OP
RedNeckGeek
Super Member
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2011
- Messages
- 8,746
- Location
- Butte County & Orcutt, California
- Tractor
- Kubota M62, Kubota L3240D HST (SOLD!), Kubota RTV900
Update:
Last Thursday I rode up to the LS dealer in Los Molinos, CA and test drove an XR4150H. My previous experience with a hydro tractor is limited to my current Kubota L3240 and the Deere 4052M I drove the week before. Both those tractors drive very much like a car with an automatic transmission, in that the harder you push on the go pedal, the faster the engine will run and the faster the tractor will go. Not so with the LS. It seems you first have to set the RPMs with the hand throttle on the LS, then the tractor will go as fast as those RPMs will permit. That's how I've been using the Kubota when there's a flail mower on the back, a necessity to keep the PTO RPMs in a useful working range. But when doing shuttle work with the FEL, having the RPMs up all the time is a waste of fuel and it makes a lot of noise. So that's one disadvantage to the way LS has implemented their hydro transmission. It probably helps explain the large cost savings, as adding the necessary actuators and sensors to implement an automatic transmission like feature would definitely add to the cost of the tractor.
Otherwise, with the hand throttle set at 1500 RPM, FEL operation was very sluggish when compared to the Kubota with no increased RPMs due to the hand throttle. And it seemed like it was difficult to find the right position with the control lever to simultaneously lift and curl, even though the control on the LS uses the same positions for those movements as the Kubota.
I also had to swap buckets before my test run because the dealer didn't want scratches on his new bucket, so that gave me a chance see how the SSQA worked. I found that visibility of the upper portions of the SSQA hitch was limited, and I wasn't able to see the outer portions of them at all. That made lining up left-to-right on the SSQA bracket on the back of the bucket more difficult than it is with my Kubota. That would make swapping the bucket for my forks a PITA.
This particular tractor did have three sets of hydraulic fittings on the back, and the dealer said that all of them could be equipped with centering valves, which would be needed for both the top'n'tilt and the side shift on the flail.
I'd have my choice of R1s or R4s, and I'm leaning toward R1s for more traction on the steep hillsides that make up the majority of my property. I need to do a little homework to figure out if the R1s will make the tractor ride higher, though, which would be a disadvantage with side hilling.
Just passing along these observations to see how well they align with other's experiences. Ten minutes of test driving doesn't cover a lot of ground, but I guess I wasn't left with a very good feeling that the LS would make life any easier than what I'm already used to.:2cents:
Last Thursday I rode up to the LS dealer in Los Molinos, CA and test drove an XR4150H. My previous experience with a hydro tractor is limited to my current Kubota L3240 and the Deere 4052M I drove the week before. Both those tractors drive very much like a car with an automatic transmission, in that the harder you push on the go pedal, the faster the engine will run and the faster the tractor will go. Not so with the LS. It seems you first have to set the RPMs with the hand throttle on the LS, then the tractor will go as fast as those RPMs will permit. That's how I've been using the Kubota when there's a flail mower on the back, a necessity to keep the PTO RPMs in a useful working range. But when doing shuttle work with the FEL, having the RPMs up all the time is a waste of fuel and it makes a lot of noise. So that's one disadvantage to the way LS has implemented their hydro transmission. It probably helps explain the large cost savings, as adding the necessary actuators and sensors to implement an automatic transmission like feature would definitely add to the cost of the tractor.
Otherwise, with the hand throttle set at 1500 RPM, FEL operation was very sluggish when compared to the Kubota with no increased RPMs due to the hand throttle. And it seemed like it was difficult to find the right position with the control lever to simultaneously lift and curl, even though the control on the LS uses the same positions for those movements as the Kubota.
I also had to swap buckets before my test run because the dealer didn't want scratches on his new bucket, so that gave me a chance see how the SSQA worked. I found that visibility of the upper portions of the SSQA hitch was limited, and I wasn't able to see the outer portions of them at all. That made lining up left-to-right on the SSQA bracket on the back of the bucket more difficult than it is with my Kubota. That would make swapping the bucket for my forks a PITA.
This particular tractor did have three sets of hydraulic fittings on the back, and the dealer said that all of them could be equipped with centering valves, which would be needed for both the top'n'tilt and the side shift on the flail.
I'd have my choice of R1s or R4s, and I'm leaning toward R1s for more traction on the steep hillsides that make up the majority of my property. I need to do a little homework to figure out if the R1s will make the tractor ride higher, though, which would be a disadvantage with side hilling.
Just passing along these observations to see how well they align with other's experiences. Ten minutes of test driving doesn't cover a lot of ground, but I guess I wasn't left with a very good feeling that the LS would make life any easier than what I'm already used to.:2cents:
