Wheel motors on - starting to get anxious now...

[KentT]

Do you notice a lot of difference in speed.

There is a noticeable difference when transporting the tractor -- top speed is slightly more than 5MPH now. However, you don't notice a speed difference when using the loader, or using the rough-cut mower, etc. You adjust to just giving it more treadle to work as quickly as before.

If you're not specifically looking for hill-climbing ability, or will use it primarily for mowing a smooth lawn, I wouldn't recommend going to this large of a motor (22.7ci). Someone else went to 17.x ci CharLynn S series like this, and he even adjusted his throttle cable to make sure he could get max speed for mowing...

All my mowing with it will be with the rough-cut, on these hillsides, so I'm one happy camper. I've found I can use the LM bucket now to haul topsoil and mulch, whereas before I had to use the smaller bucket -- so I can actually do what I need to do much faster...

 

[MossRoad]

Sounds like just what you were after. Good job of planning for the correct size motors for your tasks.

 

[BobRip]

Good job on the selection of the wheel motors. 5MPH is still a good speed, and yet you have plenty of torque. When I was cleaning out the retention pond at Church, I could not drive up and out with the 422. I had about six people pull on a rope while I drive and came out fairly easily.

I forget, did your 425 have the newer wheel motors originally?

 

[KentT]

I forget, did your 425 have the newer wheel motors originally?

No, it had the same smaller displacement motors that I think yours has -- White RS series, 12.5ci

 

[MrJimi]

Aw-Shucks, do you mean after all of this it won't climb a tree
just kidding
congrats

 

[Barryh]

There is a noticeable difference when transporting the tractor -- top speed is slightly more than 5MPH now. However, you don't notice a speed difference when using the loader, or using the rough-cut mower, etc. You adjust to just giving it more treadle to work as quickly as before.

If you're not specifically looking for hill-climbing ability, or will use it primarily for mowing a smooth lawn, I wouldn't recommend going to this large of a motor (22.7ci). Someone else went to 17.x ci CharLynn S series like this, and he even adjusted his throttle cable to make sure he could get max speed for mowing...

All my mowing with it will be with the rough-cut, on these hillsides, so I'm one happy camper. I've found I can use the LM bucket now to haul topsoil and mulch, whereas before I had to use the smaller bucket -- so I can actually do what I need to do much faster...

5 MPH would be plenty fast for me. The only time I use top end speed is when I scoot up the road for a short distance. Nice job, nothing like having that extra torque when using ground engaging attachments.

 

[KentT]

5 MPH would be plenty fast for me. The only time I use top end speed is when I scoot up the road for a short distance. Nice job, nothing like having that extra torque when using ground engaging attachments.

It's much more useful for me this way. With these new wheel motors, it's similar to your BX with only the low-speed range.

Not only did it increase torque overall, the increase is VERY noticeable when accelerating AND slowing down -- it increased the braking ability as much as it increased the pulling torque. Until you adjust to the difference, you can make the PT lurch to start or stop -- wearing the seatbelt is absolutely essential now. The torque is actually more noticeable slowing down when first using it, instead of when taking off...

I'm not sure how the optional low-speed valving that I spec'ed in influences this (you'd have to compare to one without these special valves), but it certainly is "precise" at low speeds. You can readily move the PT forward or back literally an inch at a time and hold it there with the treadle -- even on a slope -- so it's great for working with the minihoe, for example.

I haven't encountered ANY bypassing at all with these so far -- it'll spin the tires instead... whether climbing a hill, pushing or pulling hard, etc. In that regard, it performs much more like a traditional tractor. However, with true four-wheel drive (not front wheel assist), articulation and frame oscillation, and with the same size tires all around, it is still quite different than a traditional tractor. For example, I could climb the bank below my driveway, up over the shoulder and onto the driveway without spinning at all. Even as the weight shifted first mainly to the back wheels as it climbed up the bank, then back to the front wheels as they came over the apex of the shoulder, the whole thing was uneventful. If one tire should happen to break loose and start to spin, just let off the treadle (which significantly increases the torque while decreasing the speed) and it would crawl right on up and over...

All my work was done in dry conditions -- gorgeous weather in upper 70s and low 80s -- it will be interesting to see what it feels like in wet, slippery conditions... I'm already looking forward to the next trip in June!

 

[KentT]

Good job on the selection of the wheel motors. 5MPH is still a good speed, and yet you have plenty of torque. When I was cleaning out the retention pond at Church, I could not drive up and out with the 422. I had about six people pull on a rope while I drive and came out fairly easily.

Speaking of ponds, a guy pointed out the link to Microsoft Live's aerial views last night, and I discovered that it has relatively current (this past winter??) views of the property in Tennessee I've been clearing and working on with the PT.

Here's a view of it, with my approximate propery lines drawn in... slowly getting it ready to build!

 

[MossRoad]

Pond frontage! Here, fishy fishy fishy

 

[KentT]

Pond frontage! Here, fishy fishy fishy

Yep. The smaller pond has some nice LM bass in it, but I think the larger one is basically bluegill and scrub stuff -- it's pretty shallow, and has a few resident geese and mallards...

My son saw an overgrown orange "Baltimore minnow" in the smaller pond that must've been close to 2 feet long -- someone lost their bait -- it freaked him out!

 

[MossRoad]

I'd never heard of Microsoft Live until you mentioned it. So I just looked it up. Pretty neat. They have a bette image of my property than google earth and the bird's eye view feature gets even more detail, but at an angle. Only one view available for our property, but all four directions available for our house. Neat. And it appears to be only one year old.

 

[woodlandfarms]

That is interesting... I know of Live and Google, and in our area the county photographs once every 2 years to see if you are breaking any building / land laws (they say something different we all know the truth).

Google must be 2002. Microsoft Live is around 2006 (fall) and The county is 2007... Basically just pushing back the blackberries. Looks better in person than in these pictures...

 

[KentT]

That is interesting... I know of Live and Google, and in our area the county photographs once every 2 years to see if you are breaking any building / land laws (they say something different we all know the truth).

Google must be 2002. Microsoft Live is around 2006 (fall) and The county is 2007... Basically just pushing back the blackberries. Looks better in person than in these pictures...

Try installing the Microsoft Virtual Earth Beta from the Microsoft live site -- click the 3D button on the menu (near left, top) and it will prompt you to install it. It's the most amazing thing I've seen -- I'd taken previous "virtual tours" of the Grand Canyon and such -- but this thing has been expanded greatly. It's the most amazing thing I've yet to see on the internet!

It takes real satellite imagery (the views from Microsoft Live maps) and wraps it as a skin on 3-D topo models of whatever street address you give it. You can tilt, pan, zoom, spin, etc. This is stuff that military flight simulators were doing 10 years ago, costing millions of dollars, and here it is free on the web... It will even let you build 3D models (similar to Google's SketchUp, though simpler) and add them to this 3D view of the world. Amazing stuff!

To give you an idea of what it can do, I'm going to post two large screen grabs of the images it generates...

The first is the view of my lot in Tennessee, taken from the vantage point of the top of Chilhowee Mountain, the front range of the Smokies. The pushpin is the clearing on my lot. The high point on the horizon is Clingman's Dome at 6600ft plus, and other high ridge to the left of that is Mt Leconte and Mt Guyot, overlooking Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. The state border with North Carolina runs down that spine of the Smokies on the horizon.

The second is a view of of the "family farm" that I grew up on in Tennessee and that my oldest brother still owns. The arrow on the left is pointing toward the farmhouse, and the one on the right points to the barn. The farm includes most of the face of the little mountain just behind it. The steep mountain just behind that one is the north end of Chilhowee Mountain -- the same range that the other view above was taken from. My lot is behind that range, about 15-20 miles further soutn. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is in the background. Mt LeConte, overlooking Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge is more prominent on the left in the background.

 

[MossRoad]

Oh, wow!That is too cool! I will check it out, for sure. Thanks.