connecting front loader with quick hitch when you cannot see the equipment

[dstig1]

Design is the art of compromise. You can never get everything you want so you have to compromise somewhere. I'm sure they know that visibility out front for attaching implements is poor, but with everything else they have to do that is considered more important, it is probably the trade-off they have to make. They decided this was less important than ground clearance, for example.

 

[rScotty]

The inexcusable thing about this trend is that the mechanical designers today have tools that allow them to see the operator's view in full 3D CAD, before ever molding their first bit of plastic.

If the guys working these designs on drafting boards had made these errors 50 years ago, you could almost forgive it. But today? C'mon tractor designers!

It doesn't even take CAD to shorten the hood enough to gain the needed visibility. There is no reason that radiators or batteries need to be up front. Moving those would do it.

So agree in principle, although I don't know what molding plastic has to do with tractor hoods.

rScotty

 

[2515R Dude]

I just lean to the left and see what i need to see. Worked with all 3 tractors i've ever used.

 

[ruffdog]

My bucket and grapple are up on a rack in the shed so they are easy to see. The 3pt attachments like the tiller and blower are under the rack and are on dollys.

 

[WinterDeere]

It doesn't even take CAD to shorten the hood enough to gain the needed visibility. There is no reason that radiators or batteries need to be up front. Moving those would do it.

In the case of my 3033r, the hood is high and long, but also wide compared to older tractors of similar size. It's at least partly driven by the DPF, making space for and around that big hot metal can.

Maybe they need all that height for the 3046r configuration, but I don't know. Yeah, it wouldn't be too hard to chop down the nose of the hood, or to set the loader arms a hair wider to leave a sight line between hood skirts and loader arms.

I don't know what molding plastic has to do with tractor hoods.

The last Deere tractor I owned with a metal hood was probably the 1976 model 750. Heck, even my 1986 model 855 had a fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) hood. My 2019 model 3033r has plastic foot board, fenders, hood, and hood skirts.

I was skeptical at first, but this stuff is way more durable than metal, with regard to the types of abuse my tractors usually see (scratching, rust, dents, etc.). I'm sure it won't take a direct hit from a falling tree as well as metal, but to nearly every other danger my tractor sees, the plastic seems to hold up better than metal.