TT45A scare!

[k0ua]

Yes the clutch pedal should not have gotten stuck behind the stop peg, but that is not what cause your accident. You should be able to repair/redesign the peg fairly easily.

Why you pushed in the clutch I assume was just a reaction to losing control of the tractor. I believe you stomped that clutch as hard as you could, and you stomped the brakes hard too, and of course you did not stop. Reason you did not stop is because your rear wheels were sliding and you could never regain any traction. Two wheel drive tractors on steep hills are bad news to start with.

A four wheel drive tractor whether Hydrostatic or Gear will offer braking from the contact patch of the front wheels, and when you are going downhill head first much of the tractors weight is on the front wheels, and less on the rear wheels, this causes a loss of traction on the rear wheels which can start a slide of the rear wheels. In a 4wd tractor you have the additional contact patch of the front wheels, holding you back in engine compression braking and also when you step on the rear service brakes you also slow down and brake with the front wheels/tires as they are mechanically coupled.

If you are going to insist on mowing this steep slope with your 2wd tractor you could back down the hill, and it would be safer as it would put more weight on the rears and probably maintain the traction.. But a 4wd tractor is safer on hills, and in my opinion a Hydrostatic transmission is also safer as there is less chance of operator error in missing a gear when making gear swaps.

 

[Soggy Bottom Outdoors]

Robert form ny, Please explain the (FWA will engage when brakes are applied) part of you post, it's early and I've only had pot of coffee, little grogy.

 

[aczlan]

Robert form ny, Please explain the (FWA will engage when brakes are applied) part of you post, it's early and I've only had pot of coffee, little grogy.

His tractor has electric engagement of the FWA (ie: flip a switch vs move a lever) and Kubota wired it so that when you hit the brakes, it engages the FWA.
Fairly common on larger tractors across the pond from what I understand and becoming more common on this side of the pond (for larger tractors).

Aaron Z

 

[fishrman]

Yes the clutch pedal should not have gotten stuck behind the stop peg, but that is not what cause your accident. You should be able to repair/redesign the peg fairly easily.

Why you pushed in the clutch I assume was just a reaction to losing control of the tractor.

I agree it does need redesigned but that should be a New Holland problem, not mine!
I pushed in the clutch to try to change to a lower gear, it wasn't a reaction to losing control.

 

[k0ua]

I agree it does need redesigned but that should be a New Holland problem, not mine!
I pushed in the clutch to try to change to a lower gear, it wasn't a reaction to losing control.

Can you confirm that you slid down the hill? Are there skid marks on the grass where the back tires did not roll, but skidded..? If that is the case, and I think it is as you were riding the brakes all the way down and you did not stop, then changing to a lower gear probably would not have helped, as it gives you more compression braking or "holdback" and if and when the tires break traction the counter-intuitive thing to do is to speed up the tractor drive train not slow it down to regain traction with the ground. Yesterday as a case in point I hauled about 16 tons of rock from a neighbors house to mine with my Kioti Hydro equipped tractor.. Down one hill that is covered in gravel I could go down it of course in 4wd without slipping, but in 2wd it slipped the rear tires each time. If I gave the tractor some more hydro pedal to speed up the drivetrain I could regain traction and stop the slide. I went down it more times in 2wd than 4wd, simply because it is a hard surface and I did not want all the tire wear associated with driving on the road in 4wd. I just dealt with the slide of the rear tires by giving it some more pedal. As long as I could stay within a safe speed of descent for the short distance downhill. Of course if I was faced with a long hill, I darn sure would not have done that. When going down steep grassy slopes it is 4wd all the way, as it is just to hard to ever regain traction once it is lost.

James K0UA

 

[fishrman]

Yes, I can confirm I slid. I looked at the situation afterwards and left skids in the grass to bare ground. Understand what you are saying but there is no way I was going to go down that hill in 4th and maintain control either. It was just a mistake on my part in hitting the wrong gear. I have mowed with a little 600 Ford the same way for 30 years or more. I got this new TT45A in 2010. Has about 175 hours on it and almost all mowing hours. Wonder what it would cost me to trade for a similar horse powered tractor with front assist and hydrostatic drive?

 

[k0ua]

Yes, I can confirm I slid. I looked at the situation afterwards and left skids in the grass to bare ground. Understand what you are saying but there is no way I was going to go down that hill in 4th and maintain control either. It was just a mistake on my part in hitting the wrong gear. I have mowed with a little 600 Ford the same way for 30 years or more. I got this new TT45A in 2010. Has about 175 hours on it and almost all mowing hours. Wonder what it would cost me to trade for a similar horse powered tractor with front assist and hydrostatic drive?

It would be some bucks. But what is your life/health worth?. At least you did not try to swerve and overturn the tractor, you just rode it out. What often happens is the guy try's to miss some obstacle like a tree for instance and turns the wheel.. over it goes. It is up to you on what to do about a trade, but from the sound of the terrain you have, I would have a 4wd machine of some type, whether gear or hydro. I like hydro for a variety of reasons, but either would be safer than what you have now.

 

[lhfarm]

I agree with the others that you may need a different tractor. But if you want to make contact with NH, you might have more luck through a dealer. If you are lucky enough to have one near by (mine closed the year after I purchased my tractor) I'd pay them a visit and show them the email you sent. There may already be a fix for the problem or they may be able to report it for you. I'm sure dealers have access to NH email addresses they wouldn't be able to share them and that is understandable. They might be able to put you in touch with a customer rep too.

Besides, a visit would give you a chance to check out other tractor options. If it is a good dealership, I suspect they will want you to be a satisfied NH customer, willing to buy another.

Good luck!

 

[fishrman]

This is a followup on the above. Please note that New Holland has agreed to allow 350.00 toward this bill. I still think it is about 200.00 to high. Dealer told me they charge 70.00 per hour but won't give me a breakdown on how they figured each item! I suppose I should just bend over and pay it now but I won't be doing business with them again if I do! Thoughts?
OK, I had a problem with my tt45a. Clutch pedal got stuck on the other side of the clutch stop when I panicked trying to get it stopped on a hillside. I was able to pull the clutch back around the stop and it was fine again but since I was fearful this might happen to someone else, I called New Holland. They were courteous and told me that they would contact the dealer I purchased it from and have them contact me. My dealer contacted me and told me they would like to come check it out and that they may want to take it back to the shop to inspect it closer. I told them that would be fine. They did end up taking it to the shop. I told them since they had it at the shop they just as well go ahead and service the tractor and asked them to change the oil, change fuel filter and check the brakes and other fluids. That is all I asked them to do. They were in contact with New Holland and me during a week long period of having it in the shop. They told me they were able to duplicate the problem with the clutch a couple of times and that New Holland told them to weld a bigger plate onto the clutch pedal so that it couldn't go around the stop. They didn't ask me if I wanted that done, they just did it. Fine with me as I want a safe tractor.
Bottom line, I got my bill today and they don't break down the hours spent for each process but I can tell you I about fell over. Truthfully, I would have traded the tractor off if they would have told me what they were going to charge me.
Since they didn't break down the bill relative to hours, I can't tell you how much for each but they say they Changed the oil, oil filter, fuel filter, put 15.95 of antifreeze in it somehow ( it was barely low). Charged ME for picking it up and bringing it back even though they are the ones that said they wanted to bring it to the shop. Charged 3.00 a mile for that or 240.00! On top of the parts costs they charged 481.85 for labor! Oh, and shop supplies of 24.09. Also says they power washed the tractor, (I never asked for that). They washed out the radiator fins. Again (never asked for that)
Blew out outer air filter.
Total bill is 867.54 with 71.07 charged for parts and the 24.09 shop supplies!
I think any reasonable person would say this is ridiculous.
I never asked them to do anything to the clutch pedal. That was New Hollands suggestion. I never asked them to pick up the tractor etc. etc.
The only thing I feel I owe for is the service work. What do you guys think would be fair to figure for the service work done? Do you agree with me or am I nuts?

 

[rsallen]

YOU had and caused the accident with the tractor.
YOU also okayed the service work.
None of it, I repeat, none of the it was N.H.'s fault. In fact I think it was generous N.H. offered you anything at all.

Pay the bill you owe.