Gear drive vs hydro

[N80]

I guess I'm not sure what 'fast' is. First gear in my Kubota L4400 is seems almost unusably slow to me. In first gear my tractor will move forward at an idle. At 'rated engine speed' which I am assuming is the same as 540 pto which is 2100 rpm, the spec sheet says my tractor goes 1.2 mph. Of course I can go much slower using slower rpm, like 1800 and still go real slow and maintain adequate pto speed.

How slow do these optional creeper gears go?

 

[N80]

To me a spinner is just something to break your knuckles when your front wheels hit something and the wheel is ripped out of your hands.

Andy

Not with power steering! Which, by the way, makes the spinner even more speedy! The argument is not spinner or no spinner its whether you get one the same color as your tractor or just basic black. My spinner is orange.

 

[RollingsFarms]

I guess I'm not sure what 'fast' is. First gear in my Kubota L4400 is seems almost unusably slow to me. In first gear my tractor will move forward at an idle. At 'rated engine speed' which I am assuming is the same as 540 pto which is 2100 rpm, the spec sheet says my tractor goes 1.2 mph. Of course I can go much slower using slower rpm, like 1800 and still go real slow and maintain adequate pto speed.

How slow do these optional creeper gears go?

i've seen them rated as slow as .9 mph. the think i find weird is with my old tractor i could be at idle speed or full throttle and not even notice a difference in most gears when in low range.

 

[CrazyQ]

yep...

...However, HST is extreme precision and I consider it a safety item.
.

I bought the gear model as a safety advantage. I am going to use my tractor to pull logs down a very steep hill and having the tractor locked into a low gear instead of relying on hydraulics is an advantage for me....

 

[CrazyQ]

I guess I'm not sure what 'fast' is. First gear in my Kubota L4400 is seems almost unusably slow to me. In first gear my tractor will move forward at an idle. At 'rated engine speed' which I am assuming is the same as 540 pto which is 2100 rpm, the spec sheet says my tractor goes 1.2 mph. Of course I can go much slower using slower rpm, like 1800 and still go real slow and maintain adequate pto speed.

How slow do these optional creeper gears go?

In first gear,low range my Kioti is spec'd at 0.24mph. Last weekend I cut a tree, left the cut pieces where they lay, put the tractor in 1/1 and got off. As the tractor creeped past the tree i loaded the cut pieces into the bucket and jumped back on to put the tractor in a transport gear....probably not the safest, but it works well.

 

[N80]

the think i find weird is with my old tractor i could be at idle speed or full throttle and not even notice a difference in most gears when in low range.

Actually, that's a good point. I said I could go much slower at a lower RPM and that isn't accurate. There is a difference between idle and 2100 rpm, but you are correct, it is not huge.

Regardless, I think it will go slower than 1.2 mph, which sounds like it puts it down into the 'creeper' gear level. But, that's just the 4400, obviously other gear tractors do need the creeper option to go really slow. But as it is with the L4400, I rarely if ever use 1st gear, even when mowing in tight quarters, but I have never used a tiller.

And the HST spec sheets do list the speed range starting with zero, so as Dargo mentioned it is infinite. In my case though I'm not sure that the infinite variations between zero and less than 1 mph is particularly meaningful.

But that leads me to a question. If you are mowing with an HST, or anything else that requires a certain PTO speed, is the PTO speed connected to ground speed at all. In otherwords, on its lowest setting, can an HST creep at .3 mph and maintain 540 rpm PTO speed?

 

[N80]

In first gear,low range my Kioti is spec'd at 0.24mph.

Wow! That is sloooooow. I can hardly see the utility in a gear that low, unless you have plenty more to work with. But if you do, that's pretty cool. How many forward gears does it have?

As the tractor creeped past the tree i loaded the cut pieces into the bucket and jumped back on to put the tractor in a transport gear....probably not the safest, but it works well.

Yes, as we speak the safety gods are getting all red in the face and preparing for bluster. And I'd have to say, I'd never do that....but at 1/4 mph I can see how it would be tempting?

No operator presence switch on that model?

 

[jake98]

Not that I want to add to the extra liability side, (is there a forum here for that?), but with the hydro, you don't have to jump on and off, you can leave the brake on and in low range you can move a few feet without more than one finger on the pedal... or you can drive all over with the brake on if that suits you.
Jake

 

[N80]

Not that I want to add to the extra liability side, (is there a forum here for that?), but with the hydro, you don't have to jump on and off, you can leave the brake on and in low range you can move a few feet without more than one finger on the pedal... or you can drive all over with the brake on if that suits you.
Jake

Are you talking talking about getting off a moving tractor too? Do you guys ride in the bucket while doing this?

 

[Matt_Jr]

Are you talking talking about getting off a moving tractor too? Do you guys ride in the bucket while doing this?

LMAO.

I had a JD210 with first gear being .3mph. It was a 5 speed trans with 6 settings in between each speed. First gear had a lock out so it always started out in second unless unlocked. The BX24 has a HST and PTO is based on engine speed not ground speed. It's a live PTO. PTO speed stays the same in forward and reverse and while switching between the two.