CK vs DK pricing and feedbak

[Z-Michigan]

The Hydraulic Shuttle lever next to the steering wheel allows me to shift from forward to reverse and vise versa without clutching, but this is NOT synchronized so I must come to a stop before changing directions. With my limited experience, I find it works best in the lower/slower gears. If i want to change directions, I can at any time, move the lever from fwd (or from rev) to neutral, pause for the tractor to stop (or brake to stop), and then move the lever in the other direction, all without the clutch pedal. I can pause forward or reverse motion (say chewing into heavy snow with the blower) by moving the shuttle to the neutral position and then back to the same direction. In this case, I do not have to be at a complete stop to engage the shuttle in the same direction I am coasting. Someone certainly please correct me if I am using my new tractor incorrectly.

I would be interested to hear from someone with a non hydraulic shuttle version of the DK series. The web site states manual transmission (is that synchronized or not??) with synchronized shuttle (so no need for stop between forward/reverse??, but clutching required?? or not??). This Kioti web site is certainly short on words!

I have the exact same tractor and about 1.5 years of use on it. I find it works exactly as Peter described. I also find that it works best in warm to hot weather, and below 40 I use the clutch pedal for 99% of my F-R shifts. Also, the hydraulic clutch on the F-R is rather slow, so even in warm weather I mostly use the clutch pedal. On the whole I'm not finding the hydraulic shuttle significantly more useful than a manual shuttle on a prior gear tractor.

I haven't owned any other gear Kioti, but my older gear-drive Deere had a synchronized shuttle lever, meaning that you COULD quickly flick it between F and R if you wanted to. Doing so was bad for its synchro system so I generally was slower and steadier in operating it.

Some of the larger and more expensive gear tractors from Kioti, Kubota etc. have more sophisticated hydraulic shuttles that work faster and more smoothly. The DK series has only a basic hydraulic shuttle.

 

[Gittyup]

I have a CK25 with shuttle shift. Changeing gears is fully synchronized, like a car. Shuttle works without stopping, but you do have to clutch. Range change is full stop and sometimes double clutching.

 

[woolyAcres]

On my RX7320 Powershuttle I routinely move the shuttle lever from the forward to the reverse position without pressing the clutch. The tractor slows down and starts reversing. I can also go the other way, reverse to forward without personally slowing or bring the tractor to a stop. On final thing I can do is to move the shuttle lever from either forward or reverse into the neutral position to slow the machine (again without clutching) say for spearing a bale then put the lever back into the same position (forward usually). This allows me to stop/slow forward progress while adjusting my spear prior to picking up a bale.

It sounds like there are several different 'levels' of shuttle
Power - no stopping/clutching needed
Hydraulic - like Z-Michigan and Peter; stopping required but clutching is not
Mechanical - stopping and clutching required