I would never prefer to climb a hill backwards with any tractor. In the 1st place it severely limits the traction you have available from directional treads. Worse, the situations that may cause tip with a 4wd are more easy to aggravate and more difficult to foresee when backing up. Notice how the front swings sideways when you make direction correction when backing up and then imagine that that end is supplying most of the push. Now factor in that that end is on a center pivot and the back end is light. If youve got a loader bucket thats some help, but really its not that far forward, and considering the shear mass of the high centered back end the situation is not pretty for avoiding a forward sideways tip. Also, help from the loader in arresting motion going forward back down the hill can easily go wrong if the bucket lip scoops into the ground.
The danger situation is more easy to predict and influence when you climb forward. The heavy end -the one that gives the tractor stability- is down. If the tractor tips it will be straight backward. Since you know this you have installed a bushog on the back and hold it slightly suspended so that, while any rearward tip will be a little premature, it will be immediately damped automatically by touchdown of the implement wheel. You are looking to the front, right at where lift will occur. If you have a loader on you are running it a couple feet off the ground. You are going slow [always in such cases] and you have 2 safeties that do not exhibit immediate criticality toward degree of finesse or with error. Plenty of margin to feel your way up the hill if its going to go..... or reverse back down if it wont.
larry
