What to but hydo, shuttle or gear

[Soundguy]

This talk reminds me of the ford 5 spd trannies on the hundred and early thousand series tractor.. shifter was in a 3 teir arangement.. shifter only moved forward or aft.. with N inthe middle.. ( thus having 3 N positions. ).. 1 & 2 were toghether as was 4 & 5.. leaving 3 & R.. this made a good non synchro shuttle... I do 99% ofl my work with 1, 3, and R.. with 3 & R being 98% of that... I use '1' for approaching somehting like a truck bed or trailer for loading / unloading material.. hay.. etc..

soundguy

 

[flusher]

I am looking to buy a new tractor. I know I want about a 40 hp tractor to run my 6ft brush hog. for some land clearing and to keep up with the sides of the fields. The other things I will be doing with this tractor are
-snow removal
-loader work making and fixing log roads on my property.
-some farm work plowing and disking
-also yearly fire wood with the ocasional loging on my own propery.
I would like some help on if the hydros can with stand the pulling of logs and plows every year. Or should I opt for gear drive/shuttle.
I want to do some side work with the loader on odd jobs.

I've had hydrostatic (Kubota B7510HST (21 hp engine, 17 hp pto, 4WD) and gear tractor (Mahindra 5525 (54 hp engine, 45 hp pto, 2WD)), no shuttle tranny tractor yet. I've managed to learn how to use both of these tractors about as efficiently as my skills allow.

Sure, hydros and 4WD are nice for FEL work (no shifting), but after a few hours of FEL work with the 2WD gear tranny tractor, I got the hang of it. I may have been a little more productive with the FEL on the hydro tractor, but I'm not trying to set speed records. In fact, my experience has been that taking it slow and easy when tractorin' is better than rushing the job.

You're not making your living with your tractor so get the tractor you want and don't get hung up on the supposed advantages and disadvantages of tranny options. With a little practice and experience, they all work fine.

 

[aczlan]

Now If I am not mistaken, on all CUTs, the shuttle shift IS NOT like on a full size backhoe.
A full size backhoe has a Torque Converter, a CUT has a clutch.
So a CUT has to be clutched when stopping or starting, or changing direction.
A full sized back hoe is gas pedal and brake pedal.

my FIL has a L3830 GST which from what I can tell has a torque converter and a clutch, you dont have to clutch to shift or use the shuttle (but there is a clutch for if you want to), the only downside (to me) is that the PTO isnt run through the clutch, it is independent. I like how the PTO is in my dads Massey Industrial 35 which has a 2 stage clutch (1/2 way down stops transmission, all the way down stops the PTO).

Aaron Z

 

[john_bud]

Yep.. big difference in TC driven equipment and hydro and the gear/shuttle-gear machines.

As for repair in general.. I think its safe to say that the more advanced you get, the harder and more $$ something is going to be to repair. IE. take 3 shelled trannies.. a gear, shuttle and a hydro... a shuttle is likely going to cost more $$ to repair than gear.. and the hydro.. likely mor ethan gear. but not sure more than shuttle or not.... lots of goodies in a shuttle depending on design.


soundguy

Actually, I mostly agree with your assessment. At least as far as Deere and Kubota hydros go. According to the service people I spoke to, the hydros are the most reliable and the cheapest to repair transmission they make. Other brands may vary from that. A hydro is nothing more than a variable displacement pump / motor pair. Very simple and easy to work on. Power shift designs are much more complex, have 10x the parts and are more costly to repair.

The good news is that while the hydros are the most reliable, the other transmissions are not very far behind, so there is little worry. Your point on abuse is valid, but I don't plan on being abusive (then again, who does?).

 

[Whitey]

Looking at your to do list.........and the size of the tractor you are buying.......I would go and drive all three types before buying. I agree with Soundguy it is all owner preference. I own a gear drive and use the loader and the backhoe all the time. Sometimes I wonder what life would be like with a hydro or shuttle and someday I might find out but not right now I am happy. I will say this....in my opinion....gear drive tractors (especially the older ones) seem to be more of a basic design and eaiser to repair.

JD 770 / 70 FEL / 7 BH - 425 AWS / 54" MMM / 54" FMP

 

[Soundguy]

Actually, I mostly agree with your assessment. At least as far as Deere and Kubota hydros go. According to the service people I spoke to, the hydros are the most reliable and the cheapest to repair transmission they make. Other brands may vary from that. A hydro is nothing more than a variable displacement pump / motor pair. Very simple and easy to work on. Power shift designs are much more complex, have 10x the parts and are more costly to repair.

The good news is that while the hydros are the most reliable, the other transmissions are not very far behind, so there is little worry. Your point on abuse is valid, but I don't plan on being abusive (then again, who does?).

I've seen some discussions on this forum in the apst about hydro repair.. seems like multi-thousand dollar quotes for replacement are what was quoted.. that seems a tad steep to me...

soundguy

 

[AndyMA]

I tend to agree with Soundguy, however, I am biased toward the shuttleshift. With the shuttleshift you get the advantage of shifting gears on the fly without clutching including forward to reverse and back again like for loader work, but you have no power loss like in the hydrostatic drive units. IMO, it is the best of both combined into one. Some would also say that shuttleshift is less prone to repairs especially if you plan to do lots of heavy pulling. It has been voice/ argued here on this forum that overheating of the hydrostatic tractors occurs when pulling heavy soil engaging implements. Some say never, others say all the time. I guess it depends on the brand of your tractor, but I have not seen anyone on this forum complain about shuttle shift transmissions from any brand.

I agree with Soundguy and Gary. I like Shuttle especially electro hydro shuttle for all uses mentioned. I especially like the fact that I still have the foot throttle available and can use it to control speed and don't have to keep the engine running at high rpm's most of the time.

Andy

 

[jimmysisson]

Having had several gear tractors and now a shuttle, you can do more work in a given time with a shuttle, esp. maneuvering. I like shuttle best in the woods and mowing, where a hydro would prob be fine too. I'm with Andy about not wanting to hear the diesel at high RPM all the time, though.
No transmission is bust-proof, and more complexity makes repairs more likely if there is abuse, but these modern units last a long time with good oil.
Jim

 

[pitt_md]

I have a shuttle shift Kubota 4310 my FIL has a hydro 4310 Ill take the shuttle anyday for most tasksI can load fast and I dont have to shift ranges when I am brushhogging , just move shifter lever and I like the gas pedal too. V

I agree with this.
If you were in a situation where you used your loader all day everyday then yea I can see the advantage but for most of us part timers it just not that big of a deal to use the shuttle shift. I also don't like the idea of giving away
5-10% of the engines power just to move.

 

[KB9UDE]

Whoa, no yelling necessary. Repent. Please.

I'm sorry. It was stated above that you had to clutch so I made it known that statement was not true.

John