I recently bought a dk40se hst with 200hrs on it. My experience with hst is from an old Kubota so this is what I'm comparing this to. The kioti hst is alot more responsive in reverse vs forward. But even then it seems very sluggish. I hit the forward pedal and it takes a while to respond and it gradually get to speed in all 3 ranges. Again more responsive in reverse. Is this normal and is there away to adjust the responsiveness.