Mowing Mowing speed changes

[BER]

I'm new to the operation of tractors, so this question might sound dumb. I currently use a 25HP tractor with HST tran. to mow. I,m thinking about buying a larger HP tractor and the price of gears vs HST looks good. My question is; to slow your speed with a gear tran, while mowing through the occasional tough spots, do you have to shift gears? On a HST it's easy to slow the ground speed using the pedal, and the PTO speed remains constant. How is this done on a gear tran. tractor. Does the throttle pedal come in to use in this situation?

 

[johndeere2210]

With a hydrostat, the engine RPM and PTO speed remain constant while the ground speed is variable. With gear drive, the ground speed will be varied with the gear selection, so yes you will be changing gears to regulate ground speed. As a side note, the hydrostat tractors will hold a higher resale value. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[Bird]

With a geared tractor, you'll have to shift gears if you want to keep the PTO RPM. You can slow down with the throttle, but that'll slow the mower blades, too. Of course, I guess there's the other possibility to keep the PTO speed up and that is to slip the clutch, but I'd sure do that sparingly. Shifting gears might not be too bad with the newer tractors with synchromesh transmissions, but I've never used one of those yet.

 

[DK35vince]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( My question is; to slow your speed with a gear tran, while mowing through the occasional tough spots, do you have to shift gears? )</font>

I very rarely shift gears when mowing.
If I'm mowing an open area I set the hand throttle, sit back relax and mow.
When mowing in tighter areas, around trees or rough areas I use the foot throttle, slow down through the rough or tight area, once through shove the foot throttle back to the floor and go.

 

[frank_f15]

yes you do have to shift gears! and remember weather geared or HST to clutch it IS ALWAYS ADVISABLE TO throttle down when shifting and then throttle back up.

 

[BER]

Maybe with more HP the tough spots will be less frequent, and shifting gears occasionally might break the monotony. For the price, the gears look best to me.

 

[WhiteRock]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( yes you do have to shift gears! and remember weather geared or HST to clutch it IS ALWAYS ADVISABLE TO throttle down when shifting and then throttle back up. )</font>

I guess I am missing something. What shifting would there be? I never shift on my HST when mowing. Its the beauty of an HST. The only time I ever press the clutch is to start the engine and engage the PTO. I set PTO speed RPMs and change speeds as the mowing situation requires.

Geared tractor can't vary the speed without losing the mower blade speed. Depending on what your cutting, you may or may not notice it if you do. Light stuff one will not notice. Chopping the throttle mowing is not a problem, but if your making the tractor work, chopping the throttle to vary speed will cut the engine power and will force a greared tractor to drop its load in many situations. HST you just reduce your speed maintain full power reserve until you past your slow situation. A geared tractor has to always consider the slowest speed with no option to increase without stopping to change gears. If you like seat time, geared is probably much better.

When I mow a lot, I like to get it done. Changing from full mowing speed all the way to reverse can be a very smooth de-accelerating operation and not dig up the grass. It takes a top operator to execute this move on a geared tractor and they still have to dissipate all that energy in the engine via throttle or clutch, or both.

Miss a slither of grass... I find I will grab it with the hst, but will not grab the gears, clutch, throttle, etc. to get it. This is probably laziness....

 

[DK35vince]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Miss a slither of grass... I find I will grab it with the hst, but will not grab the gears, clutch, throttle, etc. to get it. This is probably laziness.... )</font>

Heres where I must be missing something.
If I'm mowing with a gear tractor with a 2 stage clutch or like My tractor has ( a independant PTO) the PTO and blades never stop when you push in the clutch ( shifting or reversing). So there are no missed slithers of grass.

 

[WhiteRock]

What I am talking about is my probably poor driving. Where I have corners, I eventually round these to be ugly and under cut missing a slither. Sometimes I will just day dream and miss my line leaving a slither of grass. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Then what... Get it next round? Backup? Decisions, decisions.

At home the wife will make me get the equipment back out and cut them! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif So I just take care of them up front.

But I have always had this driving problem.

Maybe I will learn how to improve my mowing on this forum! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I guess I can't blame it on the tractor, the PTO runs til you push the clutch or turn it off.

 

[BER]

It sounds as if it is best to have an independent PTO when mowing with a gear tractor, but one would still have to throttle down to shift gears when necessary. Is the dual stage clutch different from the independent PTO or are they one and the same?