Did I go to big?

[JohnRager]

I have been enjoying my new Kubota L3010 HST for three days now. I have allot of grass to cut so instead of going with a 72" rear finishing deck I went for the 84" rear finishing deck. The dealership told me that according to the deck specs I need at least 25 HP to run an 84" deck. I went with the bigger Kubota L3010 so I would have more than enough HP to run an 84" deck.
My problem/question is.......part of my field has a slight incline. Parts of the hill are as much as a 20-degree incline. I am cutting in low gear, full throttle and the tractor was bogging way down. The RPMs dropped by more than half.
The tractor did make it up the hill but very slowly.

Is this normal?
Am I hurting the tractor?
Would a six-foot deck fix my problem?

 

[bsauter]

Are you letting up on the HST pedal when you bog down? Or are you mashing it to the floor? Don't know if your experienced in HST or not but a lot of people treat it like a car and try and "floor it" when it bogs down and that is the opposite of what you want to do.

How high is the grass? How thick?

Don't let it bog down like that. It won't destroy your engine but it's now good for it.

You should have no problem with a six foot deck but think about the above questions before you get rid of the bigger deck.

 

[JohnRager]

The grass is about 7" high and is not that thick. Parts of the grass are thicker that others. In general the tractor was cutting fine on 95% of the field. The tractor cuts with no problems and fast on flat ground. It is just having problems on that on hilly area.

I was keeping the HST Petal all the way to the floor.

A friend of mine with a smaller Kubota HST told me that I may want to let off the HST petal. He even told me that I may want to go in medium gear but that did not make since to me especially if I was having problems climbing in low.

I will try to finish the field tonight by letting off the petal when the tractor starts to bog down. Any other tips?

 

[Boondox]

<font color=blue>I was keeping the HST Petal all the way to the floor.
</font color=blue>

John -- That's your problem right there. Ease up on the HST so you have more power available at the PTO. HST is a power hog.

Pete

 

[Harv]

<font color=blue>I was keeping the HST Petal all the way to the floor.</font color=blue>

That's the problem then, fer sure.

Like Brad said, HST is counter-intuitive for those of us who are used to driving "standard" vehicles. By pushing the pedal all the way down, you are essentially shifting into the highest gear.

I don't own an HST, but I was curious enough to run this thread a while back:

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.tractorbynet.com/cgi-bin/compact/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=genoperating&Number=99598&page=&view=&sb=&o=&vc=1#Post99598>HST - How Does It Work?</A>

Check it out. I learned a bunch from it.

 

[Thomas]

Would you be in low or high range when mowing 20 degree inclines..if in high range swtich to low range and 1/2 pedal should just about do it.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Hey Harv,

Really glad you took the time to post that thread with all the great info!

Bill in Pgh, PA

PS...guess what I'm doing now instead of being outside working??? /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[JohnRager]

Thanks guys for the help. I think am beginning to understand the basic principle.
So if the tractor is climbing a hill and starts to bog down I will just let off on the HST pedal.

With that said..... What if I put the tractor in medium gear then push the HST pedal down part of the way but not all the way to rob the HP? Will this cause the tractor to free up HP to climb the hill as well as give more HP to the PTO wile moving faster than me doing the same thing in low?

Or will I just be adding to my HP drain by putting the tractor in medium gear?

 

[riptides]

Forget your tractor for a minute.....

John,
Where did you get that awesome aerial shot of your house!
And thanks for sharing it. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

-Mike Z.

 

[JohnRager]

Mike Z.,
Go to www.mapquest.com and do a look up of your home address. There is a tab on the next page next to the street map tab for Aerial Photo. Just click on it and if your aerial photo is available it will display it.

I took a few of these satellite aerial photos and used Photoshop to make one big picture. I then went to my local county web site and was able to pull the local area plot map graphics. I then superimposed the plot map over my actually photo.
If you want I can make one for you. I just need your home address and how many images that you want.