M7060 8 speed versus 12 speed

[Sawyer Rob]

It's more about having more choices in and around the speed you need to go for the work you are doing, 12 gears gives you by far, the best chance for that happening.

Actually I prefer 16 speeds including "creep"

SR

 

[ptsg]

I find it kinda baffling that a tractor this size won't offer at very minimum a 16x16 transmission as standard. 24x24 or more as an option.

Heck, my 35hp tractor has a 12x12 and if I jumped to the next frame size, it would have a 16x16.

 

[big bubba]

this:
"You'll appreciate having 6 gears before a range change. (Complete stop required)" Rustyiron

 

[Farmer495]

Unless you are driving on paved roads, and you need to run through all the gears to get up to speed, in all reality, you only need about three different gears. That's all I've used in the last 20 years with the four different tractors that I have. Usually I'm always in the same gear for everything I'm using that tractor for, but sometimes I want to go as slow as possible, other times, I want to go just a little faster to get where I'm going to be working.

I think that the most important thing when comparing different tractors and gearing is which one has the lowest gear ration. When you get into a pucker situation, there is no such thing as TOO SLOW!!!!

My newest tractor has 12 speeds. I have never used the high range gears, and probably never will. That means I only use the lower six gears, and that's more then enough for working on my land.

For field work it's three for me, L4, H1, H2 so your logic does work. I agree on having slow gears too, I use L1 for a lot of tight quarters work. I do a lot of road work all four gears in high range get used, but H4 is used for the duration of travel.

 

[Farmer495]

I find it kinda baffling that a tractor this size won't offer at very minimum a 16x16 transmission as standard. 24x24 or more as an option.

Heck, my 35hp tractor has a 12x12 and if I jumped to the next frame size, it would have a 16x16.

Mystery to me too. I've driven lots of triple stick tractors, partial range powershifts, full powershifts and all have been 12 to 24 speeds not counting creepers. The basic utility models seem to be 8 speed for whatever reason.

There were three 8 speed tractors on the place at once too.

 

[ptsg]

Mystery to me too. I've driven lots of triple stick tractors, partial range powershifts, full powershifts and all have been 12 to 24 speeds not counting creepers. The basic utility models seem to be 8 speed for whatever reason.

There were three 8 speed tractors on the place at once too.

It seems to be a market thing. Here in Europe, they seem to put a lot more gears on tractors, along with a lot more features. While in the US, they seem to take a lot of useful stuff out of the tractors to sell there for some reason.

For instance, Kubota no longer sells the M7060 here but they do have the M4073, which comes standard with a 18x18 transmission and a 36x36 with Dual speed as an option.

 

[Rustyiron]

It seems to be a market thing. Here in Europe, they seem to put a lot more gears on tractors, along with a lot more features. While in the US, they seem to take a lot of useful stuff out of the tractors to sell there for some reason.

For instance, Kubota no longer sells the M7060 here but they do have the M4073, which comes standard with a 18x18 transmission and a 36x36 with Dual speed as an option.

I wonder if it's the 100 hp and under size?
"Real" farmers here would have a 75-100 hp chore tractor or a SS for manure scraping and barn chores with the real HP iron with more serious transmission choices for multiple drawbar tillage tools and planting that much of the time involves roading distances to the field.
I think your right with the "market thing".

 

[Farmer495]

It seems to be a market thing. Here in Europe, they seem to put a lot more gears on tractors, along with a lot more features. While in the US, they seem to take a lot of useful stuff out of the tractors to sell there for some reason.

For instance, Kubota no longer sells the M7060 here but they do have the M4073, which comes standard with a 18x18 transmission and a 36x36 with Dual speed as an option.

We get the M4071 here, it's "fancier" and way more money than the M7060. Those are all 12 speed, no dual speed option that I can see here.

 

[Farmer495]

I wonder if it's the 100 hp and under size?
"Real" farmers here would have a 75-100 hp chore tractor or a SS for manure scraping and barn chores with the real HP iron with more serious transmission choices for multiple drawbar tillage tools and planting that much of the time involves roading distances to the field.
I think your right with the "market thing".

I think you are right on the size. The small CaseIH here is open station, the European version could be had with AC cab, which was not even an option over here. A 7060 size tractor is a toy to most farms here, yet it's big enough for me.

 

[ptsg]

I wonder if it's the 100 hp and under size?
"Real" farmers here would have a 75-100 hp chore tractor or a SS for manure scraping and barn chores with the real HP iron with more serious transmission choices for multiple drawbar tillage tools and planting that much of the time involves roading distances to the field.
I think your right with the "market thing".

Could be. Here in Portugal specifically, "real" farming starts right at 50HP or even slightly less. A lot of people with small farms to sell at local markets at what not, don't really need an huge tractor, specially since a big tractor can't go where the smaller ones can.

All kinds of tillage tools, trailers, etc, just in a smaller scale.

That's why we also have higher HP tractors offered in a very small package. For instance, a Goldoni S110 offers 102HP in the size of a Kubota L60 series, or even slightly smaller and it has a 24x12 transmission. Same goes for several other specialized tractors available.

Roading tractors is a just something we have to do a lot, regardless of the size of the tractor, this also includes pulling fully loaded trailers all over the place. Right now, it's grape harvest season, so you would see all kinds of tractors on the road fully loaded with grapes. Even smaller 2 wheel tractor with a trailer.

What's interesting here in Portugal, is that the upper half of the country, can't really use a tractor much bigger than a conventional 150 to 200HP. Anything bigger, it just won't work anywhere. Lots of tight roads, small fields, hills, etc.

On the bottom half of the country, we have JD 9RX's working there, Fendt 1050's, Valtra S series and more of these bigger tractors since the country is a lot more flat and open down there.