HST help

oldpilgrim · May 5, 2015

I know a lot of people who have gone from gear to hst, including me.

I know no one who has gone from hst to gear.

nybirdman · May 5, 2015

I plow ten acres a year with my HST tractor and glad I have it.I have tons and tons of rocks and the HST lets me stop/slow crawl as needed.Infinate speed control for all work.

k0ua · May 5, 2015

texasjohn said:
Ditto to this.

HST is safer and VERY easy to operate. To me, anyone who has less than 200 acres to care for is an excellent candidate for HST. All the talk about back and forth, loss of hp to HST, etc. is actually not an issue under 200 acres. Everyone in this category does LOTS of back and forth, careful travel around objects, very little of dozens of hours of ground engagement equipment where HP could be a concern under some few specialized circumstances. HST simply is great, and the reliability of the transmission is superb. Fatigue is dramatically reduced by using an HST over a shifting transmission...and if operating for numerous hours, fatigue is a major contributor to accidents.

There are some who see it differently...ask them if they have daily used an HST...I cannot recommend it highly enough, even considering some additional cost over alternative transmissions...worth it, IMHO.

I am pretty much in this camp ^. I can remember 8 hours doing loader work with my geared tractor, and getting off in the evening and just about fall down from fatigue. 8 hours with a HST tractor doing the same work is much much better. There are a million other reasons to go hydro, but If all I ever did was plow, I would probably have some version of a geared tractor. Probably a hydro shuttle. For mowing as others have said, you sometimes need to slow down for a few seconds, then speed up. Here is where the Hydrostatic tractor really shines with infinite speed control. I have owned both gear and HST tractors, I am done with geared tractors. But it is all good, and entirely up to you.

Kodiak45 · May 5, 2015

after this testimony, I'm sold on hst for sure, but I definitely want some sort of cruise control function

jenkinsph · May 6, 2015

mgraham112 said:
after this testimony, I'm sold on hst for sure, but I definitely want some sort of cruise control function

On the Deere ehydro series compacts the two features I like are the cruise and auto throttle functions. The cruise is much like an automotive cruise with a toggle switch to adjust the tractor mph up and down in .1 mph increments. This is very helpful for things such as rototilling where you may need .7 in some soil or 1.9 mph in others. The auto throttle adjust the engine speed to match the travel pedals which I find very easy to use for box blading, you can go from stationary to full speed either direction by pushing down on the pedals.

I would think most tractors brands with hydrostatics have something similar and makes these tractors much easier to operate all day.

oldpilgrim · May 6, 2015

my Mahindra has a lever that you press when you reach the speed you want, to hold it there. Simple.

McREBEL · May 6, 2015

I had the same concern as you about HST early on in my tractor search but soon became aware most have a cruise. Mine has a basic mechanical cruise. I just pull up on a lever down below the steering column which holds the pedal anywhere I put it. Works great. The HST works great for me. My neighbors like their gears. I do almost grimace when I see them doing a lot of back and forth, constantly clutching and shifting. To each his own.

Kodiak45 · May 6, 2015

What made me question hst to begin with is the local Deere dealer told me his hst Deere tractors didn't have any cruise option and that it was only sub compact tractors that had something like that. I just need to go see for myself, but I wanted be informed before I heard any pitches

SCWOOD · May 6, 2015

Would you like to inch or better yet 1/2 inch up to your tailgate on your truck to load or unload something? try that with gear! HST all the way!
We had two John deere 1972 140s lawn tractors hst when I was growing up. I tried to tear it up by going full forward then slam it in reverse so I would not have to cut grass(this was on pavement!) never had a problem with them!

GManBart · May 6, 2015

mgraham112 said:
What made me question hst to begin with is the local Deere dealer told me his hst Deere tractors didn't have any cruise option and that it was only sub compact tractors that had something like that. I just need to go see for myself, but I wanted be informed before I heard any pitches

I know for a fact the Deere 3032E and 3038E have cruise control as an option...they even have a big blue arrow pointing to the switch on the product page

On the 3R series cruise control is standard. Going up in size the 4M series has cruise as an option, and the 4R has cruise standard.

This sort of stuff is why I really don't put much faith in what tractor sales people say....they frequently don't know much about the machines they sell.