hydro or power reverser

[TripleR]

You have SEVEN tractors?

Actually I have eight as I didn't include an older mid 60's Case that I haven't used in years. Some are pretty old: Ford NAA, 600 Series, Massey Ferguson 375, Case CX80, John Deere 2305, Kubota BX2660 and Kubota L5030 HSTC. We have three small farms with tractors on each one. One of the farms I own with my brothers and one owns another 600 Series and a Case backhoe.

Age and health are now restricting my seat time and I mostly use the CX80, L5030 and BX2660. Keeping up these properties is definitely a joint venture.

 

[mnfarmr]

I use one of each type, and prefer the power reverser by far.

The only advantage the hydro has for me is when you need very slow ground speeds at max PTO RPM. Which for me is not very often.

I often see it posted that hydros are better for loader work, I could not disagree more. I'll take the power reverser every time for loader work. I see some of posts are interchanging "shuttle shift" with "power reverser", a standard shuttle shift is no comparison to a power reverser or power shuttle shift.


When the work I'm doing is light, which is frequently, I like to gear up, and throttle back, as it saves fuel and is a lot quieter. That does not work well with a hydro. Another small pet peeve of mine is tractor brakes should be on the right, I just can't get used to them on the left.


As others have said you need to drive both, and think about how you will be using it. There is no right or wrong answer, just what works better for you.

 

[RobertN]

Yes. A couple.

Best for the OP would be if a rental, or dealer demo is available. Rent one and see if it fits the bill. 5 minutes around the dealer lot is not much, considering the investment over the long run.

Anyone ever use a Kubota GST? I have rented L35 backhoes before; that GST tranny worked pretty nice.

I do wonder how many of the folks responding to this thread ever drove a gear transmission...

 

[eepete]

I'm still coming up to speed on my JD 4520 with e-Hydro. During some recent "minor" repairs, I added the advanced cruise control. Three features it had were the ability to se a maximum speed no matter how much you press the foot peddle, the ability to use a switch to say if PTO RPM are maintained under heavy load by decreasing the tractor speed (LoadMatch) and the ability to switch how responsive (fast) the hydro system is (MotionMatch).

So when I'm using the rotary cutter, I can set a maximum speed I will travel no matter how much I press the peddle and if the grass gets thick the tractor slows down to maintain RPM. If the load is light, I have the "normal" cruise control and need no foot on the pedal. When I'm cutting, I have the responsiveness set kinda "soft", so when I hit the pedal I don't get jerked forward, and when I let go things don't come to a too-quick stop. I can slow down with the pedal when the ground is rough, and then come back up to speed with the pedal all the way down (foot rests on it, not a problem of trying to hold your foot at some midpoint position).

So with the right options and all those "daemon electronics and microprocessor" you get a number of features you can use for all sorts of tasks and conditions. Yes, it cost more, there is more complexity, the efficiently is lower (slightly higher fuel costs) but for me it's worth it and most of the reasons people like gears can be met with e-hdyro and the right cruise control options. My main point here is don't confuse classic "treadle" hydro (like on my B21 which I really like) with more recent electronic hydro control systems.

As for the gear up and throttle back to save fuel, I have the two speed PTO (called ePTO in Deere speak, yes it's confusing because the in one case the "e" is electronic, in the other it is efficiency). Not saying it's the same as what mnfarmr speaks up, just saying that concern can be somewhat addressed regarding light loads and fuel efficiency/noise.

Last gear tractors I used were 5 to 20 HP garden tractors for mowing and snow removal back in the 60's and 70's, so I have no "recent" gear experience. I also used the GE Electrac and the follow up model when Wheel Horse bought them. Gotta love DC motors for low end torque, but I digress. The tasks I do are mowing, driveway maintenance, grading and ground work (box blade). I'm not plowing large fields and I don't cut the hay on my property. In other words, farm maintenance but not farming.

As everyone else has said, try both for a while, think about what you'll be doing, get what works for you.

Pete

 

[WALT]

Just reading the posts while eating lunch.

I have a L-39 w/GST, and just turned the clock @ 500 hours.
The one downside of the GST is when I am using my Harley Rake.
At 2600 rpm for full 540 PTO speed, 1st gear is still too fast to maneuver
around obstacles. Kubota did not offer a aux. gear reduction transmission (12 to 24 speed) on the L-39. If I was buying now, I probably would lean toward the L-45 w/ HST.

I grew up on the farm with gear tractors, and now the GST. But for close work, and loader work, my little BX 2200 w/ HST is my first choice for the infinite speed choice.

FWIW, my $0.02. You are going to buy it & live with it, so be happy with your choice.

WALT

 

[radman1]

I have owned several gear shifts (JD, Ford, Case-IH, Farmall, IH, AC, Kubota ect), HSTs (one kubota, one Case-IH, 3 JDs, Toolcat), GSTs (Kubota), quad shifts (semi power shifts) (JD and Case-IH) and full power shifts (Case-IH). About the only tractor I haven't driven is an IVT/CVT. In the compact tractors, the HST is still my favorite. Resale is better, they are very reliable, easy to operate, great for slow or precision work ect. The only time not to get a HST is if you are doing a lot of tillage work or heavy pulling. I would guess one looses about 15% efficiency with HST compared to gear when pulling hard. I did about 7 hours of discing pivot tracks with 6' disc behind both my Toolcat and JD 4520. Running at 4.5-5 mph depending on hills and how rough the ground. I was in 4WD to get the traction when pulling the disc. Overheating the tranny is not an issue IMHO.

GST is a step up from gear shift but HST gives the best of nearly all worlds with the exception of heavy pulling.