looking for hill climbing tractor

woodlandfarms · Apr 12, 2013

Baahh to the ventrac ;-) Get a PT 45 degrees, 60HP and all the attachments you could want.

In all fairness 45 degree slopes are completely off the chart scary. And the Ventrac is a great machine. We considered one until a used PT became available. Wouldn't say no to one if I had to buy again.

Grandad4 · Apr 12, 2013

whiskeyc said:
Thanks locknut. I'll try to do all of the climbing at the beginning of my mow.

I sent my tractor to the dealer to see if they had any input. They were going to do the 50hr service and sharpen my blades for the season anyway. They said they let it run for a while, then ran it up and down their test hill, which is about 25 degrees, a little longer run than my hill, and the tractor didn't have an issue. They said it didn't stop crawling. Of course this was after the service on a cold day, and they mentioned that if there is some blockage in the filter that it could possibly cause problems like the one I was experiencing. Have you ever heard of a filter causing such a problem?

Just another suggestion that I don't think has come up in this thread, related to your hill climbing and hydrostatic transmissions. The foot pedal acts like an accelerator pedal in that the more you push on it, the faster you go. But many people don't appreciate that it does that by going to a taller gear ratio instead of increasing the engine speed. So when the tractor bogs down on a steep hill, the correct action is to back off the pedal instead of flooring it. That's the same as dropping into a lower gear and puts more torque instead of higher speed into the drivetrain.

Now I'll be the first to admit I don't know anything about your GR, and it may have some fancy hydro setup that adjusts both engine rpm and the gearing simultaneously. But if it's just a plain 'ol hydrostat drive, you might try the "back off the pedal" trick and see if it doesn't give you more pulling power on those hills.

locknut · Apr 12, 2013

whiskeyc said:
Thanks locknut. I'll try to do all of the climbing at the beginning of my mow.

I sent my tractor to the dealer to see if they had any input. They were going to do the 50hr service and sharpen my blades for the season anyway. They said they let it run for a while, then ran it up and down their test hill, which is about 25 degrees, a little longer run than my hill, and the tractor didn't have an issue. They said it didn't stop crawling. Of course this was after the service on a cold day, and they mentioned that if there is some blockage in the filter that it could possibly cause problems like the one I was experiencing. Have you ever heard of a filter causing such a problem?

Sounds like it's ok,but you could change the fluid out to Super UDT and a new filter.Couldn't hurt. As mentioned,good idea to back off the hydro pedal,it will help.Don't know if this link is allowable to mtf.It's a thread I had on making wheel spacers and they do help quite a bit on side slopes.Kubota said no problem with one inch spacers. http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=220342&highlight=