I've had my
L4400 gear drive for about five years. No regrets. Plowing, disking, mowing, digging, road maintenance, land clearing, clean up after timber removal. No regrets. In fact, if I were buying a tractor right now to use on my 250 acres it would be a gear drive. And while I have no way to support this notion I believe I would have destroyed an HST with the things I done with my tractor....kind of surprised I haven't destroyed this one.
And I know I've said it somewhere deep in this thread, but probably my main reason for wanting and buying a basic gear driven tractor is future repairs. I am moderately convinced that in my nearby in-law's well appointed shop, I could split the tractor and repair the transmission....or at least get at the parts that I could take to someone else to repair. I am
thoroughly convinced that I could do
nothing to repair a significantly broken HST.
Edit: I have not looked at new tractors in years. Can you still buy a basic gear drive.
Edit 2: Sadly, after a resurgence and a good run over the last 10 or so years, basic manual transmissions are now in decline in cars again. While true double clutch paddle shift gearboxes are true wonders (and really just manuals without clutch pedals) what is showing up in most "sporty" cars these days is automatic transmissions with flappy paddles that "suggest" which gear you want it to be in that pretend to be double clutch systems. Fortunately most hard core sports cars can still be had with manual transmissions. That's all I'll drive until I get enough money for one of these real double clutch dealies.
