Where does it stop?

[arrow]

I'd like to see a gear tractor do this without cursing by the time the job was over. I bush hogged this pond dam and had to back up and down it on both sides. I had to change directions on the hill which is about 25 degrees at the steepest. I can also back down to the water at any speed I want.

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You're moving your foot to change direction. A synchronized shuttle does the same thing but you're moving your arm. What you stated earlier makes all the difference. It depends on the tractor for an advantage with hydro as some hydros of lower horsepower have proved anemic for how a person might use a tractor. These types of variables along with how the user is wired makes all the difference in the world. It can be about personal preference but i'd say it's more of a combination of preference and actuality. All one can ever get to without making blanket statements of which type of tractor is better is to state THEIR OWN PREFERENCE and why as that is all that really fits. I tried two hydros (a Kubota treadle and a Mahindra like I have) before I bought and they both made me nuts. I'm a gear head apparently. I've dragged raced sticked cars for 50 years and it was only 5 years ago that I built a truck with an auto tranny. I still miss shifting while others would vomit at the thought.

 

[DK35vince]

I agree mowing the pond bank is easier with a hydro. All you can do is offer your opinion on the differences between the hydro and gear transmission. Some people get it and some have to learn everything the hard way.

Never said gear was as easy as hydro.
Some just like the feel of a gear machine in a tractor.
But apparently if their opinion differs from yours they are wrong.

 

[4570Man]

Never said gear was as easy as hydro. Some just like the feel of a gear machine in a tractor. But apparently if their opinion differs from yours they are wrong.

Someone said a gear was superior on hills, and it is easily proven they are wrong.

 

[ultrarunner]

I have all three... they all have done well...

When I'm teaching someone how to operate a tractor it is always with the Hydro on flat ground...

 

[arrow]

Someone said a gear was superior on hills, and it is easily proven they are wrong.

Not as easy how your current thinking is firing. They could have meant "going over a hill" The Mahindra hydro I tried would not go over a slight incline in high at high rpms while the gear went over this same hill at idle in 5th gear. In this case, the superiority did indeed belong to the geared in my opinion.

 

[4570Man]

High range is for road travel only. Try putting the gear in the highest gear and try again. My HST will go over any hill the same model gear will. It's operator error such as this that gives a HST a bad name.

 

[Jim Timber]

If you buy a tractor with an FEL and gear transmission you will be in a small minority, perhaps 2%. Should you decide to sell in a year or two upon figuring out all your needs, the market for your FEL/gear tractor will be limited and the offers you receive LOW.

Funny... I could sell my tractor today for more than I paid for it a year ago.

What you're saying is biased to all get out to your frame of thinking. YOU prefer the hydro slush box. I do loader work with a manual tranny and have no regrets. Many of us grew up driving stick in our cars and trucks - it's hardly slow.

 

[Deezl Smoke]

Until hard proof is brought to the table either way, all info given is in fact "opinion".

 

[s219]

Funny... I could sell my tractor today for more than I paid for it a year ago.

What you're saying is biased to all get out to your frame of thinking. YOU prefer the hydro slush box. I do loader work with a manual tranny and have no regrets. Many of us grew up driving stick in our cars and trucks - it's hardly slow.

That's one of my beefs -- I own two vehicles with manual transmission right now, but I see zero relevance to gear transmission in a tractor. Two entirely different beasts. I'd never own a sports car with anything but manual transmission, but with tractors I see pros and cons to gear and HST and don't feel my experience with cars/trucks plays into that much.

Now, if you can properly drop the clutch and smoke the tires on your tractor and demonstrate a proper heel/toe shift, then I might change my mind .

 

[Jim Timber]

That's one of my beefs -- I own two vehicles with manual transmission right now, but I see zero relevance to gear transmission in a tractor. Two entirely different beasts. I'd never own a sports car with anything but manual transmission, but with tractors I see pros and cons to gear and HST and don't feel my experience with cars/trucks plays into that much.

Now, if you can properly drop the clutch and smoke the tires on your tractor and demonstrate a proper heel/toe shift, then I might change my mind .

I'll eat my shoe if you can get the front end to lift on your HST (without using the loader or hooking to a stump). I can apply sharp torque spikes via my gears that you can't dream of with fluid power.

When I was back in school getting my AAS in CNC, the machine shop was next door to the fluid power program. The head of that program is a real turd and thinks his program gets more done than we did (when you break it down, we make all his parts and he's nothing without us :laughing: ), but any way... They made a hydro powered rail dragster as a class project. Complete with cage, wing, the whole 9. The students thought they'd be able to do a burnout the whole length of the parking lot because of the calculated torque their pump and motors were capable of producing.

End of the semester arrives, they're all outside amped with pride and anticipation for the spectacle. It'd do about 3mph.

Driving is driving. Doesn't really matter what the vehicle. Tractor, car, truck. If you can shift one, you can shift the other. Not having to shift might be a plus to you, but I don't like the heat or excess fuel consumption a HST has to offer. To each their own.