We have 100 acres of specialty hay crop, pasture and about 10 acres of maple bush to look after here in Eastern Ontario; oh, and 600m of driveway. We have owned five different tractors, three with HST and two gear/shuttle shift. The field/utility tractor is a cabbed 66hp Branson with gear drive and the small utility tractor has tended to be 35 -45 hp NH Boomer 45hp or Branson 35hp. Both tractors are now Branson gear/shuttle drive. I am 66yo and ex Infantry (28 years) so I have all the legacy injuries that go with jumping out of airplanes and chasing bad guys around.
I am puzzled by a couple of things in this conversation; first the idea that HST is better if one has injuries to contend with, and secondly the need for rapid direction and speed change.
Having had both HST and Shuttle on a variety of platforms, admittedly with functioning cruise controls, I found that it was not so much the foot controls that dictated operator comfort, but the general layout of the operator station (the human factors engineering). It seemed to me that no matter the transmission operating system, the operator HF is the driving factor to comfort. A lot of our tasks require us to look over our shoulders at the implement. Some operator stations enable that with ease while others are badly laid out and cause ones knees or elbows to come in contact with controls they should not contact while doing that. Knees on the steering column while checking the snow blower is a common one I have found.
The second puzzler is the need to switch direction (forward to backwards) quickly. We did a lot of earthmoving over the years while rebuilding our farm following a serious house fire. While I loved the hi/lo button on the loader stick on the NH45, it was only marginally more efficient than switching range and shuttle direction on the Branson 35 loader tractor we have now. I think for most of us, seat time is relaxing and contemplative. As a practicing engineer I have solved some of the knottiest problems while getting seat time. I even sketched out the structure for a book on the inside of the cab window with a grease pencil once! My point is that if we seek the peace of doing our chores with a tractor, why are we in such a hurry? Reducing revs to change the shuttle introduces a comforting rhythm to the work in my experience. If I want frenetic driving I will go to the city.
Finally, I notice that there is little mention of the power penalty for HST. While it is improving all the time, HST transmissions still typically deliver 15%-18% less power to the ground for the same engine HP. In a lot of cases this is not a significant drawback, but on our farm where the equipment must move commercial square bales, grade the driveway, blow the snow, mow the pastures, operate a timber winch and a 7" wood
chipper, it is. The Branson 66 shuttle will do all that no problem; the Branson 35ih (HST) would not. We switched the 35ih for a new 35 gear drive and the difference was night and day. Both tactors can now do all the work (apart from chipping) so in effect we almost doubled our work force.
IMHO, and largely in agreement with the much more experienced voices on this forum, choose the tractor that suits the purpose but pay particular attention to how the operator station is laid out. Turn around in the seat and see what your elbows and knees bang into. Try and operate the draft controls in that position. Try and keep contact with the HST pedals or reach and operate the clutch. The power penalty only really matters for some. In our case it really mattered. In yours it might not.
Hope that was useful
