Tractor Sizing How important is rear diff lock on CUT?

[RedNeckGeek]

The steeper your ground the more you'll use diff lock. Especially when the ground is a little wet, sometimes it takes 4WD, a shove with the FEL, AND diff lock to get me unstuck, and it's not all that infrequent. Without it I'd spend weeks waiting for the ground to dry out.

 

[vtsnowedin]

That is a somewhat funny situation though, sitting with a ditch under the tractor and two wheels off the ground and just spinning away.

Hey you did't post the picture so it NEVAH Happened!

 

[vtsnowedin]

That is a somewhat funny situation though, sitting with a ditch under the tractor and two wheels off the ground and just spinning away.

Hey you didn't post the picture so it NEVAH Happened!

 

[teg]

So at work, the couple of times where we needed to plant when it's still a bit wet, we need to use 4 x 4. It's got split brakes and they don't work that well with 4x4 engaged. Don't know if something that should slip is not slipping but it seems to me that hitting one brake is almost like stepping on both with one side pulling more than the other side.

Without 4x4, I spin the tractor around on a dime. I only have 25' between our tests to do "U" turns. In 2x4, this is absolutely no problem, actually pretty fun! Really love planting season... :dance1:

Had another time, trying to plant when it was too wet and we were using only a 2 wheel drive tractor... Decided to try planting in a dry section on the other side of the field... driving over there, 3-4 mph, the right front tire "slid" into a mud hole. Couldn't see anything, looked like the rest of the field, it just jumped up and grabbed the front right tire.

Wheels were pointing straight but the tractor turned into this mud pit... without slowing down, I stepped hard on the left brake and forced my way out of the mud hole. That was all I needed to high tail it the heck out of there.

 

[Paul Thornton]

I used my diff lock several time this winter to back up a hill from where I bank snow. It beat having to use the come along to pull myself out.

 

[onelostdogg]

Man! Sounds pretty unanimous. Won't be buying a tractor without both. Thanks everybody.

 

[RalphVa]

Don't buy one without it. The front wheels go up and down, but the rear ones do not. Easy to get in a position where one wheel is off the ground. Without the lock on the differential, you're stuck. The one free wheel will spin away, and the tractor won't go.

Now, it COULD have a limited slip differential, but it would need to be so in both front and rear.

Ralph

 

[STx]

It's like 4WD on a truck, you don't need it until you do and then it doesn't matter how much it cost to get it when you bought the tractor, it's worth every penny. I use mine all the time on unlevel ground, even with 4WD on the tractor. I can't imagine having a tractor without it.

 

[MHarryE]

Every time I use mine I am already too stuck for it to do any good. My Kubotas pedal is too difficult to keep holding down and while trying to get out. My loader is much more important then the diff lock. My RTV - the diff lock has succeeded in getting me a little more stuck but never has come close to getting me through or back out when I've been stuck. My backup for it is my cell phone and my wife who faithfully comes with a tractor, sometimes pickup. If the belly is on the mud and 4 wheels are spinning, not much a diff lock will do. Now our larger AG tractors have electronic locking fwd and those are useful in some conditions.

 

[vtsnowedin]

Every time I use mine I am already too stuck for it to do any good. My Kubotas pedal is too difficult to keep holding down and while trying to get out. My loader is much more important then the diff lock. My RTV - the diff lock has succeeded in getting me a little more stuck but never has come close to getting me through or back out when I've been stuck. My backup for it is my cell phone and my wife who faithfully comes with a tractor, sometimes pickup. If the belly is on the mud and 4 wheels are spinning, not much a diff lock will do. Now our larger AG tractors have electronic locking fwd and those are useful in some conditions.

:laughing: Sounds like the problem exists between the steering wheel and the seat back. Perhaps the operator headspace and timing needs adjustment.