Mowing B2150 Hydrostatic HST drive rear wheel spin when turning (turf tires)

[lcain]

Hello, wondering if anyone has encountered a problem on a Kubota B2150 hydrostatic drive with rear wheel spin when turning right or left. It doesn't appear to matter if I am in 4WD or not. Its like the one wheel just tears up the grass or drive way when I turn sharp. If I turn left, the left wheel kinda just digs up the turf. (or turn right and the right wheel spins tearing up turf). I have turf tires on the tractor that are fairly old, but still have good tread. I am a bit overdue on transmission oil change and was going to try that next.
Any ideas what might be causing this?
thanks in advance,
Len

 

[Sysop]

Ensure the diff lock is engaging and disengaging properly. If you have directional brakes, try alternating between left and right braking while slowly moving forward and reverse. Sometimes a stuck diff lock will release by doing that.

 

[100 td]

X̶2̶,̶ ̶s̶t̶u̶c̶k̶ ̶d̶i̶f̶f̶ ̶l̶o̶c̶k̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶u̶n̶i̶n̶t̶e̶n̶t̶i̶o̶n̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶e̶n̶g̶a̶g̶e̶d̶ ̶d̶i̶f̶f̶ ̶l̶o̶c̶k̶.̶ ̶
See below

 

[Leejohn]

Make sure tire pressure is right, and the fronts wheels are on the right side. If it has always done it make sure the tire size is right. Front 24X8.50-12, rears 13.6X16.

 

[C4Ranch]

The diff lock on those has a dog clutch that slides on a shaft by a fork actuated by foot pedal.

It's possible the dog clutch got stuck in the engaged position.

Jack up rear tires and spin to confirm.

 

[JWR]

Hello, wondering if anyone has encountered a problem on a Kubota B2150 hydrostatic drive with rear wheel spin when turning right or left. It doesn't appear to matter if I am in 4WD or not. Its like the one wheel just tears up the grass or drive way when I turn sharp. If I turn left, the left wheel kinda just digs up the turf. (or turn right and the right wheel spins tearing up turf). I have turf tires on the tractor that are fairly old, but still have good tread. I am a bit overdue on transmission oil change and was going to try that next.
Any ideas what might be causing this?
thanks in advance,
Len

I'm interpreting your post differently than the others have so far. I have two B2150's (both stick shift). One with ag tires and one with turf tires. I've had the one with turf tires for more than 20 years. I always found the "inside the turn rear tire" to be very spin-prone and likely to spin and scrape up the grass any time that I make a sharp turn. Does not do that if I make a gradual less abrupt turn. Partly for that reason I find myself using 4WD darn near all the time. That's the only way I have found to prevent the wheel spin. By the way, the one with ag tires is much less that way.

Being the age I am (72) I recall us boys "getting rubber on the bind" with cars back in the 1950-60s era. Going around a turn to the right (esp. when starting out) means the weight of the car shifts to the left and partially unweights the right rear wheel. Much easier to spin it. Same is true with your B2150. I think it is just the nature of the beast. If the rear wheels were further apart it would be much less likely to do that. I am however very puzzled when you say it does not matter if you are in 4wd or not. That makes a big difference in my experience.

Maybe it has to do with your rear wheel lock as the others have suggested but I'm skeptical. There's an easy test for that: Go out on dry pavement, taking it easy,make a sharp turn. If the wheel lock (e.g. rear axle differential lock) is stuck or on you will get a whole bunch of jerking,snapping and carrying on because the outer wheel must turn faster than the inner wheel on the turn. If you get smooth turning with no binding/jerking/jumping during the turn then for sure your rear differential is being allowed to do its' job and the lock is not stuck.

 

[100 td]

JWR has made me go back and re-read the post
I have re-read the post and realize I read it incorrectly

If I turn left, the left wheel kinda just digs up the turf.
Its like the one wheel just tears up the grass or drive way when I turn sharp

I read this and surmised diff lock engaged, but I didn't read the following correctly

with rear wheel spin when turning right or left
or turn right and the right wheel spins tearing up turf

So if the wheels are "spinning"
Torque goes to the easiest to turn which is the inside. If the diff lock is functioning, the inside tire should not "spin" but will slip/drive faster than it should to match the outside tire speed.

 

[lcain]

Hello, it was the rear deferential lock. It was engaged (stuck) and lifting it resolved the problem.
It used to be the lock would always 'bounce' back up after use. I was kinda surprised I had to manually lift it up.
I was subscribed to this thread, but never got an email(nothing in spam either).
Thanks to everyone for the helpful replies !
Len

 

[JWR]

Hello, it was the rear deferential lock. It was engaged (stuck) and lifting it resolved the problem.
It used to be the lock would always 'bounce' back up after use. I was kinda surprised I had to manually lift it up.
I was subscribed to this thread, but never got an email(nothing in spam either).
Thanks to everyone for the helpful replies !
Len

Glad it is solved. Now about your missing notifications for this thread: Many have had that problem. It is clearly a bug in the website software and/or the servers that handle TractorByNet or lack of attention. Mine was dead (no notifications) for several months. This was last year and the TBN people eventually said they knew of it but it was not everywhere and they were puzzled as well. I have no suggestions. My theory is that server-to-server traffic is sometimes rejected at the destination when there has been a history of profuse spam or attempts to bog down via excessive traffic. That can happen on and off and us peons have no way of ever finding out what happened.