Well I had folks with whole lot of experience say otherwise. People who've spent their lives on tractors of all makes and models. People who sell, service and drive them all, including the salesman with 40 years who had previously been pushing me toward HST until I brought up the terrain factor. Bear in mind I was sitting on the HST at the dealership while he had to go and fetch the shuttle from the distributor, where I drove it, then sell it to me for a grand less. I didn't really care either way, I just wanted to get what was right for my needs and terrain.
I'm beginning to think that this whole shuttle/hydro thing is more about personal preference than anything else.
All that said I got the shuttle after driving both and I actually thought the shuttle was easier to drive than the somewhat awkward and uncomfortable rocker pedal. I think a two pedal setup would likely have been better but it isn't offered on on that model. Even on flat ground the rocker actually felt uncomfortable and clumsy for me so I think it might need some work yet. It doesn't matter a whole lot because I won't be doing a lot of back and forth nor do I have great distances to drive at any speed. I'll likely spend most of my time with the seat turned around digging at stumps.
Being into rock crawling, I'm pretty comfortalbe with gear boxes and know how to feather a clutch, when to use 4WD and when and when not to lock up an axle along with how and when to use cutting brakes. I've also developed a pretty good sense of bottom end pucker factor when it comes to flopping and rolling over.
