HST or gear-drive?

[CloverKnollFarms]

Screwdrivers also make great prybars

 

[Wobblin-Goblin]

Some HST are better than others. We have an '06 TYM 23hp Hydro and it works great for loader work. I had a '13 Massey Ferguson 1643 Hydro and hated it. It was loud and whiny with lots of power loss. No thanks.

Got rid of the 1643 and bought a MF 4707 with Powershuttle. Love it. Recently bought a new TYM 2515R with syncroshuttle. Love that tractor too. I won't go back to an HST tractor.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Both my 25 HP & 52 HP have HST & CC!

 

[Drstrangeglove]

If farming or making money the hst will use more fuel than a gear drive. To me it doesn't matter about fuel. My time is more valuable than diesel, that's why I bought a 15ft mower and a 100hp tractor.

 

[dlundblad]

It boils down to personal preference. Your friend needs to try both. His property layout and intended use matters too.

I personally can think of very few situations where I would prefer a gear drive over HST on this size tractor. I have too many obstacles and I use my tractor for landscaping to snow removal.

 

[Rustyiron]

I have run small hst tractors about 1400 hours. I ran a gear drive medium sized utility tractor maybe 2 hours. I really didn’t mind running the gear drive, easier then I expected.

I think that most believe that a gear tractor has a clunky old non synchronized transmission and clutch. They're unfamiliar with the decades old "left hand reverser" and that stopping completely and clutching is not required to reverse direction.
Iirc years past Kubota and some others offered this "reverser" on smaller HP tractors but it required a complete stop and clutching.
I like a hydro for chores but have found that for any "grunt" loader or 3pt work, a range change should be made. This also requires the full stop and not doing so is not the best thing for the hydros. The dealers opinion probably has a lot to do with this.

 

[NUTTERDW]

I guess it would depend on what "general farming" involves ...

Pulling heavy ground engaging attachments for 12 hours a day 20 days a month, sure ...

Cleaning out a chicken barn, no.

Either can move hay bales!

I have a HST Kubota with 1800 hours on it and the HST is going bad, which causes the engine to overheat and just the price of the HST unit with no labor was 4300 in 2014. I checked two different dealers, so I just moved it to my farm to mow the yard there as it is all level and it can be mowed before the the engine starts to over heat. put the 4300 dollars toward a new mower. all I ever use it for is mowing with a belly mower. Neither one has an end loader.

 

[MHarryE]

My sister & her family make about 700 acres of hay yearly, up to 4 crops on some. She has a gear drive for her job - raking, and it's fine. They have a similar sized NH that is used for tedding and on their grinder-mixer. Gear drive is fine for jobs like that. So in that power class tractor you need to know what the tractor will be used for in general farming. When I grew up on a farm a 20HP Farmall Super A at 20 HP with 4 speed was fine. But me when I retired and went back to farming and couldn't afford a tractor for each job type, hydro all the way.

 

[RidgeTopWVA]

The first time that I ever used a hydro was back in the late 1980's and it was a John Deere 750 dozer that John Deere was trying to sell to the company that I worked for and they left it at the plant for 2 weeks for us to try out. I used it pushing coal in the power plant and I decided then I would never buy a tractor that did not have a hydro I would drive the dozer up on a steep grade while pushing coal and run the dozer in reverse fast back down the grade and try to slam it forward as hard as I could forward and you could not damage it it would not shift quickly because of the hydraulics it was a gradual shift no matter what, I have had a John Deere 4400 hydro mid-size compact tractor since around 2001 getting close to 4000 hours on the clock I have timbered with it pulling 20' to 22' logs up to 25" wide up out of these West Virginia hills and hollows making pulls a mile long I have done everything to it and it stills works like new . I have a John Deere X 758 hydro and I punish it too getting close to 2000 hrs on it.

 

[Nam Tran]

If you plan to use the stump grinder attachment, HST will be your choice; otherwise, you will be shifting gears for a long time. I loved my MX 5800 HST, which did everything that I needed.