How to drive Kubota L3430 HST Uphill

[skyhook]

Think of it this way...
If you step on the pedal a "little bit" you have ten guys pushing your tractor,
step on it a "little bit more", you have eight guys pushing,
step on er "half way" and you have 5 guys pushing,
give er "full step" and you now have 1 guy pushing,,
You don't want one guy pushing going up a steep hill.

 

[Komrade]

I took the tractor for a spin this morning on my rather steep driveway (need 4x4 to make up the driveway in regular cars) and was able to drive it down and up in low and medium gears. I also moved the seat all the way back to make it more comfortable to push reverse. I haven't tried to go up the steeper driveway two (I have a looped driveway, one side of the loop (older) is steeper than another (horseshoe shaped). I took tractor up the hill in reverse and jacked up RPMs on the way up.

I think I am good. Thanks for your help.

 

[k0ua]

Let me write you a book:

Step 1, look at the hill, If it is anything that people would call steep, forget about HI range, MED or LO only.

Ok lets attack this big hill, set the throttle to around the 540 PTO mark on your tachometer, This should be in the torque band of your engine.
Lets try MED range and start up the hill. If the RPM starts to drop, increase the throttle. If the RPM's continue to drop back off of the hydrostat pedal, continue backing off of the pedal until the RPM is no more than 100 RPM below the 540 mark on the tachometer.

If the RPM starts to increase you can press a little harder down on the pedal to increase your ground speed. The point is to focus on keeping the RPM up in the torque band of the engine and let the ground speed do what it will do.

If you cannot keep the RPM up to near the 540 mark by backing off of the hydro pedal and the RPM continues to fall, then this must be one heck of a hill, or your tractor has one heck of a load on it, and you will just have to go up in LO range.

And if you cannot go up it in LO range, the the wheels had better be spinning and the rocks and dirt better be flying.:laughing: If it won't spin the wheels in LO, then it is broken.

 

[s219]

If you were in high range before, then that was definitely the problem. No doubt the HST was making a lot of whining noises.

I only use high for transport on flat roads. If I forget to shift into med or low before doing something more difficult, the whining HST is a quick reminder.

You can get quite a bit done in medium. In low, the tractor should be almost unstoppable until you run out of power.

 

[Grandad4]

Let me write you a book:

Step 1, look at the hill, If it is anything that people would call steep, forget about HI range, MED or LO only.

Ok lets attack this big hill, set the throttle to around the 540 PTO mark on your tachometer, This should be in the torque band of your engine.
Lets try MED range and start up the hill. If the RPM starts to drop, increase the throttle. If the RPM's continue to drop back off of the hydrostat pedal, continue backing off of the pedal until the RPM is no more than 100 RPM below the 540 mark on the tachometer.

If the RPM starts to increase you can press a little harder down on the pedal to increase your ground speed. The point is to focus on keeping the RPM up in the torque band of the engine and let the ground speed do what it will do.

If you cannot keep the RPM up to near the 540 mark by backing off of the hydro pedal and the RPM continues to fall, then this must be one heck of a hill, or your tractor has one heck of a load on it, and you will just have to go up in LO range.

And if you cannot go up it in LO range, the the wheels had better be spinning and the rocks and dirt better be flying.:laughing: If it won't spin the wheels in LO, then it is broken.

Nice explanation ! :thumbsup: Komrade also needs to account for having that heavy backhoe on his 34 hp tractor while climbing his hills. It's certainly adequate for the job, but there's probably not any great surplus of power on hand. Once he's more proficient in operating the HST, it should work better for him.