How Far is Too Far??

[tony123]

Rob, that's what I was trying to ask....are my photos "beyond your pucker factor?"

[RobJ]

Originally Posted by tony123

Rob, that's what I was trying to ask....are my photos "beyond your pucker factor?"

It's really hard to tell, even with a picture. I tried to get the best shot, level camera, and a telephone pole in the background as some sort of reference. You have a smaller tractor, and it looks to be much narrower. I have my rims as wide as possible, about 50 inches. Looks like you have room to go up and down...

Rob

[madpogue]

Originally Posted by RobJ

I posted these pictures a while back, some said it was beyond their pucker factor. But after a couple weeks of mowing I don't give it a second thought. I just hold on and mow.

Playing with the "rotate" feature of a photo editing program, it looks like you're at approx. 17-18 degrees of tilt. Def'ly in the "pucker zone" beyond 15. Good thing you've got the wheels set at such a wide stance (should we call you "Senator"? ). Have you thought about getting a tilt-meter, or would that spoil it?

[RobJ]

Originally Posted by madpogue

Playing with the "rotate" feature of a photo editing program, it looks like you're at approx. 17-18 degrees of tilt. Def'ly in the "pucker zone" beyond 15. Good thing you've got the wheels set at such a wide stance (should we call you "Senator"? ). Have you thought about getting a tilt-meter, or would that spoil it?

No meter, this is as much as I go and I've been there and know it. Anything new I stay away from...like the bank in the far, far left of ditch1 pic. I back up that short distance ot use a weedeater. I've had a fear of rolling tractors since I started driving my Grandaddy's JD 4020 row crop tractors. Man those were a pretty tractor.

Senator? Palm Down if I remembered the news story right.

[Spiveyman]

We had a story in our local paper yesterday of a farmer getting killed by a rolling tractor while trying to mow his fields. He'd probably mowed them a hundred times, but this time it got him. I'd rather have an oversensitive pucker-meter than a funeral. Keep it safe!

[woodlandfarms]

My PT is rated at 45 degrees... My personal puckerometer has yet to break 30. Man, 30 is frikin steep. Some day I will find a 45 i can go on.... For sure no rush.....

Carl

[horse7]

Originally Posted by Trac-Tech

Just to add a little of my experience to this from over the years.
The first time I had anything to do with this was complaints from operators of Massey Ferguson 8100 series tractors, we were dealing with two models, 160hp & 200hp. The complaint was that the steering and hyd would stop on steep slopes and due to the hyd press loaded clutch, it would also loose drive.
I rigged up a device on the inside of the cabin window to measure the angle for & aft as well as another for side to side.
I then drove the tractor until it stopped on a steep slope, I then read the angles both ways to be 26 degrees, this was very steep and had me twitching I can tell you. I did not feel safe at all at this point and when i tried to walk up the hill I had jsut parked on, it was too steep to walk comfortably and I had to climb more than walk.
Other times I have had to check parking brakes and the OECD (I think) standard for tractors is 17 degrees (maybe someone can correct me) for and aft. This is steeper than it sounds.
On other occasions when we have needed to try to fix gearbox problems that only become evident on slopes, they have been around the 20 degrees and once again, this is a lot steeper than it sounds!!! So always be comfortable and if you are not, dont go there.
To help with stability, you can always adjsut your rear wheel track out. This does help, but be careful when adjustin the front as it only gives you a false sens of security. It does not make any difference having the fornt adjusted for stability.
I hope this is of help to every one.

Some months ago I went and used a 48" level with digital readout to measure some slopes in the flatter area that I bush hog. The steepest little piece was 18*, felt like a lot more [I was going backwards/up and forwards/down the slope, not laterally-- the ground is way too lumpy to even think of lateral angles over 8-10*].

Some of the back areas are 25* or more, but I haven't gotten to them yet.... I would not like to lose hydraulics with EHSS, though I don't think 25* would be enough to do that-- and I don't think I'd try anything much over 25 anyway. That is getting pretty darned steep, and with R4s traction becomes the limiting factor at some point. I was on the edge of needing 4wd for 18* backing up with the soil type on that hill in normal conditions.

[Jerome]

I find the pucker factor goes up or down depending on which direction I am driving. If I mow from the house to the road it seems worse than from the road to the house and the reverse on the other side of the drive, any one else find this?

[Defective]

Climbing the little baby Deere up out of the ditch on the west side of my driveway is fun. Driving down into it has deformed the seat.

[hsvhobbit]

Put a tiltmeter on my 'bota 4630 and found that 10-12 deg is nothing, 15 trips my pucker factor pretty hard and that at 17deg my uphill front tire is JUST beginning to get slightly less traction...17 scared the crap out of me.

I was hogging a slope that gradually increased in angle so I creeped along literally slow enough to have crawled on hands and knees and kept up.