Hydro or gear

[boggen]

gear has there places, but for most home owners a HST will most likely be more beneficial and useful.
now if you were in a business from landscaping to agricultural work (in the fields) or like. then a gear might be more beneficial, you just put it into a gear and go,

but as others have said, home owners usage and multi tasking tractors (see a little bit of everything) an HST more likely be more useful and get a lot more tasks done quicker and easier.

there is a good amount of threads on this subject, an each thread is a little different pending on which folks reply, and they go back and forth.

 

[HEC]

I was told by the kubota factory rep to go gear in 2005 if I was going to be doing heavy hauling , maybe thoughts have changed since then . I have the hyd. clutch in my M5700 and do like it very much .I sure see the advantages of hst on my B2650 though .

 

[tooln]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I was born and raised on a farm so gear tractors are not new to me, but we never had a hydro unit. It's been a while since operating a gear tractor as all of my rentals have been hydro. I do realize that I will not be able to skid all the logs I'm looking at as some of the maple are 36" - 40" on the stump. I also know some power will be lost with a hydro vs gear driven. Myself I se a lot more problems with a gear vs a hydro. I have no idea why the BIL thinks what he does I just wanted to post here top get un bias opinions. Sure each has it's advantages and disadvantages but for my needs I'm leaning heavily towards the hydro. MY use's will be food plot and trail maintenance, moving rocks and other various loader work & some log skidding. For the skidding part I'm not looking to do a lot of cutting but just to pick trees that are weak, dead or getting bad. Something where a logger would not come in to do as there would be so few.

 

[jeff9366]

Many contributors believe an HST transmission to be MORE reliable than a gear transmission.

Most problems with a gear transmission are with the clutch, which has been eliminated on every new tractor HST transmission that I know of.

I edited for you, Roy. Better?

 

[RoyJackson]

I edited for you, Roy. Better?

Yep...much more accurate...

The best (IMHO) transmission for most work is a reverser...no power loss (like an HST) and (in my case) twelve forward and twelve reverse gears to chose from...including a creeper reverse for snow blowing...but that's just my humble opinion.

 

[jeff9366]

No one with 18,445 T-B-N posts and the exalted title "Super Star Member" is allowed to remain in the humble category.

When "Murph-------" earns the title "Super Star Member" an exception may have to be made, because he is TRULY humble. Of coarse, the exalted title could change good ol' Murph--------

 

[oldpilgrim]

IMHO, an HST will do everything a gear will do and in 95% of the time, do it better, easier and more reliably but at the cost of a little more fuel, maybe.

 

[murphy1244]

Get both, the best of both worlds.:thumbsup:

 

[RoyJackson]

No one with 18,445 T-B-N posts and the exalted title "Super Star Member" is allowed to remain in the humble category.

Longevity doesn't mean smarter....

 

[mikehaugen]

I have no idea why the BIL thinks what he does I just wanted to post here top get un bias opinions.

Not sure you'll find too much of that here.

The best (IMHO) transmission for most work is a reverser...no power loss (like an HST) and (in my case) twelve forward and twelve reverse gears to chose from...including a creeper reverse for snow blowing...but that's just my humble opinion.

I think I agree with this statement. I have only used what I think is a reverser trans in a front end loader. Basically had a stick on the column similar to a turn signal lever. It had a dial on the end to choose gear (4) and you would push it forward or reverse to go that direction. You could change direction and gears while moving, without using clutch (though changing direction I'm sure wasn't good). It had a clutch but you really never used it. I imagine in a tractor it would also have ranges, where you would need to clutch and possibly need to be stopped. I guess what I'm describing could also be shuttle shift, I'm really not sure, but it is what I want in my next tractor.