Why left and right brakes?

[Slowpoke Slim]

They're not.

The guy was just asking a question.

A year ago.

 

[Turbys_1700]

Individual brakes were best utilized when sharp turns were needed for drilling wheat etc...

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Individual brakes were best utilized when sharp turns were needed for drilling wheat etc...

Even more so when cultivating...

SR

 

[TerryR]

Even more so when cultivating...

We used Farmall H's for cultivation on hundreds of acres in the 1950s, and always used the steering brakes to turn at the end of every row. They had dry band brakes, nothing like what tractors of today have, and I don't remember every servicing them in years of use. The idea that one might cause damage to a tractor by using the built-in functions fractures my brain.

 

[Farmer495]

So - had to jump in and dig up this zombie because this issue has recently become relevant on our farm.

New employee has come in with lots of experience and says this is the ONLY way to turn a tractor in a field while mowing or using a chain harrow (BTW we care for large flatish areas that we call horse pastures, that you guys might call lawns or golf courses :confused2. With rotary mowers tractors are travelling 5 - 7mph.

However, I'm with stlbill - my observation is that there is a fight between the driveline and the brake, so this is wearing the brake. My instruction to employees is that you stay off the brakes and clutch as much as possible. So - the way I ask people to handle this is to make wide stripes - a wide turn at the end of the row, no brake, no clutch. Go over 2 or 3 rows and start back. kinda hard to explain but very smooth and easier on the tractor. It does take a bit more operator skill to keep the rows parallel.

Regularly mow a 20 acre field and never touch the clutch or brake once you get moving. Heck even the corners are rounded so if you go slow you don't have to back into the corner.

I also tell them to come all the way down on the throttle when they push the clutch in (no engaging the clutch with the rpm's up)

We much less often use the tractors for grading, snow plowing etc - in that case limited use of the split brakes can be very handy as discussed in other posts. Parameters are sparing use, and low speed.

k0ua
Agree that things wear, trick is to do the job with the least wear possible so the equipment lasts the longest and isn't broken when you need it.

One of my guys said I run the equipment like it is my own - which it is.

These are 5 series JD's (2 5085 and a 5093) all have split brakes and diff locks.

What size/type of tractor was your employee used to? Big difference in the "need" on some machines.

I use brakes when needed, not "all the time"

What I do find is 2wd tractors or inadequate front weight with larger 3pt loads on soft surfaces you need brakes to steer. The 2wd tractors here have the brakes unlocked all the time, you need them! The 4wd/FWA I hardly have the pedals unlocked since the larger tires and 4x4 pulls you around a turn.

Ran 3pt mower on the 2wd, you had to steer almost every turn with the brakes, same mower on the 4wd, never needed brakes yet.

 

[CincyFlyer]

Even more so when cultivating...

SR

And yet even more so for YouTube "Rolling the tractor in some unnamed third world country " videos.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

And yet even more so for YouTube "Rolling the tractor in some unnamed third world country " videos.

Yeaaa, tractors don't come with a "brain", you have to use your own...

SR

 

[Sawyer Rob]

double post

 

[daugen]

Before I spent a great deal of money buying a front weight rack and weights for my larger Massey, my first attempts
at pulling a Land Pride disc harrow were real eye openers at the end of the row. Even with disc raised tractor was a bear to turn, and had to
throttle way down, since there was almost no weight on the front, relatively. I had not used steering brakes for 50 years, since I plowed snow as a teenager with a JD B.
No diff lock on that so you had to use the brakes to keep from digging in and getting stuck in the snow.

Fast forward 50 years and now I have a challenging and frankly not very safe situation trying to steer the tractor, plus not running into neighbor's bean patch planted too close to where I was,
not enough head room. So...I tried using the steering brakes and whooeeee, I was spinning around at the end of the row like a teacup. Front wheels would almost lift off the ground and I got pretty good timing it as to when to stop the spin. Ok, now with the proper weights up front I don't do that any more, nor would I want to. You really have to hang on and with severe arthritis, it's just too hard on me.

I started doing what was previously referred to about half way through, going up about three or four rows so I didn't have to hit the brakes at all.

Neighboring elderly farmer has an ancient JD, on its very last legs.
He uses his brakes on every turn.
Was complaining to me about his brakes.
What's the matter?
Wore out.

so they can wear out, particularly on poorly maintained equipment. Everything this man touches he wrecks (severe alcoholic)
and no surprise he wrecked his brakes. But otherwise, certainly if in an oil bath, those linings are probably rated for what 10k hours?
I'm sure it has everything to do with how hard and how long you use them.

I did have the brakes changed on my Super A recently, what a difference. Originals were primarily oil soaked, but not worn through since 1955.
I had to of course fix the seal drip so the new linings wouldn't get oil on them, sort of the opposite of oil bath. They had one and didn't want one....

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I was using the individual brakes today, to get back into the row where I wanted be, as I was rototilling.

Today was my first tillage of the year...

SR