the ROPS is always up and wearing seat belt at all times, rear tires are loaded... (trying to stay safe as possible cause i respect the power and danger of operating the tractor, she's a powerful beast to me) thinking the loader could be an emergency brake if needed, i'll try taking it off and see how she feels. went out with a pitch and angle locator/indicator last night and its 15 deg's and dips to almost 20 deg's at the nervy parts...
i tried mowing down then reverse back up the hill. the field is pie shaped 600' long and 200' wide and humped in the middle with a big ol set of blackberry bushes right on the top going lengthwise, so it's pretty short run up and down. also when i get to the bottom i'm looking at a steep drop to a creek bed (kinda scary standing on the brakes looking at the creek bed and shifting to reverse). my tires are set at 5' center to center (6'-4" out to out), my ol buddy who's been on a tractor for bout 30 yrs or more says they're plenty wide (he's a lot more comfortable on a tractor than the rookie i am, to say the least) I may make them wider, guess that'd help with the pucker factor