Gear shift pattern on 4300

[Trev]

Okay, I know this is a trivial complaint, but why did Deere choose the shift pattern they did for manual tranny tractors?

I always have to stop and think when changing gears. Let's see, 1st is left and back, 2nd is left and forward, then 3rd is right and forward, and 4th is right and back. So 3rd and 4th are in the normal positions, but 1st and 2nd are reversed.

Is this some kind of historical thing, where tractor shifters have always been this way? It seems that they went out of their way to make it so people who are used to manual tranny automobiles will be eternally having to think about this instead of it being a natural movement. It isn't a huge problem, but it does require a second to think on each shift.. at least for me.

 

[MikeH]

Bob,
I can't answer your question, but would like to add to the complaint about the "Range Selector". Why did Deere go with A-B-C ? Seems to me that H-M-L (high-mid-low) might be a tad less confusing.

 

[Trev]

Hi Mike,

Yes, H-M-L would be a lot more intuitive. And along the same line, it's the middle position which is the most often used.. and this is the one that you have to fiddle with to get it to go in.

Not to mention that the back position is fast, and the forward position is slow. Ah well.. maybe this will at least screw up would-be tractor thieves. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

 

[hazmat]

Well, it doesn't answer your question, but here's a funney story.

Rented a big Uhual to move a friend. Hop in, manual tranny hmm haven't seen one of those in a rental truck in a while. Start her up pull gear shift left & up. Let out clutch, start mooving BACKWARDS. Yup R was where 1 usually is. Luckily I didn't hit anything. Left & down was L (creeper gear) middle & up was 1 then the rest of the normal H for 2,3, 4

 

[Trev]

<font color=blue>Start her up pull gear shift left & up. Let out clutch, start mooving BACKWARDS. Yup R was where 1 usually is.</font color=blue>

What a dumb setup! Just when you are in traffic, your deeply conditioned reflexes will take over someday and you'll jam it in "low" and back over the poor guy behind you. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif Why can't people agree on standards for things like this??

At least on the tractor, I may end up in the wrong gear from time to time, but at least I'll be going in the right direction. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[RoyJackson]

"Rented a big Uhual to move a friend. Hop in, manual tranny hmm haven't seen one of those in a rental truck in a while. Start her up pull gear shift left & up. Let out clutch, start mooving BACKWARDS. Yup R was where 1 usually is. Luckily I didn't hit anything. Left & down was L (creeper gear) middle & up was 1 then the rest of the normal H for 2,3, 4"

That's actually the normal shift pattern for many larger trucks. One doesn't start off in 1st gear unless there's a heavy load.
That pattern was also used in older Porsche 911's (until 1973, I believe) and Ferrari's.
The purpose is to enable easier shifting for the most frequently used gears. 1st was only used to get started.

Of course, this is no explanation why the Deere shift pattern is like that. A Ford backhoe I operated for a year in the late 60's had the same pattern. However, my 670 has a different pattern: 1st is right and forward; 2nd is center and forward; 3rd is center and back; 4th is right and forward. Reverse is right and back. Of course, the 670 is a Yanmar build machine. It's shift pattern might be quite common in Japan and other markets.

 

[longway5]

I used to drive a 99 Ford F-350 sometimes with a manual trans, and it was the same set up, with R being Left and Up and Low being Left and Down. To make it a little less confusing, going all the way to the left was a significantly further throw than just going to the 1-2 position from middle, and there was a little bit of resistance to get past the 1-2 lineup. Just to add to the manual transmission confusion, my VW Jetta has R all the way to the left as well, but to get there you need to push the stick down (vertically) and then over and up. A VW Passat however has R all the way to the Right and down.As far as tractors go, the Kubotas I have used have a "standard" lineup, minus R (because F-R was separate), and the John Deere 1050 had a seemingly typical lineup as well. The strangest seemed to be a NH 3930, and I don't even remember how that went, only you needed to look first, then shift.

 

[beenthere]

And more trivia is why the calculator key pads are upside down to the telephone key pads (or visa versa). Could never figure out why there wasn't some convention there. I think the calculator keypads were first, then the phones came out with the upside down version.