Biggest tractor with hydrostatic drive?

[Todd727]

You are, but you probably should go look at some of these tractors to see how they work. Think of having your left hand on the wheel and reaching the turn signals on your car by just extending your fingers. That's how the newer directional control works. If you can, go look at some row crop tractors to see how they shift through 16 or 24 gears by just using a thumb switch on the joystick without needing to use the clutch.

 

[hayden]

The buttons on the end of the hand control are for the fel I believe. The other levers are for the "rear" hydraulics. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

Humm, could be. I thought they were the gear range controls. The brochure says you click buttons to shift up and down within the 6 ranges. I assumed that's what those buttons were. But I think you would only need 2 buttons, not 4. So I'm not sure. I'd be surprised if there wasn't a conventional stick control for the loader. It also looks like the loader is rear mounted, so maybe the control is further back?

 

[hayden]

You are, but you probably should go look at some of these tractors to see how they work. Think of having your left hand on the wheel and reaching the turn signals on your car by just extending your fingers. That's how the newer directional control works. If you can, go look at some row crop tractors to see how they shift through 16 or 24 gears by just using a thumb switch on the joystick without needing to use the clutch.

I've run one of the larger M tractors with the hydraulic shift, and as I recall it works as you describe. It's pretty slick and I expect you would get used to it pretty fast. But I still really like the idea of an HST peddle. But maybe I'm just stuck on that.

 

[hayden]

As I've been thinking about this some more, it's really my mini-ex that I find myself pushing to the limit much more than the tractor. When I get stuck in mud I wish the tractor had bigger front wheels. Ditto for times when I'd like to wade through deep snow in the woods. But much more often I am wishing I had more reach with the mini-ex, especially when brush cutting, more power when brush cutting, and the ability to move larger rocks, and more grunt to move downed trees.

That got me looking at the KX080 excavator. That would really solve some problems and let me work faster. I picked the KX121 because it's the largest machine that I could trailer with my truck. But I've never taken it anywhere on the trailer, and moving it around my property on it's on tracks is probably no more time consuming than loading it on the trailer, hauling it, and unloading. So if I gave that up, I could have a much more capable excavator. Hummmm, need to contemplate that one.

Snowy days stuck inside are dangerous, it would seem.....

 

[MHarryE]

CVT or IVT transmission tractors for the most part are in an entirely different cost range. Like Deere's IVT - I believe the utility series with IVT available starts with the 6R series and we are talking triple your L5740. The M7 Premiums are nice but the size is huge compared to your L5740. Of course the capability in snow is greater too. Yesterday I had to get my M135GX out for the first time this winter to pull out my L6060. However I could never get the larger frame through our woodland trails we clear with the L6060 and its predecessor L5740. The L6060 has turned out to be a major improvement over the L5740 but only in things like operator comfort, starting, uses halkkf the fuel (but a L5740 is never going to break you in fuel cost). Its still the same size frame and tires. We have a JD 6230 with Power Quad transmission as the next step up from the L6060 and it has a lot more capability but in a much larger frame. The hydraulic shuttle transmission is quick for loader work (we do all of our winter feeding moving thousands of large round bales with it), but it can't come close to the maneuverability and quick operation of the hydro L6060 for things like moving snow. What you really need is a stack of tractors like us - 5 tractors from the L6060 to the 170 HP JD 7720. As for excavators, a mini, a 20 ton, and a 50 ton would be about right (dreaming there).

 

[Farmer495]

That's a really interesting tractor. But I don't understand a hand control for fwd/rev rather than a peddle. How do you operate a loader like that? One hand on the loader control, one hand on the fwd/rev control, and one hand on the wheel? I must be missing something.

You run the loader with your feet. One hand stays on the steering wheel, one on the hydro lever, one foot on boom pedal, one on bucket pedal. Buttons on the hydro control are for the 3pt hitch and 3 transmission ranges

 

[Piston]

So the other side of this question would be, what is the smallest tractor that comes with something like a power quad or dynashift (???) transmission? I think Harry pretty much answered it though.

What would be ideal, is something like the Deere 5 series or Kubota M7060 with HST or even the glide shift transmission.

 

[Farmer495]

So the other side of this question would be, what is the smallest tractor that comes with something like a power quad or dynashift (???) transmission? I think Harry pretty much answered it though.

What would be ideal, is something like the Deere 5 series or Kubota M7060 with HST or even the glide shift transmission.

Smallest full powershift trans tractor would have been Ford select-o-speed, 30-40 HP tractors, can't recall the specific models, something like a 600 or 2000 series with 10-speed full powershift.

Powerquad, or similar with 4 or more powershift gears in multiple manual shifted ranges typically were 60PTO HP and up, Case had the Hydra-Shift 4 speed powershift in 3 ranges, i.e. 1394 @65 PTO HP. Deere 6110 @ 62 PTO HP 16 speed power quad.

 

[hayden]

CVT or IVT transmission tractors for the most part are in an entirely different cost range. Like Deere's IVT - I believe the utility series with IVT available starts with the 6R series and we are talking triple your L5740. The M7 Premiums are nice but the size is huge compared to your L5740. Of course the capability in snow is greater too. Yesterday I had to get my M135GX out for the first time this winter to pull out my L6060. However I could never get the larger frame through our woodland trails we clear with the L6060 and its predecessor L5740. The L6060 has turned out to be a major improvement over the L5740 but only in things like operator comfort, starting, uses halkkf the fuel (but a L5740 is never going to break you in fuel cost). Its still the same size frame and tires. We have a JD 6230 with Power Quad transmission as the next step up from the L6060 and it has a lot more capability but in a much larger frame. The hydraulic shuttle transmission is quick for loader work (we do all of our winter feeding moving thousands of large round bales with it), but it can't come close to the maneuverability and quick operation of the hydro L6060 for things like moving snow. What you really need is a stack of tractors like us - 5 tractors from the L6060 to the 170 HP JD 7720. As for excavators, a mini, a 20 ton, and a 50 ton would be about right (dreaming there).

I think you have hit on the key reasons NOT to upsize the 5740. I too discovered that these much bigger tractors are hugely expensive - $100k-$200k. And I think their bulk would start to get in the way, diminishing their utility for my primarily woods work, rather than increasing it.

The more I think about it, the KX080 looks like it would add much more value for the $$ as an upgrade to the KX121. It's no wider than the 5740, so should go through the woods just as easily. And I think I'd be able to work a lot faster with the extra reach and extra power.

A bigger tractor could handle a wider snow blower, but the 5740 can probably handle an 84" or maybe even a 96" vs my current 74". The extra power would allow me to move a bit faster, but probably only save 30 minutes per clearing exercise. I couldn't pull a wider mower because of terrain unevenness, so more capability there would not be beneficial. And for forging through the woods, maneuverability is just as important as traction.

 

[MattLynch]

Take a look at the Fendt 500 series, fairly small and vario trans. Almost the same as HST to drive in pedal mode. Pedal controls speed and throttle controls rpm. It's in the 100pto hp range and very, very nice to drive.