Mowing Mowing hills with a 2320

[Superduper]

JSR LLS,
...............I test drove the JD2320 yesterday on the dealer lot, at exactly 3000rpm, and it seemed slower than my lawn tractor when in low. High didn't seem all that much better. .......

The actual throttle position required to maintain 3000 rpm for pto operational speed will be different when pto is on/off with mower attached. So in operation, the actual throttle position being used could be higher than at a 3000rpm no load idle.

Maximum low range speed is 4.5 mph.
Maximum speed in high range is 11.3 mph.

Mowing at 4.5mph in low range doesn't seem that slow to me. How fast do you want to mow anyhow? With the high range at 11.3mph, that is a very significant difference. Being that you were operating in the snow, at maximum power (3000 rpm), consider that it is very likely you were spinning the tires alot without traction.

Try it again in fairer weather so that you can get a real feeling of what it feels like. If you can't tell the difference between low and high range due to loss of traction, I can't imagine having 10 speeds will be any different.

 

[jcaledon]

SuperDuper,

My lawn tractor mows at about 5.5 mph. I would like to be able to mow at around 7-8 mph. The 2305 appears to do this easily. With the 62D deck, this should be plenty fast. 4.5 seems slow to me. In terms of the snow, I know that the wheels weren't spinning. We're used to driving in snow here in Canada! I had it in 4wd - maybe this slowed it down?

 

[Woody71]

Woody71, What do you mean by "position control"?

The 3 point hitch control lever on the 2320 has numbered positions 1-10 like ag tractors that relate to the minimum and maximum height of the arms. If I want to put the 3ph to the exact same depth when box blading, I just move the lever to the number that I found corresponds to the cut depth I want. The JD2305 doesn't have this function and many of the smaller Kubota CUTs don't either. That and the ground clearance, were the biggest reasons I went with a 2320 over a 2305.

 

[BigD9]

The 3 point hitch control lever on the 2320 has numbered positions 1-10 like ag tractors that relate to the minimum and maximum height of the arms.

OK, Thanks. I figured that was what you were talking about, just wanted to make sure. Never know when there is "trick" you never thought about that someone else knows!

Thanks again

 

[jcaledon]

Just a follow up. I contacted John Deere to find out if the load match system would be available as an option on the 2320. This would effectively eliminate any issue in terms of loss of power when mowing hills etc. as speed would automatically be adjusted when the engine was being over taxed. They confirmed that it is not available, and they had no plans to make it available.

However, I got to thinking. Given how the hydro works, ie. its not the throttle, wouldn't I be able to mow in high if I just managed to control my foot and not floor it when it started to lose power? Its the opposite from what you would do in your car - but its my understanding that this is how a hydro works. You are just controlling the amount of pressure being fed into the transmission which regulates the speed and load on the engine.

Anyone try this? If so, does it work?

 

[Runner]

It only works to a certain extent. Once you've "backed off" of it enough, you eventually get to the point where you are either going really slow, or are out of power. In either case, you wind up going back to low range. You can probably mow faster by giving it "more pedal" in low range than by trying to feather it in high range.

 

[lager1829]

I had a 2320 and mowing was 100% in low range. I tried high but it would just bog down significantly on the hills. Ended up only using high when going from point A to point B on the flat and no attachments. If the FEL and ballast were on, high was out of the question unless the ground was flat. So it was in low 98% of the time.

Ended up trading to 3720 after a year because I just needed more HP for the loader work, box scraping and dragging the manure spreader around the sloped pastures. That being said, the 2320 is a great machine. I just kept hitting the "need more power" wall.