HST in larger tractors?

[GlueGuy]

<font color=blue>most of the time, whoever I root for loses... </font color=blue>

That's what always happened to me too! Maybe why I'm not so interested in it anymore... /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

 

[frank_f15]

HAYDEN; cant really give u a sientific reason, just probably because the really big boys are made for tough work, where fine positioning, or slowing down with rpms up, or fine back grading is not necessary. u just shift dow to a lower gear and leave it that way, whereas most of the things u do with a compact or mid size, requires a lot of ground speed changes and forward and reverse. i guess this is part of the reason,.

 

[JATO_RaT]

GlueGuy, it must be a Bay Area thing, you know as in Northern California. Here in the Foothills of the Sierra, there is not a dealer around that doesn't swear by hydrostatic. I have now got 44.9 hours on my L48 moving more dirt then most folks will move in their lifetime. All on hills and while there are times that I must use low to get the tractor going, it is more then offset by the instant forward reverse I get with HST. I can make 100 yds of dirt in 30 minutes with the boxblade, but it takes hours to move all that dirt to the new location. With 44.9 hours on the L48, I figure I am somewhere around 700yds of material dozed and moved. My bucket is shiny silver instead of orange and my box scraper, well you can almost see yourself in it. The HST which I was unfamiliar with has all the benefits MChalkley mentioned and then some. I would not want a tractor without it if I had the choice. Moving that much dirt in 4 days has been immensely simplified because of HST. It doesn't even get very hot after many hours of work hauling huge, heaped loads up a very steep grade. All in all, this L48 is a fantastic machine. Very little noise from the HST and the diesel has a "Big Diesel" sound. Very similar to the Tucker Snow Cat they once used at Heavenly Valley ski resort. IN LOVE HST, its the best way to go for most folks, Rat...

 

[GlueGuy]

Rat,

I don't know if it's a Bay Area thing, so much as maybe a customer thing. I totally agree with you that HST is THE thing in the hills and/or you do a lot of work with the FEL. I think the GST might be a better choice if you find yourself grinding along pulling something w/o changing forward/reverse too much.

My neighbor has an L35 with GST, and he thinks the GST stinks when you're trying to negotiate a steep hillside (and I agree). He watches me ease into something with my little B7500, and he is just amazed at how you can finese a difficult situation.

 

[art]

Hydro's were used in big ag tractors going back into the late 60's but were run out by the early 80's. To many were sold to the wrong people for the wrong reason and many people devloped a bad taste do to the problems they encountered. Fuel consumption on tillage tractors was a problem and the lower drawbar horsepower bothered some of the owners. The biggest fault I saw was they weren't told that the tractor had it's place and what it was. Today they offer powershifts much like the GST in the Kubota's and they have perfected that much the same as they can't tell the difference between the straight gear and the powershift unlike the originals by Ford and deere that consumed about 7% of power and additional fuel from a gear. The early Hydro's much the same as today's were meant for PTO work and loader work and that is where they still excell today.

 

[Bird]

I haven't driven one of the powershift Kubotas, but I did pull a round hay baler behind a Deere with powershift one day; that's nice! I wonder how similar the Kubota powershift is to the Deere.

 

[art]

Most powershifts today between tractor manufacturers are close to being the same as far as power draw. The early ones like in a 4020 deere took about 7% of the power to work. The hydro was about 12 to 15% for loss. The new ones take a meager 1 to 2% power loss. There are some newer editions coming out that are different yet. Some of the differences in the powershifts is how many gears and where they are as in relationship to your needs for speed.

 

[GlueGuy]

There are two things I don't like about the GST, but I wonder if other folks have the same/other issues.

One, is it is almost impossible to "creep" or just really, really inch up on something. I find with the HST that it is literally a piece of cake to really inch up on something with the FEL (for example) while you lean over and keep an eye on something. You can easily cover an inch of ground in a minute (if you had to). However, with the GST, you can't go anywhere near that slow. Granted, you don't have to do this very often, but when you do it's really nice. Likewise, I sometimes dump a load over the edge of a serious drop-off (like 500' or more). With the HST, I let the machine roll on its own until I get just to the edge (front wheels right on the lip). Then I ease back on the HST (slightly reverse, but not moving) and "hold" it there while I dump. With a GST, the only option is hitting and holding the brake when you're there (with your left foot on the clutch)...

The other issue is the (1 second?) lag or "freewheel" that happens in between gears on the GST. Might, mighty scary when you're heading downhill & want to slow down. You downshift, and for just a little bit too long, you're going faster /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif instead of slower. Wow, I really don't like that!

 

[Buck]

GlueGuy,

I get scared just thinking about dumping over a 500' ledge. Do you wear seat belts?

Buck

 

[frank_f15]

GlueGuy: my thoughts exactly. i love the ability of just inching forward or backward with out shifting and braking. for me there is no doubt.HST