Hydro or Gear

[teach]

Fullfan,
My wife uses my Kubota B7500 on occasion to help me around the yard, and based on our experiences, I would definately recommend the hydro. for her. IF she will be using it very little and you will be doing more logging, then go with the manual. For FEL work I find a hydro much more efficient. So basically, for working in the woods, manual is fine, for landscaping type work, a hydro is tough to beat.
Teach

 

[Fullfan]

teach. I am sure I will be pulling more fire wood than she will be doing yard work. I heat both my house (2100sqft) and my garage (1800sqft) with wood. So the tractor will be busy dragging wood. Nothing real big due to me not wanting to split. And my dad has a 100hp case that we could drag the bigger logs with if need be.

Before I make a purchase of anything I do a ton of homework. All I have done on the new L4400 has been on the gear drive, then a local dealer throws the Hydro at me for a gear price.And it just screwed up my plans.
But again thanks for all the input from everyone, this is a great place with some very good info...

 

[grossgary]

i don't have an FEL and i'm glad i listened to the advice i got here when i bought my tractor last year. i was so close looking at a few gear shifts and finally got an HST. so glad i listened to recommendations from here. it's so easy to use in cases where a gear shift would be immensely annoying.

as for reliability, the HST's have proved themselves quit well over the past few decades.