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.

 

[Rustyiron]

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.

By the way my use of "real" was more to define large acerage farms and not insulting anyone working their tail off on smaller farms.

 

[ptsg]

By the way my use of "real" was more to define large acerage farms and not insulting anyone working their tail off on smaller farms.

I got the point.

People here typically don't have huge fields, at least in the upper half of the country, but have lots of smaller ones spread all over a small village, hence why we road the tractors a lot too.

In the bottom half? Huge fields, albeit, mostly intensive olive, avocados and orange tree plantations, which requires entirely different types of tractors.

Sorry OP for derailing this thread slightly. I'll stop now.

 

[Brown Dog]

… I wish I had the 12 speed because of the parking brake feature, for the increased hydraulic pressure. and it has the creep range which is really nice for hooking up to implements …

Creep range is an option on a 12spd that makes it an 18spd.

 

[Jrasband]

Creep range is an option on a 12spd that makes it an 18spd.

You can also add creep to the 8 speed, apparently it's pretty easy.

 

[big bubba]

`keeping in mind that creep gears are not designed for heavy work or excavation...only for slow speed tasks like drilling seed, etc.

 

[Brown Dog]

`keeping in mind that creep gears are not designed for heavy work or excavation...only for slow speed tasks like drilling seed, etc.

& us commercial poultry farmers where ground speed well under 1 mph is needed while running a caking machine in poultry houses.

My JD 5115M with creep option has 16spds in creep range all under 1 mph & 32 additional speeds from
.8 mph up to 23mph.

Up North Snow blowers in deep snow requires speeds under 1mph

It’s also a nice feature for a stump grinder attachment.

 

[Brown Dog]

… A 7060 size tractor is a toy to most farms here, yet it's big enough for me.

Did you decide yet which tractor / transmission will fit your application ?

 

[Farmer495]

Did you decide yet which tractor / transmission will fit your application ?

I'm leaning towards the 12 speed 7060, 8 would "do the job" so I want to get some real world local numbers. Taking my time on this one, hoping to do some dealer visits and also check out MF, CIH/NH and Deere for comparison. Kubota easily won that with the current tractor though.

 

[5030]

Whatever you get, make sure it's a hydraulic shuttle which has no dry clutch at all. Both my M9's are hydraulic shuttle and I've never had to adjust either of them and one is a 2002 and the other is a 2000 and basically all they do is run hay, but then I round bale everything. The cab tractor is an 8x8 with creep gears and the open station is a 8x8 and I've never felt like I need more gears, ever.

I rarely use the creep gears anyway and you have to come to a complete stop to engage them. I can shift up through the main box even though only 1st is synchromesh. I just float the gears and really the only time I do that is when I'm roading anyway.

 

[Farmer495]

Whatever you get, make sure it's a hydraulic shuttle which has no dry clutch at all. Both my M9's are hydraulic shuttle and I've never had to adjust either of them and one is a 2002 and the other is a 2000 and basically all they do is run hay, but then I round bale everything. The cab tractor is an 8x8 with creep gears and the open station is a 8x8 and I've never felt like I need more gears, ever.

I rarely use the creep gears anyway and you have to come to a complete stop to engage them. I can shift up through the main box even though only 1st is synchromesh. I just float the gears and really the only time I do that is when I'm roading anyway.

They are both hydraulic shuttle, and yes, that is a must for me. Zero issues with current 8 speed hydraulic shuttle. I road a lot so the 12 speed appeals there. Creeper is something that I haven't missed really.