HST vs shuttle

teg · Dec 13, 2017

tman1020 said:
....if you need every ounce of power that your motor has to get to the ground or PTO...

I would still get HST but buy a larger, extra HP, tractor to cover what the hydro's lose.

mike69440 · Dec 13, 2017

arrow said:
I'm still a gear guy because my Mahindra shuttle is so darn easy to shift it's truly mindless. But if I'm recommending a tractor to someone and I know how they'll use it, I'd recommend the hydro all day long.

I can't say anything bad about the Mahindra (Mitsubishi Built) shuttles. It was the deciding factor in my purchase. Now if the rest of the tractor were that slick, It would be nicer than a Grand L!

gersus · Dec 13, 2017

Interesting. I was dead set on buying a HST until I drove a gear. The gear just felt "right" probably since I've only driven geared in the past. So, I've been planning on buying a geared tranny ever since. I see how using a HST for FEL work and precise movements would be better. I plan on doing a mix so I'm not sure, still leaning toward a gear though.

LouNY · Dec 13, 2017

Well **** I'm going to upset all the HST lovers on here,
if you are only putting 100 or so hours a year on a tractor under home owner work and do a good job of staying on the oil and filter changes the HST's will properly last several years,
if you are going to put a couple hundred or more hours a year on a tractor and expect to keep it and work it for 10 - 15 years and are going to do much drawbar work the
maintenance cost is going to be high, having to rebuild / replace a hydro unit makes clutch replacement a drop in the bucket. We have gear tractors with well over 10,000 hours
and they are still on the original clutch, a few have had a clutch required at around 5000 hours, no HST is ever going to match the longevity of a geared tractor in general.
When they start getting several thousand hours look at the resale of a hydro.
In the defense of the HST if I was going to get a small tractor for light jobs and light duty loader work I would consider one.

arrow · Dec 13, 2017

mike69440 said:
I can't say anything bad about the Mahindra (Mitsubishi Built) shuttles. It was the deciding factor in my purchase. Now if the rest of the tractor were that slick, It would be nicer than a Grand L!

You'd have to up its price point by about 10 grand Mike for that. The Kubota Grands are just that.

Old Red · Dec 13, 2017

LouNY said:
Well **** I'm going to upset all the HST lovers on here,
if you are only putting 100 or so hours a year on a tractor under home owner work and do a good job of staying on the oil and filter changes the HST's will properly last several years,
if you are going to put a couple hundred or more hours a year on a tractor and expect to keep it and work it for 10 - 15 years and are going to do much drawbar work the
maintenance cost is going to be high, having to rebuild / replace a hydro unit makes clutch replacement a drop in the bucket. We have gear tractors with well over 10,000 hours
and they are still on the original clutch, a few have had a clutch required at around 5000 hours, no HST is ever going to match the longevity of a geared tractor in general.
When they start getting several thousand hours look at the resale of a hydro.
In the defense of the HST if I was going to get a small tractor for light jobs and light duty loader work I would consider one.

Oh Lou come on now....definately not upset.....I have a straight geared, shuttle shift, and HST......but anyway.....have you ever seen a gear driven skid steer loader on a construction site anywhere? I see Bobcat T190 Tracked Hydro Skid Steers with thousands upon thousands of hours on them doing very very hard tasks. Construction worker beat the living daylights out of their euipment. I owned one and worked it pretty hard myself.

Is it going to last as long....no....but will anyone on here ever ever ever wear one out.....absolutely not!

DieselBound · Dec 14, 2017

My cars are geared. They primarily run on highways, so not a lot of shifting. IF I had to drive in the city all the time I'd have automatics. Same applies to tractors. If I were doing long-stretch work, requiring little in the way of changing speeds, I'd have geared. My tractor situation, however, is more akin to city driving: lots of obstacles, speed changing and precision navigating. I have HST on my tractors (also HST on my Polaris Brutus). Heck, my B7800 has racked up a few miles w/o anyone in the seat! With this tractor I'd often jump off of it to do something before the tractor was even stopped: I work like a dog, speed is essential for me (I do not, however, lose track of the fact that everything I do requires my total concentration- safety).

One day I'll have to pull the engine out of my Polaris to replace a leaking rear main seal. If it were a geared machine I wouldn't be able to put this off (likely it would have long ago stopped working- oil soaked clutch).

My wife has operated all of our equipment. HST has made this possible. (and she drives a geared car!)

Precision, HST. Total grunt/power, geared.

jk96 · Dec 14, 2017

I'm really liking my CVT after owning a similar tractor with hydro. Would by another without question.

marchanna · Dec 14, 2017

My uncle had an HST Kubota for his landscaping business. It was a real work horse; it must have been about a 25Hp. I don't know how many hours it had on it, but from May to October, it was used 8 - 10 hours a day for 5 - 7 days a week. Mowing, loader work, and grading. It worked on and on for about 15 years like that, then he finally retired. I used to work for him as a summer job and I probably logged a solid 400 hours on it just by myself.

I like my Kioti gear tractor. I don't plenty of loader work with it, and I can scoop a full heaping bucket every time. I assume there's a little more power and torque lost between the crankshaft and the rubber with the HST, but I don't know how much that typically is. On a road car, it's pretty common to see an additional 15% loss in an automatic compared to a stick.

aczlan · Dec 14, 2017

LouNY said:
Well **** I'm going to upset all the HST lovers on here,
if you are only putting 100 or so hours a year on a tractor under home owner work and do a good job of staying on the oil and filter changes the HST's will properly last several years,
if you are going to put a couple hundred or more hours a year on a tractor and expect to keep it and work it for 10 - 15 years and are going to do much drawbar work the
maintenance cost is going to be high, having to rebuild / replace a hydro unit makes clutch replacement a drop in the bucket. We have gear tractors with well over 10,000 hours
and they are still on the original clutch, a few have had a clutch required at around 5000 hours, no HST is ever going to match the longevity of a geared tractor in general.
When they start getting several thousand hours look at the resale of a hydro.
In the defense of the HST if I was going to get a small tractor for light jobs and light duty loader work I would consider one.