I Learned a Valuable lesson last night!!

[Deerherd]

A good reminder of another benefit of 4wd. When in 4wd, all wheels provide braking. Thanks for sharing, this may save someone from a bad accident.

Good advice. I run my tractor quite a bit in 2wd but it engages the 4wd when you apply the brakes. A nice feature to have. Be safe!

 

[Gary Fowler]

I try to remember to take my LS P7010 out of 4 WD when I don't need the traction because it does rip up the grass when in 4 WD. The GOOD thing about my LS is that when I touch the brakes, it automatically engages the 4 WD. I would assume some of the other tractors would do that also. My 4 WD is engaged electrically with a flip of a switch so I would think anyone with that type of engagement could easily fix a switch on the brake pedal to engage that circuit on their tractor even if it does not have that feature.

Sad to say that I owned it for 2 years before I realized that this feature existed and only notice it by chance when parking with it in 2 WD and applying the brakes. The 4 WD indicator light came on and I distinctly remembered that I had taken it out of 4WD. I don't recall reading about it at all in the owners manual, but then again, I could have just missed it.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I forgot to mention that you guys with a manual shift lever will be S.O.L. with trying to make your tractors into auto 4 WD shift mode.
It will be interesting to see some responses from folks who have the shift on the fly electronic 4 WD activation to see if their tractors have the auto engagement feature and they just don't know about it.

 

[rd_macgregor]

Do any CUTs have front brakes as well as rear?

 

[k0ua]

Do any CUTs have front brakes as well as rear?

None that I know of. But all 4WD tractors have "front brakes" if you leave them in 4WD. The front tires are connected to the ground, the tires are connected to the wheels, the wheels are connected solidly to the front differential, the differential is connected to the drive shaft, the drive shaft is connected to the rear differential, and then to the rear axles and then to the brake pads on the rear (I might have left out a connection or two. ) But you get the idea. When you press on the rear brakes, the front wheels have braking action thru their ground contact patch also.

 

[k0ua]

Some of the larger tractors like Gary and Deerheard have, don't have front brakes either, but since their 4wd mechanism is electric/hydraulic they have electric circuits to automatically engage the 4wd when the brakes are pressed so that they gain the advantage of 4 wheel braking.

 

[texasjohn]

James, I'll bet that if you have HST then this contributes to the quick slow down as well. At least my tractor comes to a quick stop when going into neutral.

None that I know of. But all 4WD tractors have "front brakes" if you leave them in 4WD. The front tires are connected to the ground, the tires are connected to the wheels, the wheels are connected solidly to the front differential, the differential is connected to the drive shaft, the drive shaft is connected to the rear differential, and then to the rear axles and then to the brake pads on the rear (I might have left out a connection or two. ) But you get the idea. When you press on the rear brakes, the front wheels have braking action thru their ground contact patch also.

 

[Jay4200]

A combination of no brakes on the front wheels and being in 2 wheel drive, meant I had no stopping power up front were the weight was. Once I figured this out and checked my shorts!

That kind of event is known in the industry as a "pucker moment". Glad to hear you didn't crash. Been there, done that....WAY too many times.

 

[Topher265]

Thanks for posting a good story reminding us all to be "situationally aware".

 

[DavesTractor]

To take it one step further, most tractors do not have rear brakes, as few if any newer SCUT/CUT/Utility tractors actually have brake drums/discs out on the axle ends like a car. Instead they have wet or dry drum or disc brakes that mount somewhere on the drivetrain and stop all of the drivetrain (less the PTO of course) that is engaged. By default, the rear axle is always engaged. The front is selectable.

As mentioned above, if you are moving along at 5 mph or so on a slick surface (or loose gravel) in 2wd, your stopping distance is not good and the rear tires will slide a bunch. Put it in 4wd and you stop so fast to almost put you over the steering wheel. It is an easy test to see if your 4wd is working.

The LS with the electronic front axle engagement when the brakes are applied in 2wd seems like a great idea. My only concern with that sort of design would be longevity of whatever device is used to electrically engage the axle. Seems it would get a lot of work if a guy ran mostly in 2wd and used the brakes often.