I need a little Hydro education

Mark_in_NH · Mar 15, 2003

I need to better understand how to work the hydro transmission. I have never owned one and have only driven one, 1 time.
The salesman said to run the throttle up by hand and then use the forward / reverse peddles. If this is correct then the throttle is always cranked up even when you come to a stop. Unless or until you drop it back to idle by hand.
I am just so used to the. When you back off the gas peddle, the engine RPM's come down to a nice quiet idle.
I am certainly sure that I will have some learning curves to overcome, maybe this is one of them.

DocHeb · Mar 15, 2003

What you say is correct, but even with my limited tractor experience I've found that I'm not still long! Too much to do - I don't want to sit and idle /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif. You'll learn to knock the throttle back any time you're sitting still for any length of time. It's also better to turn it off if you're idling more than a couple minutes, and you probably should turn it off and set the brake if you're getting off the tractor. Also, for non-PTO work you can run ~2000 RPM, rather than the ~2400 RPM needed to get the PTO up to speed.

Also remember that the pedals don't work like an accelerator. If you're going up a grade and you're slowing down, the "automobile instinct" kicks in and you push the pedal down further. This decreases the torque to the drive wheels and you'll stall. The correct respose for needing increased torque is to let up on the pedal, increasing the torque.

Both the above are learned responses that luckily come with increased seat time.

thcri · Mar 15, 2003

Mark,

Your exactly right and read Doc's information. That was tough getting use to letting off the pedal when you feel the tractor slow down. The neat thing about hydro is you can change the direction of the tractor without clutching and shifting. Very handy for loader work and mowing. The hydro will also give you a live PTO. This really comes in handy when Brush hogging or any other appliance where you may have to slow down but have to keep the RPM's up. Once you get use to Hydro you would never switch back.

murph

Mark_in_NH · Mar 15, 2003

Thanks guys for the feedback,
I do believe that I have obtained, for my level of ownership, the cadillac of tractors. I am going to have to take 35 years of past tractor experience and relearn some of it in a differant form.
Geez !! to think of all those hours I am going to have to sit on that tractor and learn how to run it properly.
There IS a GOD /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif