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Does Hydrostatic Drive work on hills?

 
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Steephills Conifer, CO posts: 3
posted on November 06, 2009 at 08:57PM Inappropriate? Quote Reply

I got a PTY 9000 26hp lawn tractor and snow thrower.  The snow thrower works great, but the tractor can not climb my drive way.  I live in the mountains of Colorado, but really the drive way is not THAT steep.  The wheels don't spin, they just don't turn.  The belt is not slipping.

A Sears technician came out and looked at the tractor and said the was fine, the drive is just too steep for this tractor and its hydrostatic transmission.  She said she had other people with the same problem.

I am going to exchange the tractor but my question is would a garden tractor (PGT 9000) be any better.  It would have a hydrostatic transmission, but it is supposed to be able to pull a plow, or at least they sell a plow for it.

I can get a garden tractor with a manual transmission, but if I do my wife says she would not be able to drive it.

So what should I expect a hydrostatic transmission to be able to do.  I would think I should either spin the wheels or bog down the engine.  Is that reasonable?

 

2009 President's Circle
posted on November 06, 2009 at 09:36PM
 

Get the gearshift, she'll learn to like doing wheelies. There is no upshifting like a car, you put it in a gear and take your foot off the brake, that's it. Gear 1 is granny, 1 mph; Gear 6 will bring the front wheels off the ground usually. If you get up the driveway with the hydro, it's only going to freewheel back down. They are made for level or rolling yards, not slopes.

posted on November 08, 2009 at 10:24PM
 

I think you would be better off with the garden tractor version. they have a larger hydrostatic transmission that works with a higher internal oil pressure to be able to pull heavier loads (which would consist of you, the tractors weight, the weight of the snow equipment and any wheel weights you might have)

2009 Advisor's Circle
posted on November 09, 2009 at 06:04PM
 

Failure of the hydro is disconcerting. Evidently the fluid is so thick (from the cold?) that the hydro's pumps aren't producing sufficient preasure. Do you allow the transmission to warm up before use? Have you tried purging the transmission?

posted on November 11, 2009 at 02:31PM
 

I have found that resistance from hills or ground engaging equipment causes the hyraulic oil to overheat & greatly diminishes the pulling power. Belt drives are more user friendly than they use to be.

posted on November 11, 2009 at 03:26PM
 
In response to Firsttractor's post from November 09 2009 06:04PM
Firsttractor said…

Failure of the hydro is disconcerting. Evidently the fluid is so thick (from the cold?) that the hydro's pumps aren't producing sufficient preasure. Do you allow the transmission to warm up before use? Have you tried purging the transmission?


 

Actually the tractor did worse the longer it ran.  Trying to get up the drive I shut it off and let it sit on the hill for an hour a couple of time, then I could get maybe another 100 feet.  I ended up having my wife drive and I pushed.  I had purged the transmission several times, but it still would not go up the hill.

The spec at hydro-gear says the output torque for the LT series is 160 lb-ft which through a 20" tire would give a forward pull of under 200 lbs.

The garden tractor series is a bit better, with up to 260 lb-ft of torque continous but with 24 inch tires still only gives 260 lbs of pull. The GT series can have 510 lb-ft intermittent, which would give 510 lbs of pull - but not for long.

According to my calculations, even the GT series transmission will transmit less than 3 hp to the ground. (1800 rpm input / 30.6:1 reduction = 59 rpm * 260 lb-ft / 5252 = 2.91 hp).  Why have a 26 hp engine.

I went with a garden tractor but the 6 speed gear drive.  I want to spin the wheels or stall the engine.

2009 Friends Circle
posted on November 11, 2009 at 04:41PM
 

Maybe you shouldve thought about this before you moved to a hill

Rebuild your house some where nicer

2009 Advisor's Circle
posted on November 11, 2009 at 04:42PM
 

Thanks for the follow-up. I had less than a year of engineering and that was 40 years ago, so I'll defer to you on the calculations. Your choice of the manual transmission appears to be the best route to take. Buy a couple of back up drive belts.

Now I'm really concerned about being able to snow plow with my hydro- time will tell I guess.

2009 Advisor's Circle
posted on November 11, 2009 at 04:46PM
 

One follow up question. Did you own the tractor early enough in the year to use it for mowing? If so, did the trany show any signs of this failure on hills etc.?

2009 President's Circle
posted on November 11, 2009 at 11:03PM
 
In response to Steephills's post from November 11 2009 03:26PM

I went with a garden tractor but the 6 speed gear drive.  I want to spin the wheels or stall the engine.

There used to be a dual range 6-speed Peerless by Tecumseh that was a beast.

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