Okay, let's try this again to make sure everyone understands what I'm asking.
I currently have a
B7100 Kubota with loader. It's a gear machine. I drive it in 4wd all the time. I have slopes ranging from about a 3/12 pitch to about 5/12. Nothing is flat except the floor of the house and shop. I move mulch, manure, rocks, firewood, deadfalls, and the occasional log. I have 4 forks projecting from the front of the bucket to facilitate carrying bulky objects. I have loaded rear tires, about 130lb of concrete on the rear lift arms, 150 or so lb of ROPS that I added to the tractor, and a seat moved back about 3 inches to accomodate my long legs, thus setting my 210 lb. farther back, and the rear wheels are at maximum width. That makes about 500 or 600 lb on the rear of the tractor, maximum polar moment on the lateral axis, and so on. The loader is supposed to lift 500lb, so I have a rear weight equal to the maximum of the loader.
If I have a bucket of rocks, mulch, or green wood and am moving around the property, I often need to go downhill. With the tractor in gear, letting off on the throttle (excuse me, enginie speed control device) allows the engine compression to slow the tractor, or keep it from going faster. This is what I mean by engine braking, just like in a manual tranny car or truck. The retardant force imposed by the front wheels is a significant part of controlling the speed of the tractor. In 2wd, the rears would skid. If I push in the clutch and use only the brakes to control my speed, the rears skid. I can find myself on these same hills with my hydro Cadet 109 moving downhill while the rear wheels are either locked or spinning backward. This is on my driveway or mowing the lawn, gentlemen, not hot dogging around in the woods.
When driving a hydro ST28a on the dealer lot, I had an opportunity to descend a short but fairly steep hill that I had just driven up. It seemed that the tractor did not slow down a whole lot when I lifted off the go pedal.
I'm wondering if this lack of retardation by the engine is pretty much par for the course with hydro tractors. If so, can I push the reverse pedal to slow the tractor? I know there are no gears involved, but moving fluids and valves and such. Still, will pushing on the reverse pedal while going forward downhill with a load in the bucket and ballast onthe back cause any harm to the machinery? I hasn't hurt the Cadet since the wheels just spin, but the loads involved there are considerably less. That tractor's brake pedal essentially moves the hydro lever to neutral before actaully engaging the brakes, thus using the hydro to slow the tractor. With a bigger tractor and a loaded bucket and ballast, will the hydro slow the tractor on a hill? Presume 4wd is locked in.
Of all the new hydros I've looked at, only the Deere has the brake pedal positioned so I could use the brake and the rear hydro pedal simultaneously to control my speed. All the others I've driven are an either/or situation since the pedals are all on the same side. In that case, if the rear gets light, using the brakes will not help much, so the question is -- will the hydro slow the rate of descent in 4wd?
