend home where the grade can get pretty steep on the roads and too steep to use a tractor where there isn’t a road. Early during ownership I made the mistake of trying to change ranges while on a slope, inexperienced and stupid on my part, and the brakes did no more than dragging my foot on the ground would have done while I was free wheeling down hill. That’s when I learned about pucker factor! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif How many times have we seen a post where after using the tractor for an hour someone realized they still had the brakes locked in park mode? I couldn’t do that in my truck. Besides the added cost I would like to see efficient 4 wheel braking on small tractors.

ZJ, your mention of European tractors having to have front brakes was interesting to me. When in Europe it is not unusual to see tractors running at a good speed on the road even if it is a major 4 lane. I always wondered about their ability to stop and gave them plenty of room. .

MarkV

 

[ZJ_HR]

Mark,
I don't know why you will need 4wd braking in small CUT. It has small front wheels and big steering angle, so I don't see any advantage steering with brakes. And every tractor when is in 4wd has 4-wheel braking.
Next time, when you will go downhill, with or without gear engaged, be sure that you're in 4WD, and it will stop, not a drag rear wheels.

Yes, they are on road. My SAME tractor has about 680 hrs in 2 and half years. Over half of this hours is done on road. We haven't big piece of arable land, our fields are small and in circle of about 6 miles. EVERY time when we go to the field, we step on asphalt road.
We don't use trucks (PU-s) here, and I never seen tractor hauled on trailor to the field. Tractors are used to hauling everything, from 20 small squares of hay to 20 ton of silage on two trailors attached on the road. Ging to 30-50 km distance is pretty normal. Tractors have to be registrated, have all lights, and need yearly technical inspection, just like cars.

I tried on my older 4wd tractor to stop with and without 4wd engaging. Stop distance on dirt yard was 3-4meter, and with 4wd on about 1 meter. Speed was something about 10km/h.

 

[ZJ_HR]

I saw four wheel brakes in hubs on TN70D on tractor fair in Italy. And this option is written in brochure too.
If I remember good, it has 16F+16R sinchro shuttle tranny.
In picture you can see a hydraulic hose going to hub.

 

[MarkV]

ZJ, I may not have been clear explaining what happened. That happens a lot to me. With the hydrostatic transmission on my Kubota there are three transmission ranges from low to high. When you are switching ranges there is no mechanical connection to the transmission until the next range is engaged. Or another way of saying it is you are in neutral until the next range is engaged. Once it starts rolling you can not engage any range so you have no drive train resistance and the brakes are the only thing useable whether you are in 4 wd or not. This was operator error but better brakes would have helped.

MarkV

 

[slowrev]

Thanks for the info. did not know that european tractors had front brakes. I guess the US importers do not want us to find that out, or we might all want them. Or maybe they are just waiting for sales to slow and then get a law passed requiring front brakes so everyone has to buy a new tractor by say 2007, Good for sales /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Wait and see what happens.

Ben

 

[RobertN]

There are a few reasons, which seem mostly historical.

If you had 4 wheeld brakes, it makes it difficult to impossible to use the brake for turning. On a 2wd gear tractor, like a Ford 8N or my Farmall-A, you can steer better with the brakes than you can with the steering wheel. You can pretty much pivot on one rear wheel. Can't do that with 4-wheel brakes, or even with 2-wheel brakes when 4wd is used.

Most tractor hauled something off the backend. That was where all the weight was, so it was most important to have brakes on the back. Those skinny little tires on most older tractors would not have stopped anything.

Steering brakes really let you turn tight. That was important before power steering.

Some of those historical things still are found on newer tractors. My Kubota has seperate brake pedals, but it is impossible to use them for steering with HST. They did make my tractor in a gear version, where the steering brake would be nice. It was probably put on mine just so they had a single design to deal with.

 

[frank_f15]

just off the top of my head, i would imagine they don't have front brakes, because 99.9999% of the time they would be not necessary. of couse this is just MHO after having operated many older tractors that had brakes(in name only) i am totally happy with the well working brakes on my kubota, come to think of it i hardly ever need those.

 

[Soundguy]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Most tractor hauled something off the backend. That was where all the weight was, so it was most important to have brakes on the back )</font>
Yery true.

I've seen fellows with big flatbeds install a cheapy brake controller on their tractor and wire it up to the hazard lights as well to a standard trailer connector.

When they needed to stop they'd pull the manual switch on the brack controller to activate the trailer brakes.

I've thought about do this with mine as well.. especially since you can get cheapy brake controllers for 29.99 now.

Now what would even be neater is to rig up a brake switch on your tractor's brake pedals.. and use it the 'right' way.

Too bad it isn't a factory option to have an option switch factor installed on the brakes.. or even have the brakes activate a single rear brake lights.

Soundguy