I can push a lot of dirt with this machine in 1st. and 2 nd. and it has lots of power ,but trying to go up a long grade in 4 th.--high gear-- it really slows down. Is this normal or is it getting tired???? Thank you
In my somewhat humble opinion 4th is for flat ground at best.
Don't do that; your next post will be about torque convertor or transmission failure... 3 and 4 are transit gears, not for any serious work.
I don't work the tractor in 3 rd. or 4th. But going to a different farm I have some decent hills to climb and the tractor really slows down in a long climb in 4 th. gear. I bought the tractor used so don't know how it moved when newer. Is this normal for a torque converter transmisssion or should it have lots of speed and power in ROAD GEAR---4TH.--- Thanks for the thoughts. It has all kinds of power in 1st. and 2 nd. when loading and pushing etc.
I am pretty sure this is normal from what you describe, how much do the rpm's change when you start to climb a grade in 4th?
Normallly the RPMs are about 2250--is that right or too low. Going down a hill they get up to 2500. The RPMs don't seem to drop off that much going up a grade---just the ground speed............will have to check to be sure about the RPM...............
sounds right or at least it matches the ones I've ran.
Lots of speed yes, on flat ground. any time you go to a higher gear, power goes down. This thing weighs about 16,000 lbs, and has 80 horsepower. A 16,000 lb truck will have 150-300 hp. Like I've said in a bunch of truck threads, horsepower doesn't determine what you can move, it determines how fast you can move it. Backhoe high gears are set to give you the most speed they can get out of that 80 hp on flat ground. If 4th was low enough to pull hills, you would lose top speed on the flat.
^ this is pretty much the just of it. I would like to add that when the machine slows down you should be down shifting accordingly. As opposed to just slipping the trans in high gear. Ive driven my backhoe around a lot on mountain roads, on real steep hills I'm down in 2nd and it feels like a crawl.