New Holland, Kubota, or John Deere oh my

BigDave · May 8, 2003

I think there is something significantly different between the definitions of turn-radius vs turn-around diameter, but I am not sure what it is. NH claims that the real difference in performance is turn-around diameter. In their brouchure, they compare themselves to JD & Kubota, and JD has the largest swath of uncut grass during a u-turn. From their pictures, turn radius looks to be the radius of the circle that is made by the center of the front axle, while turn-around diameter looks to be the diameter measured from the center of the rear axle.

The biggest advantage & what in fact drive up the cost of SS is the Sensitrak system that lets you stay in 4wd while making tight turns. The clutch will release during a turn, thus sparing your lawn from damage.

thcri · May 9, 2003

Here is a scan from New Holland's brochure. I wanted to scan the whole page but the 100k limitations wouldn't let me post so I just took from the diagram. I have to say with my Super-steer the back inside wheel pretty much stays on a dime. I can pretty much crank the wheel right tight and will do no damage to my lawn with R4's on a TC29D. My neighbors John Deere with turfs can not turn sharp with his or will tear up his lawn.

murph

bnixon · May 9, 2003

I think BigDave hit the nail on the head here!

The bulk of the cost is not for the steering but the sensitrak system.

butzkeg,

You are correct in your statements on the specs in the manufacturers literature. These would lead one to believe that the JD would turn tighter than the NH. But I have actually driven both and as I said before the NH does turn much tighter. the rear wheel literally stays still without the brake and again, the sensitrak is what sets the NH SS even further apart form the JD.

Now with all of that said this option seems, in my humble but accurate opinion /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif JJ, to only pay for itself if you do a lot of mowing with a MMM or need to maneuver around tight obstacles. I opted not to get it on my TC33D but if I had bought the TC40D that I originally wanted I would have definitely had purchased the SS. This gave the Class III the same if not better maneuverability than the Class II.

thcri · May 9, 2003

Brandon,

I agree with your statement about SS being great for mowing. I love mine and mowing is mostly of what I do. I have found that it does go against stability for FEL work especially on side hills. You have put yourself someplace between a narrow front end and a wide front end with it. It hasn't really affected me much. But I did find it helpful having the SS when doing Loader work in tight situations. You can really manuerver that bucket around in corners pretty good.

But that is why I would say to anyone, if its mowing get SS, if not then don't get SS.

murph

TC18guy · May 9, 2003

Don't know if its possible, but it seems like an option to turn Supersteer on/off would be nice.

butzkeg · May 9, 2003

Sounds like we are all still wondering if the "perfect tractor" will ever be created (all custom built of course). Let's see, it will have NH SS (that has an on/off switch), JD turning radius, get it painted any color under the rainbow, your choice of engine manufacturer, not sure if I'd take anything from kubota /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif, etc....

AndyMA · May 9, 2003

Having had a larger tractor (TN75) both with and without SuperSteer I can tell you that there is no comparison in turning radius. I went to New Hollands web site to get some numbers as I was confused by some on the numbers in the previous posts. The NH TC29 has a wheelbase of 63" and turns in a 102" diameter circle with brakes. Supersteer TC29 has a wheelbase of 72 and will turn in a 60.5 in circle. TC 45 has wheelbase of 73.5" and turns a 127" circle. TC45 supersteer has 83" wheelbase and turns a 81" circle (again less than it's wheelbase)

Again as I've done in previous posts I would caution the use of SuperSteer if you will be doing much loader work since it can make the tractor quite unstable if you have a high load when the axle is rotated.

Hope this helps clarify the issue some. The New Holland picture posted above sums up the issue quite well, To keep it simple just remember the tractor with SuperSteer can spin in less than it's own wheel base. If you haven't driven one it is worth a trip to a dealer to try one out.

Andy

Anonymous Poster · May 13, 2003

I don't know how the different manufacturers measure turning radius, but on the old video (2001 vintage) for the 4000 series John Deeres, where they show the John Deere turning "tighter" that the New Holland, if you look closely, you will see the New Holland cuts a tighter path with the tires, but because the SuperSteer option pushes the front axle out more, the front loader gets moved out as well. So the path the loader bucket makes moving backwards, smoothing over the tire tracks is indeed larger on the New Holland. Clever marketing ploy.

In the end, all of the big 3 tractors are amazing similar in specs and features, you just have to figure out which ones mean the most to you and buy the one that fits your need best. I bought Orange, L3130HST. I wanted metal fenders, hood, and was very impressed with the 3pt hitch capacity and FEL capacity of the LA723 optional loader. From what I saw, it's direct competition would be either the NH TC29D or 33D, or Deere 4310. The Kubota seemed to offer a lot more beef for the money, IMHO.

Pick the one you like best, there all good.