How often do you use your Road Gear?

Faster346 · Feb 16, 2011

Just kind of curious how often your tractors get driven in road gear? My H or M rarely see it, unless I'm in a hurry to get back up the lane to the barn for some reason, or I'm on the road..but I find myself using road gear (4th) on my Super C a lot around the farm, since it's only about 8-10mph depending on throttle. Is it bad for them to be used in these higher gears a lot??

Bob M · Feb 16, 2011

Back when we were farming with them, my SH and SM saw road gear regularly. We had fields 2 - 3 miles from the main farm. The both tractors accumulated a couple thousand miles in 5th gear running out and back home over their working lives. (It caused them no problems aside from road worn tires...)

Later in "retirement" - and until I got a decent flatbed trailer - I drove the tractors in road gear 10 - 15 miles each way to several local shows, pulls and parades every summer, again with no problems.

IaGary · Feb 16, 2011

Everything put on a tractor is meant to be used.

That includes all the gears.

Gary

DeltaRed · Feb 16, 2011

I use road gears often.due to the costom work and farms several miles apart,my tractors all get a fair amount of road miles.The thing that suffers is the tires.Pavement eats tires

dhermesc · Feb 17, 2011

Our old H saw 5th gear a lot. We had over 10 miles between some farms and it did a lot of mowing and hauling hay wagons. While it seemed to be moving pretty good at 16 MPH or so our 1486 could move along at almost 24 mph.

Janicholson · Feb 17, 2011

The trans in the smaller tractors is an indirect drive trans, it uses the gears in every gear. H and above couple the input to output (direct drive) and just pass the power through the trans (gears are at idle). Of course the differential and finals are under power, but far less stress than pulling a plow in low. Jim

rich4 · Feb 17, 2011

My brother used to use an 80hp tractor to haul grain and livestock to market about 15 miles away. Before he had trucks big enough to do the job.

495man · Feb 17, 2011

Almost every day in the summer...fields are almost always road travel away.

The Dukester · Feb 19, 2011

You can use road gear all you want using good judgement as to how rough the road is your running on and the weight of the load you're trying to pull....don't make a habit of overloading the engine or "grinding the gears" shifting into road gear from 4th on the go. Farmall H's and M's will start slipping out of 5th if you grind the gears shifting them into 5th on the go too much because it is a dog clutch you are engaging and if the teeth get rounded off on the companion clutch members the detent on the shift rail cannot hold the dog clutching gears in engagement. Also if you bounce an H or M family tractor around too much on rough ground (especially in road gear) it will eventually break the capscrews (bolts) holding the clutch housing to the transmission housing. These capscrews are inside the housing and you might not notice any of them broken until it's too late.

How often do you use your Road Gear?

Faster346

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Bob M

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IaGary

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DeltaRed

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dhermesc

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Janicholson

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rich4

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495man

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The Dukester

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