Buying Advice are gear tractors quieter?

[daugen]

Hydro tractors seem to phase out around JD's 66hp, and then it's powershuttle or CVT. I'm wondering if anyone has compared a similar cab tractor's noise level with a gear trans vs. hydro. Do all those whiny noises add up?
My needs are in the 50-100 hp range, and while the convenience and ease of operation of the hydro is a real plus for me, I'm wondering if after four hours of field mowing would there be any difference in noise level, real or perceived?
Are there fuel consumption differences? thanks

 

[Gary Fowler]

I suppose it depend on the cab, but on my LS cab and my brother in laws New Holland, outside noise is limited. You have to open the cab door to hear what someone is yelling at you. Tractor noise if very isolated although you can still hear it,just not annoying. I have not had a decibal meter to check the difference but it is substantially quieter than open station. Almost no exhaust noise is noticeable. My tractor is gear and his is hydro.

 

[daugen]

thanks. It's when the exhaust noise is so muted, that I wonder if the hydro noises intrude. I watched the JD comparison video using a noise meter and of course the JD was quieter, actually by a lot at rated speed, but the tractor was sitting in idle. I'd like some feedback on whiny noises when the thing is under load, really being used.

I test drove the Kioti 50 with a cab, and was amazed how loud it was in the cab, really surprised too. BUT, we were under a metal roof at a fair ground and I think there was some booming going on. But as soon as I started up the Kioti, my first thought was headphones. Not what I want. Boy that was a nice tractor though. Noise can be very tiring, at least for me, and I don't like earplugs or phones, unless I have to, and often have to with the equipment I have now. Just wondering if i can finally take everything off my head, put a little vintage Alabama on the stereo and actually hear the music.

I'm not likely to do a lot of loader work, so a powershuttle or similar would be just fine. It seems the ultimate would be the Case IH CVT setup, which is now going into smaller tractors. But I bet that has a serious price tag for it, and one of the things I've always admired about tractors is their simplicity and durability. Not so simple any more, but a gear tractor with a good operator ought to last a very, very long time.

On YouTube there's some company hawking used tractors that always has a giant custom truck in the background and the tractors are all put through the same pace. He revs the crap out of it, usually pops the clutch and lurches forward, not a soft touch for sure as he wheels through the demo.
Now this is a guy who should drive a hydro for the sake of the tractor, though I'm sure one can abuse anything if they try hard enough.

My Gravely garden tractor is all gear, and it sings a symphony of different gear noises depending upon which direction it's going in, nothing objectionable, just sort of talking to me. But it's noise, and noise is cumulative, added to the exhaust, and the shaft drive mower, and there is no way I can drive the Gravely for very long without plugging my ears. Really don't want to have to do that if I spend 50K on a new tractor.
My Case IH 255/Mitsu has no gear/trans noise at all.

I'm going to guess that the total noise level isn't much different between hydro and gear, but that the sound may be different. Some noises you live with and some annoy you constantly. Want to avoid the latter.

Appreciate all advice.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

I ware ear protection using the JD CUT (no cab), and the eHydro has a noticeable whine. Gears should be quieter, but the exhaust noise from a poppin Johnny is what damaged my hearing decades ago. We didn't know any better back in the 60's.

 

[RollingsFarms]

thanks. It's when the exhaust noise is so muted, that I wonder if the hydro noises intrude. I watched the JD comparison video using a noise meter and of course the JD was quieter, actually by a lot at rated speed, but the tractor was sitting in idle. I'd like some feedback on whiny noises when the thing is under load, really being used.

I test drove the Kioti 50 with a cab, and was amazed how loud it was in the cab, really surprised too. BUT, we were under a metal roof at a fair ground and I think there was some booming going on. But as soon as I started up the Kioti, my first thought was headphones. Not what I want. Boy that was a nice tractor though. Noise can be very tiring, at least for me, and I don't like earplugs or phones, unless I have to, and often have to with the equipment I have now. Just wondering if i can finally take everything off my head, put a little vintage Alabama on the stereo and actually hear the music.

I'm not likely to do a lot of loader work, so a powershuttle or similar would be just fine. It seems the ultimate would be the Case IH CVT setup, which is now going into smaller tractors. But I bet that has a serious price tag for it, and one of the things I've always admired about tractors is their simplicity and durability. Not so simple any more, but a gear tractor with a good operator ought to last a very, very long time.

On YouTube there's some company hawking used tractors that always has a giant custom truck in the background and the tractors are all put through the same pace. He revs the crap out of it, usually pops the clutch and lurches forward, not a soft touch for sure as he wheels through the demo.
Now this is a guy who should drive a hydro for the sake of the tractor, though I'm sure one can abuse anything if they try hard enough.

My Gravely garden tractor is all gear, and it sings a symphony of different gear noises depending upon which direction it's going in, nothing objectionable, just sort of talking to me. But it's noise, and noise is cumulative, added to the exhaust, and the shaft drive mower, and there is no way I can drive the Gravely for very long without plugging my ears. Really don't want to have to do that if I spend 50K on a new tractor.
My Case IH 255/Mitsu has no gear/trans noise at all.

I'm going to guess that the total noise level isn't much different between hydro and gear, but that the sound may be different. Some noises you live with and some annoy you constantly. Want to avoid the latter.

Appreciate all advice.

Yeah EbayLucky is who you're referring to. I wouldn't buy jack squat from him either the way they treat equipment. It might not be junk but who knows how it was treated once he or his staff got ahold of it. He will never sell me a thing, his YouTube videos do him more harm then good because anyone worth a lick of sense sees how he treats equipment and won't pay their hard earned money for his junk.

 

[KYDan]

The short answer is yes. The HST and Turbocharger will add considerable noise, however, it is a tradeoff that you either think is necessary or not dependent upon your use. It you are going with more than 50HP on a new tractor most likely it will be turbocharged due to environmental regulations. If you are mowing in tight areas or using a loader the HST is a huge plus.

 

[46andtool]

Yeah EbayLucky is who you're referring to. I wouldn't buy jack squat from him either the way they treat equipment. It might not be junk but who knows how it was treated once he or his staff got ahold of it. He will never sell me a thing, his YouTube videos do him more harm then good because anyone worth a lick of sense sees how he treats equipment and won't pay their hard earned money for his junk.

Hey, I just watched come of EbayLucky's vids - you're right, that dude is brutal with the equipment.
Start it up, full throttle. Drive around fast in circles, run the hydraulics stop to stop in a abusive manner. Then abruptly shut the machine off, there's no reason to be like that. What a fool...

 

[daugen]

The HST and Turbocharger will add considerable noise

Once upon a time I owned a 46 Bertram with two 8V71TI's, each with twin turbos and as most of you know, the DD design already incorporated a "blower". So man what a chorus to pick through when down in the engine room trying to figure out if the blower rattle at low idle is just an idle adjustment or something about to grenade on me. But a turbo DD is a quiet puppy compared to some non-turboed DD's that really bark with "straight pipes". The turbos quiet down the exhaust, but of course add their own whine. The "glass packs" on my boat were almost seven feet long, and there was still a lot of noise. But it was all good. My neighbor had I believe 8V53's or maybe 6's..., but natural, and jeez was that thing loud. Particularly under a metal shed, kinda like a tractor shed but for boats.

So some noise, a nice exhaust noise I suppose, is one of those sounds I wouldn't mind hearing, and quiet down the rest. What worries me is not being able to hear something that's getting unhappy, say a rotational grinding noise that clearly should not be there, and it's just muffled by Soundown's finest. They can't put sensors and idiot lights on everything.

So here I'm wondering how to get a quieter tractor, and just thinking this through, maybe not too quiet. Or perhaps like Porsche and others they can pipe in or even synthesize the right machine or exhaust noise into the sealed cabin. I'd like a 5.0 Mustang noise please for rpm increases, then a muffled big block anything for the cruise around the fields...:thumbsup: Ok, and for the diesel drivers, say a nice Cat 3208 or 3412 at full bore... but I surely digress, and not trying to stir up anything with brands here. But the hush technology of cars is already filtering to tractor cabs, and I wonder when the super deluxe cabs will look like yacht helms.

I sold the boat five years ago after driving it to Florida and the Bahamas, and when out in the true blue ocean, it was just my wife and I and the adequacy of my maintenance on an old boat that got us back into port each night. It was never if it would break, it was just a matter of when.
Tractors are thankfully oh so much more reliable. And if one throws money in the ground instead of the ocean, at least something might grow...

 

[WM75Guy]

Both of mine are open station. The TC40DA with HST does have a whine, you can hear it over the motor at low rpm and speeds, such as cleaning out stalls. The Boomer 8N with CVT does not have any noise. I wear hearing protector headphones with music when mowing, tilling or working for long periods so I don't hear any noise from either tractor.

 

[jenkinsph]

I am sure the hydros produce more noise since most gear trannies are pretty quiet. In the 4520 cab everything is quiet enough not to bother me if I am working it all day.

Those DD 71's were 2 cycle engines and with or without turbo's could be noisy for sure. I remember some of them were very quiet though with good exhaust systems and well quieted engine rooms, you could barely hear them pull away from the dock. Others such as the crewboats with straight pipes and hopped up engines were god awful loud.

 

[Soundguy]

once the engine is screaming at pto marked rpm.. hard to imagine tranny noise is a difference either way...

 

[daugen]

agreed, for an open cab. I'm wondering though, since one is sitting on the transmission, which is inside the cab, vs. the engine outside the cab if when mowing at pto speed, your example is perfect, would I be hearing an overall muffled sound, with a big whine intruding. Not interested in listening to whining all day long, and I have three staight days of mowing to do these fields, at my slow pace and usually doing everything at least twice.

I had forgotten all about the Boomer CVT, glad it was mentioned. Just no local dealer for me. So, if one goes to a Kubota M with their most sophisticated trans controllers, I'm assuming one gets the quietness of a gear tractor with the add on convenience of electro/mechanical features added onto a gear tractor.

I don't mind pushing down on a clutch once in a while, but I have pretty bad arthritis that is not getting better (currently wearing a soft collar for an arthritis related neck disc problem). And if the joystick controller or buttons are easy to use, fine, but when you are out mowing, when do you use these functions? Maybe going up an incline for a downshift (?) or customizing the reaction time for loader work, I'm just thinking out loud here. I'm sure Kubota's ad will tell me all about it. I watched it once but thought I'd be in the L class, with the hydro. Maybe I ought to move up. I'm buying this one tractor for the rest of my retired life for hobby farming, so I really want to get it right. So for me it's choosing between JD, Kubota and Kioti. All good choices and the machinery will far outperform any use I make of it.

But I sure don't want to hear an overriding whine in that cab,particularly if I'm trying to listen to music or just want some peace and quiet, which granted being on a tractor is not easy.

I worry about being too oblivious, too removed from the sound of what's going on, because you get a lot of information from that noise. I'd just like the quietest environment I can get and still hear what I need to hear.
Probably asking too much but I bet the JD rep would tell me, yes sir, we can provide just that... I'm more interested for sure in the real world experience of you folk, including those going from older cabs to newer ones. And those going from gear to hydro particularly in the 50+ hp range. Appreciate all advice, thanks.

 

[Gary Fowler]

My LS cab is plenty quiet for good protection on hearing without being so quiet that you cant hear the engine at all. I very seldom nowy run the radio unless I am just running the FEL because I want to hear the bush hog to see it it is making a noise. Once my bushhog slip clutch got loose and started to slip and I had on the radio, it was smoking pretty good before I noticed it (no smells inside of that cab and no squeals heard either). About the time my brother in law called me on my cell is when I noticed it also. Sometimes shear pins are less trouble than clutches. Now my BIL NH whines a bit which is noticeable when standing outside, but what little I have driven it, I cant say that it is noticeable inside the cab. It all depends on how air tight the cabs are, loose gasket or holes around gear shift ect let in noise. Cabs are mostly glass except the roof which has lots of sound deadening there to prevent harmonic vibrations to transfer from the metal roofs, so you dont get much vibration noise transfer from the glass. I think metal fenders are a bit louder than tractors with plastic fenders but not enough that you would notice.

 

[jenkinsph]

daugen,

It would seem to me that alot of your concerns could be resolved with a couple of test drives. Try a Deere 4520 and similar tractors of your choice to see what you think. I think the 4520 cab is quiet enough to work well for you.

 

[droptop]

I test drove a MF Hydro with a cab and thought it was too noisy for being in the cab, I ended up with a MF 1635 with the power shuttle, the cab is a lot quieter than with the Hydro.

 

[daugen]

your concerns could be resolved with a couple of test drives

Perhaps they could provide an online simulator...actually my hesitancy about doing exactly what you suggest, which is sensible and needed, is that until I'm ready to write the check, which will be next year, I don't want to waste the dealer's time, being a "be back"... I gave all my contact info and specific equip needs to the salesman from JD at the last local Grange Fair, and no reply whatsoever. It was like that with the last JD dealer locally, who just lost their franchise. Phone calls not returned, everyone always too busy to talk, not an atmosphere prone to motivating me to get out my wallet.

My local Kubota dealer is online, checks email constantly, and responds same day. It's marvelous.
But that JD 4000 cab is awfully nice. I just wish there was a good local JD dealer. We've been too suburbanized here to warrant one I guess. One per county? Doesn't make it easy to buy for sure.

But before I do write that check, I need seat time. Suggestions on how to run a demo tractor under reasonable load without getting it dirty? Bushhog?
I want to hear it at working level, not at rest, the whole combo of motor/trans/implement noise. I'm looking for something other than an Ebay Lucky experience. thanks