TT45A scare!

[fishrman]

I just wanted to share the following that I just wrote to an email address I found for New Holland. Might not be the right address but hopefully it will get to the right place. If anyone has a email for corporate office, I think this is where it needs to go:
To whom it may concern,
I am not sure who to write. This is one of the few email addresses I found.
I have a 2009 TT45A that I bought new with approx. 170 hours on it.
I was mowing with a brush cutter yesterday and turned around at the top of a hill to head back down. I must have hit 4th gear instead of a lower gear as the machine just shot down the hill. I immediately pushed in the clutch pedal and hit the brakes but the machine kept going down the hill into brush. I received several cut over both arms in the brush as I proceed to hang on and try to take control of the tractor. My right eye also received a laceration on the eye lid and brow. The machine stopped after traveling about 60 feet into brush with thistles and thorns on them. I got the machine shut off and after I got my wits back together I looked at the machine and found the clutch pedal had jumped around the peg that is suppose to stop the clutch from going further and was lodged underneath the stop so that the clutch was not usable at all. In other words, there was no way to get it into gear as the clutch was fully engaged and would not come back up because it was behind the clutch stop! This is something that could happen to anyone and I was lucky I wasn't hurt worse than I was. I am not sure if you have any ideas of how to prevent this from happening in the future but something needs to be done as this is not anything I would wish to happen to anyone else. I now am a little fearful of pushing on the clutch pedal and having it work properly especially on a hill.
If this wasn't sent to the proper address then please forward it on to the proper one or let me know who I need to contact.
Thank you for your understanding and help. I am thinking right now I should probably think about getting a hydrostatic drive model.
Thanks for your help.
Sincerely,

 

[fishrman]

Any ideas who to write on this event as I have not got a reply yet. It just should not do what it did, in my opinion! Thanks!

 

[aczlan]

Picture of the peg that the clutch pedal jumped around?

Aaron Z

 

[fishrman]

Hopefully this will give you the picture.

 

[Bladehauler]

Sounds like it's time to adjust those brakes too !

 

[fishrman]

You may be right about the brakes! If it is sliding with the wheels not turning though, I am not sure adjusting them is going to do much good.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

This sounds more like operator error then tractor fault. I'm going to guess when you panicked you pushed the clutch in as hard as you can and forced it into the position you described while at the same time pressing the brakes as hard as you could trying to stop. Why were you changing gears at the top of the hill and this tractor isn't easy to mix up the gear with. 1st and 4th are opposite corners.

My view is you have a 2wd tractor (I have a 2wd Farmall 45A which is basically the red version of yours) hooked to a heavy 3pt attachment on a hill. Your tractor is light and the 2wd front axle does nothing to help you on a hill. You should have been in a very low gear and kept the mower all the way down at all times working in this situation. Also, if your going to continuing using this setup on your hills you should invest in some front weights as it will help you keep the front planted better (helps a lot with turning while hooked to a rotary cutter).

I personally really like my 45A but I know how easy it is to lose control of a small 2wd tractor. You need to be careful at all times on hills but even more so with a 2wd tractor. A fwa tractor will help you will the added weight of the heavier axle, added pulling traction and added brake ability while in FWA mode as then the front wheels will also lock when the brakes are applied. My Kubota engages the fwa anytime you press the brake pedal so that the front axle helps with stopping the tractor. Good luck to you and don't be too hard on the tractor as I don't see anywhere in your description where this was the tractors fault. If the clutch failed at the top of the hill you would have known it and been able to stop before going down the hill. Just be happy you survived this lesson and learn from it.

 

[fishrman]

This sounds more like operator error then tractor fault. I'm going to guess when you panicked you pushed the clutch in as hard as you can and forced it into the position you described while at the same time pressing the brakes as hard as you could trying to stop. Why were you changing gears at the top of the hill and this tractor isn't easy to mix up the gear with. 1st and 4th are opposite corners.

My view is you have a 2wd tractor (I have a 2wd Farmall 45A which is basically the red version of yours) hooked to a heavy 3pt attachment on a hill. Your tractor is light and the 2wd front axle does nothing to help you on a hill. You should have been in a very low gear and kept the mower all the way down at all times working in this situation. Also, if your going to continuing using this setup on your hills you should invest in some front weights as it will help you keep the front planted better (helps a lot with turning while hooked to a rotary cutter).

I personally really like my 45A but I know how easy it is to lose control of a small 2wd tractor. You need to be careful at all times on hills but even more so with a 2wd tractor. A fwa tractor will help you will the added weight of the heavier axle, added pulling traction and added brake ability while in FWA mode as then the front wheels will also lock when the brakes are applied. My Kubota engages the fwa anytime you press the brake pedal so that the front axle helps with stopping the tractor. Good luck to you and don't be too hard on the tractor as I don't see anywhere in your description where this was the tractors fault. If the clutch failed at the top of the hill you would have known it and been able to stop before going down the hill. Just be happy you survived this lesson and learn from it.

I can't disagree with anything you said but why not have a better design than that for the clutch pedal? There would be no way for this to happen if they would design it so the clutch pedal hit the floor instead of a stop peg!
Also, my mower was in the lowered position as I was mowing.
I was changing gears because I had gone up the hill on a path and then had to back up to go back down the hill. It was then that I went from reverse to 4th, I think! In hind site, I was probably going for 2nd instead of 4th but either way, that was "operator error"!
And, I am very thankful as it could have been much worse.

 

[Soggy Bottom Outdoors]

Robert form ny, Please explain the (FWA will engage when brakes are applied) part of you post, it's early and I've only had pot of coffee, little grogy.

 

[MoKelly]

Wow. Glad you are OK. My guess is the Corporate folks don't want anything to do with your e:Mail (they need to pretend they never received it) as it could indicate a liability issue for them if in fact there is a design flaw. Last thing they want is this issue to become a problem and have evidence someone pointed it out early.

MoKelly