How to drive Kubota L3430 HST Uphill

[rswyan]

the same conditions that you had with power.


Power? What power? I think that's the problem, the poor gentleman has no power.

Fred

... lol ...

 

[boggen]

the HST, automatically "down shifts" like in an automatic transmission in a car or truck in a sense. when going up hills. this your MPH begin to drop off rapidly.

if you had a pure manual gear transmission, you would of needed to change to lower gears as you went up the hill as well.

ya need to remember tractors are not built for speed demons on the highway. they are setup so they produce Torque vs MPH.... a car or like is setup for less torque and more MPH.

 

[joshuabardwell]

Think of the HST as if it was a continuously variable transmission. The engine is running at constant speed. As you press down on the pedal, the transmission "shifts" to higher gears. What this means is that when you press the pedal just a little bit, you have lots of torque and low speed. When you press the pedal down all the way, you have little torque and high speed. What this means is that if you are going up a hill and start losing power, the correct response is to let the pedal up, not push it down. Imagine you were driving a manual shift car and going up a hill and started losing speed. You wouldn't shift to a higher gear. You would shift to a lower gear. That's what letting up the pedal on the HST does.

If your tractor has gear ranges, that also affects your torque. So, for example, in "high" range, you may not have enough torque to get up the hill, even if you barely touch the pedal.

Final thought: HST runs best at high RPMs. So don't be afraid to throttle up the engine close to the rated PTO RPM. On my tractor, that's something like 2200 or thereabouts. I don't always put it full up to 2200 if I'm just tooling around, but any time I'm actually working, it's running at 2200.

 

[hawkeye08]

Short answer, keep rpms up, less pedal is more power, shift lever in low, make sure brakes are not on (especially parking brake lock)...

 

[joshuabardwell]

Short answer, keep rpms up, less pedal is more power, shift lever in low, make sure brakes are not on (especially parking brake lock)...

tl;dr - More RPM. Less pedal. No Brake.

 

[jeff9366]

I was told to always have it engaged on hills. Manual says so as well.

Have you found the page in your Operator's Manual that specs max speed in each of three HST gear ranges?

You need to reply to your correspondents.

 

[Komrade]

Some links on tractor stalling on hills

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...92651-kubota-l3430-hst-specifications-bh.html

Once and awhile I sense it could benefit from a touch more horsepower. Usually this is driving down the road in high gear and noticing the tractor can't stay at speed when going up a grade. I learned to use the cruise lever to drop off the speed a little to keep the RPM up. On that same grade, just keeping the foot to the floor (on the hydrostat pedal) will result in the tractor trying to stall out.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/kubota-buying-pricing/70266-new-l3430-hstc-3.html#post791344

I have hilly terrain and low or medium range works best for driving up hills because the tractor tries to stall if I attempt to climb hills in high range

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/kubota-buying-pricing/114792-used-l-3430-hst-vs.html#post1320243

If I keep my hydrostat to the floor, I will stall the tractor as the grade increases. I am curious if the new one does this too

Note: Seems to be expected based on comments..

Going to go get the manual now.

 

[Komrade]

Just another side, with hydro's brakes are not used as much as on gear drive tractors and often go thousands of hours with out needing to be repaired even on hilly ground. The life span is often two or more times the life of on gear drives if they ever need to be replaced but there is a catch!
They still do need lubrication as well as some action of work to keep them free!!!! We often find that with tractors five to ten year old and more that the brakes will stick in partial on position giving you the same conditions that you had with power.

if I visually inspect them, will I see any stuck brakes?

 

[Komrade]

T

Final thought: HST runs best at high RPMs. So don't be afraid to throttle up the engine close to the rated PTO RPM. On my tractor, that's something like 2200 or thereabouts. I don't always put it full up to 2200 if I'm just tooling around, but any time I'm actually working, it's running at 2200.

Thanks. L3430 (rear) PTO RPMs are 2440. I will try operating it that high (or close) when going up the hill and letting the pedal go as I seem to lose power. Do I need to set them this high when operating the backhoe?

 

[Komrade]

Have you found the page in your Operator's Manual that specs max speed in each of three HST gear ranges?

Fwd:
L 0 to 3.6MPH
M 0 to 7MPH
H 0 to 15.5MPH
Reverse
L 0 to 3.2
M 0 to 6.3
H 0 to 14.0