Quote:
Originally Posted by tevake
Can you elaborate on the trans differences and how that effect the FEL use?
I'm coming into this with very little experence on tractors.
Thanks, Richard
Ps are y'all noticing the southern twang Im picking up down here?
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I noticed something. I thought you were just having early cocktails.
Gear drive is more efficient, and there are a lot of gear drive options. You can get gear drive with a direction reverser, which is great for using a loader. You just step on a pedal and all the sudden you are going the opposite direction. Basic gear drive transmissions your range of ground speed is limited by the gear you are in. If you need to speed up and slow down a lot, it's a real pain to declutch and change gears. Some have synchro ranges so you can be in, say, third gear and push a lever and it will shift up or down one gear. Others (older Fergusons) have two or three speed planetary transmission in front of the gear drive transmission that gives you some ground speed flexibility without using the clutch or shifting gears.
Hydrostat is sort of a continuously variable transmission. The usually have a few gear drive ranges and a pedal you push on to vary the ground speed and direction from zero to the max limits of the selected gear drive range. It's VERY handy, as you can keep the engine speed up and bring the tractor practically to a stop or even reverse it. This is important if you are using a PTO tool, because it needs to be at operating speed no matter what your ground speed is, and so does the hydraulic pump. The only downside is the hydrostat uses about 10% of the engine's power.