Horsepower

[Egon]

[I'd rather work behind a 4 cyl.. /QUOTE]

A straight four is an unbalanced engine that requires extra components to keep it from hopping about!

 

[Egon]

It's fairly universal that as you add cyls.. the engine sounds smoother.

Not so, it depends on the configuration and harmonics. And a muffler helps too!

 

[Gary Fowler]

original post by CCI
Just think about it. If you had 20% more power in anything would it make a difference?
__________________
I have to make a comment here. IMHO, yes you can definitely have too much HP. If you had a family car with 500 hp would adding 20% make a difference, not likely as you would never need the additional HP anyway. I think that holds true for tractors too. If you have the HP and weight to do the things you need to do, you dont need to spent the extra $5000 to get that 20%. In looking at prices, it appears to me that every HP cost you about $1000 when you go above 25 HP. I agree, that many people dont really know what all they want or need to do with a tractor before they buy it, but this forum will certainly give anyone with enough patience to read the postings all the infomation they need to see what all can be done with tractors then they just need to decide if they would care to do that and buy what they need to get the job done and nothing more.

 

[Soundguy]

Not so, it depends on the configuration and harmonics. And a muffler helps too!

you are selectively picking my posts apart and quoting sections out of context and splitting hairs. ( as usuale... ).

Sure.. the 4 cyl needs extra parts for ballance.. but guess what.. it has them!

an assembled 4 cyl inherently sounds smoother than say.. a 2 cyl.. we are talking entire assembly here.. just for clarification.. finished product, in tractor ( or whatever).. ballanced and ready to go.

soundguy

 

[Egon]

you are selectively picking my posts apart and quoting sections out of context and splitting hairs. ( as usuale... ).

Sure.. the 4 cyl needs extra parts for ballance.. but guess what.. it has them!

an assembled 4 cyl inherently sounds smoother than say.. a 2 cyl.. we are talking entire assembly here.. just for clarification.. finished product, in tractor ( or whatever).. ballanced and ready to go.

soundguy

And as usual I'm just replying to one persons scatter shot comments that have no technical data for backup!

Configuration, of which there are quite a few, inlet and exhaust noises, how well the additional balancing is done, flywheel size and of course the muffler size and design all are factors on how a motor sounds. Oh, and if there is a turbo that must be considered as well.

Engine balance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[bill in ny]

i enjoy watching you two argue

 

[Egon]

Side benefits my friend.

I often wonder about the folks think when the two challenged fellas get to talking about who's sandbox and toy it is?

 

[bill in ny]

you seem to always have the facts to back up your answers.

 

[foggy1111]

you seem to always have the facts to back up your answers.

you gotta be kidding....right?

 

[AndyMA]

you are selectively picking my posts apart and quoting sections out of context and splitting hairs. ( as usuale... ).

Sure.. the 4 cyl needs extra parts for ballance.. but guess what.. it has them!

an assembled 4 cyl inherently sounds smoother than say.. a 2 cyl.. we are talking entire assembly here.. just for clarification.. finished product, in tractor ( or whatever).. ballanced and ready to go.

soundguy

Soundguy

While I agree that the more cylinders an engine has the more inherently balanced it is, take a look at the New Holland TN series. Right now in the Utility arena it is one of the most popular machines out there and the majority of them are 3 cylinder. I don't find them particularly noisy. The one thing they do have is great "torque reserve" which means that they can instantly put out extra torque when called for by an increased load.

Andy

 

[Lyrch75]

Just think about it. If you had 20% more power in anything would it make a difference?

By a strange coincidence I made a jump of close to that percentage of HP this summer. Went from a TC55DA (48 ptohp) to an M7040 (64 pto-hp).

Do some field finish mowing with an RM990, and some folks call me a bit later that makes for a nice looking job, but they don't want to pay for me to do it twice.
Amazing difference between the two. The NH would spend most of these jobs in top gear low range, I might get to see mid range when I got to dry area that hadn't grown all that much. The KB does most of these jobs in 1gr high range only have to drop a range when get into really chunky stuff that the mower needs more time to do a clean cut on.

Noticed the same type of jump in performance when I went from a TC24 to a TC 33 with my 6' finish mower.

After these two personal experiences with HP and others who told me to get the higher hp to start with, I now shop for the highest HP for a chassis size, as I find out I always end up needing it.

 

[Soundguy]

Soundguy

While I agree that the more cylinders an engine has the more inherently balanced it is, take a look at the New Holland TN series. Right now in the Utility arena it is one of the most popular machines out there and the majority of them are 3 cylinder. I don't find them particularly noisy. The one thing they do have is great "torque reserve" which means that they can instantly put out extra torque when called for by an increased load.

Andy

I much prefer running a 3cyl or 4 cyl machine vs a 2 cyl, just based on noise ( and pattern) and gotta say I like a 4 over a 3. Not that I don't like a 3 mind you.

soundguy

 

[Soundguy]

you gotta be kidding....right?

And here i thought there wasn't going to be anything funny in this thread!

soundguy

 

[MESSMAKER]

I would lean toward more HP if you are using the PTO a lot. I have a 27 hp tractor and it will not pull a 5 foot rotary cutter as fast as I would like. 5 more HP would be very nice.

 

[Lt CHEG]

Rule of thumb is 5 HP per foot on mowers and Bush Hogs for most instances.

Chris

Is this PTO horsepower or gross engine HP? I would like to be able to run a 7 ft. finish mower and 5 ft. bush hog on a tractor that I hope to buy before too long. I am looking at tractors ranging around 34.2 PTO horsepower/ 43.5 gross horsepower to 43 PTO horsepoer/ 55 gross horsepower. I may end up going with a 6 ft. mower but I'd like to at least be able to run a 6 footer to speed up the process. I'll be cutting the grass once a week on a level lot which used to be used for letting horses run around.

 

[Opti-Mist]

Is this PTO horsepower or gross engine HP? I would like to be able to run a 7 ft. finish mower and 5 ft. bush hog on a tractor that I hope to buy before too long. I am looking at tractors ranging around 34.2 PTO horsepower/ 43.5 gross horsepower to 43 PTO horsepoer/ 55 gross horsepower. I may end up going with a 6 ft. mower but I'd like to at least be able to run a 6 footer to speed up the process. I'll be cutting the grass once a week on a level lot which used to be used for letting horses run around.

That would be PTO hp. While it tends to be about 88% of engine hp it could vary a bit more depending on accessories and other parasitic losses.

 

[Turbys_1700]

IMHO...
More HP is better...
With that said, I have no trouble at all pulling a 6' RFM with my little ole 1720 NH that is 28 whopping HP...
Either tractor will so what you want to...

 

[Soundguy]

Is this PTO horsepower or gross engine HP? I would like to be able to run a 7 ft. finish mower and 5 ft. bush hog on a tractor that I hope to buy before too long. I am looking at tractors ranging around 34.2 PTO horsepower/ 43.5 gross horsepower to 43 PTO horsepoer/ 55 gross horsepower. I may end up going with a 6 ft. mower but I'd like to at least be able to run a 6 footer to speed up the process. I'll be cutting the grass once a week on a level lot which used to be used for letting horses run around.

most machines that run a 5' rough mower.. run a6' finish ont he same hp.. etc.

soundguy

 

[HarleyRiders97]

Thanks for all the info guys. I went with a McCormick 41 hp 4x4 tractor with loader and backhoe. I believe this will definately handle all that I have here.