Tricycles?

[npalen]

The walking beam effect of a wide front also smooths out the tractor front. Deere, however, did come out with a patented design call the Roll-o-matic which allowed the two wheels on a narrow front end to oscillate thus smoothing the ride somewhat.

 

[SPYDERLK]

My 2010 has that.

 

[DKCDKC]

I grew up with tricycle John Deeres on our farm. We had some wide tractors as well, but the tricycles were used a lot on our hills and everywhere. They were easy to steer and turned on a dime. My CUT is less stable I think... And it has a wide front. But that could also be memory issues. I last drove a trike in the 1970s.

 

[CalG]

This is wrong. On the trike the pivot is on the ground, thus giving more lateral displacement per unit of pivot. The edge is slightly in favor of the 4 wheeler.
larry

Well, In consideration of details.
The pivot on a pivoting solid axle is a line at the center of the tractor (the pivot pin.) While the pivot location for a "typical " tricycle is the out edge of the tire. so some what "further out" than the centerline axle pivot.

That was my "first pass assessment" and basis for the comment of preference.

There are a lot of variables in the mix, even ground conditions.. mighht take a fine pointed pencil to figure the difference ;-)

But I will conceed, The pivot point of a tricycle gear is at the ground!

cheers

 

[JasG]

Well, In consideration of details.
The pivot on a pivoting solid axle is a line at the center of the tractor (the pivot pin.) While the pivot location for a "typical " tricycle is the out edge of the tire. so some what "further out" than the centerline axle pivot.

That was my "first pass assessment" and basis for the comment of preference.

There are a lot of variables in the mix, even ground conditions.. mighht take a fine pointed pencil to figure the difference ;-)

But I will conceed, The pivot point of a tricycle gear is at the ground!

cheers

Actually there are even some single front wheel tractors so the pivot would be centered.

I've spent a lot of time on both and IMO opinion it's not even close a wide front is more stable.

If you hit a woodchuck hole, dead furrow or similar object a wide is much more stable.

The only guys I knew that have died on a tractor were on narrow front end machines. Not to say people haven't died on wide front end, but the safety margin is much greater. No different than ATV's really.

A guy I went to school with, his dad a couple years after graduation was killed "pop" starting a narrow front end tractor that flipped.

 

[npalen]

Had not heard the term "pop starting" Can you elaborate on that?

 

[jagyzf]

Had not heard the term "pop starting" Can you elaborate on that?

Around here that is the term used to roll a engine driven object down in incline. This would be in a gear with the clutch pushed in and when enough speed was built up to "pop" the clutch out and let the wheels spin the engine. Similar to a tow start, but when you don't have a tow vehicle, but a hill.

 

[woodlandfarms]

Just got off the phone in a 3 way conference call. Me, my friend who's family runs 25,000 acres of wheat in eastern montana and a friend of their's who farms in Holland. Turns out that the soils in northern europe are difficult and quite wet and mushy, you need big tractors just to run a 5 bottom. This setup helps the tractor float, provides solid traction (4 wheel drive), does not create grooves like a US machine would, and is good for a tight turning radius (farm plots are quite small).

Learn something new every day.

 

[oldnslo]

Farmall & JD and others had fully mounted corn pickers that worked on the narrow fronts. These provided for opening fields without driving over any corn and also placed the weight on the tractor for pulling the wagons up hills. Down sides where engine fires from corn husks, leaves, etc. catching fire from the exhaust header. and front end was heavy so in soft fields you where stuck.

 

[Soundguy]

i'll take a narrow front for mowing ANY day of the week, vs wide front....