Gone Back To Gear Tractor?

[Bob_Young]

No it has swash plate hydraulic pump and motor. Yes it is a HST.

I have a 74 Hydro on my Chisholm Ryder grape harvester. No torque converter, it'll crawl around at idle.

Infinately variable from a fwd/rev lever under the left of the steering wheel and a manual Hi/Lo range lever to the left of the seat.

Thanks for the correction on the IH 1066, allenr. I wasn't sure how that transmission worked. Crawling around is about all that tractor is capable of, regardless of throttle setting. Hills are a real challenge.

It would be interesting to see how it'd perform with gears. Everything else about that old beast is solid with a capital 'S'.
Bob

 

[bp fick]

I sure want to say that I am amazed. There have been over 5000 hits on this little thread in which I, in the OP, merely asked a simple question, If you have gone back to gear, why did you do so?

Not, which is better, gear vs hst kind of thing, but a real, specific question, and most of the posters, at least many, got the question right.

I ask because I am one of those considering the gear option, next time, if there is a next time. Simple things, simple reasons for perhaps doing so.
Quieter operation, money savings, know how to use gears and aren't bothered by it, direct drive torque to rear wheels, etc. Those basic kinds of thing.

Thanks to everyone for reading and posting. Thanks also to all the real HST fanboys for just allowing this discussion in a reasonable way. Thanks.

 

[Soundguy]

there are a few topics that become critical mass soon aftwr posting.. and this is one of the bigger ones..

soundguy

 

[DSteiner]

Why back to gear? The barn had approx 3" rise onto the concrete from the ground level outside. The gear tractor I could slow down and keep my load of silage in the bucket. The hydro would hit the offset and stop unless I was in low range and it was a pain to always have to stop and shift ranges to get up over it. Getting silage out of the bag would cause the hydro to really heat up. 2 $1500. oil coolers while under warrenty.

 

[jenkinsph]

Why back to gear? The barn had approx 3" rise onto the concrete from the ground level outside. The gear tractor I could slow down and keep my load of silage in the bucket. The hydro would hit the offset and stop unless I was in low range and it was a pain to always have to stop and shift ranges to get up over it. Getting silage out of the bag would cause the hydro to really heat up. 2 $1500. oil coolers while under warrenty.

Don't know what kind of tractor you were having problems with but a 3 inch slab should not have been an issue for any of them. I can pull my 110 up to a 12" high wall in 4x4 and climbup and over it with out any problem. Had to do this while boring post holes for my last gate job.

 

[RobertN]

Sounds more like a barn defect to me Gear or HST tractor, or manual loader operation(ie wheel barrow), I woulda fixed that there rise. That would be a lumpy bump to drive over all the time. Would drive me nuttier than any shifting tractor gears ever would.

The barn had approx 3" rise onto the concrete from the ground level outside.

 

[Soundguy]

sounds like 5 minutes work with a box or back blade and some loose fill or aggregate...

soundguy