Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Recommendations of a 70hp 4WD tractor?  (Read 5250 times)

stufe35

  • Joined Jan 2013
Re: Recommendations of a 70hp 4WD tractor?
« Reply #15 on: March 19, 2017, 09:48:53 am »
Yes you are trying to go too fast...especially if your blades are blunt.

1h is ok on level going with sharp blades and a fair crop. With steep gradient and heavy crop you need to go down through the gears accordingly.

Set your revs at 540 rpm.  The next gear down from 1h is 3L, (not 1L as you mention above) try this next.  If you still lose power (which I doubt but it is possible) then next it's 2L.   You won't need to go down to 1L.  You might have to drop to 2L for a short stretch on the steepest bit, then move back up into 3L and the 1H as it levels out if you think it's worth the gear change.

When I lived in the Lake District we had a field which was so steep and the crop so heavy I found myself haybobing in 2L on the uphill bit....yet in good going you can haybob in 2H.
« Last Edit: March 19, 2017, 10:23:49 pm by stufe35 »

Rupert the bear

  • Joined Jun 2015
Re: Recommendations of a 70hp 4WD tractor?
« Reply #16 on: March 19, 2017, 03:16:41 pm »
Years ago when God was a boy we cut hay on a very steep park with the fergie 35, but only down hill ,returning to the top with out the mower engaged and over cut sward . |Sharp blades, well serviced mower and tractor all help.
( one year we were so desperate to beat the weather we went to the tractor powers mower , land-rover pulls tractor method ,now thats a test of a marriage .
Years later when I had the Ford 7000 with turbo that too would produce a little black smoke up the same hill.

stufe35

  • Joined Jan 2013
Re: Recommendations of a 70hp 4WD tractor?
« Reply #17 on: March 19, 2017, 05:39:01 pm »
Love it Rupert ! And did the marriage last ?
« Last Edit: March 19, 2017, 06:23:52 pm by stufe35 »

shep53

  • Joined Jan 2011
  • Dumfries & Galloway
Re: Recommendations of a 70hp 4WD tractor?
« Reply #18 on: March 19, 2017, 06:53:12 pm »
Up until 1992 I had never driven a 4wd , everything was done hay /silage / arable no problem ( sometimes the tractor and silage trailer took of on a slope ) and up until 1970 a 40hp tractor was  a big tractor .   The equipment  you have is perfect for your tractor .    Iv'e  cut many fields where sections had to be worked down hill only

Rupert the bear

  • Joined Jun 2015
Re: Recommendations of a 70hp 4WD tractor?
« Reply #19 on: March 19, 2017, 07:03:23 pm »
Love it Rupert ! And did the marriage last ?

30years and counting  :love: :love:

cant think why , mad as a box of frogs, and that's just me

stufe35

  • Joined Jan 2013
Re: Recommendations of a 70hp 4WD tractor?
« Reply #20 on: March 20, 2017, 08:23:17 am »
Fieldfare , posters above have brought up another method which I never thought to mention ie you can drive to the top of the field not cutting then cut down hill only.

Or of course the variation on this is that say you have a steep half to the field and a not so steep half, organise the way you cut the field so you are going up hill on the not so steep half and down hill on the steep half.

This can be achieved by instead of going around the outside of the field first working to the middle ie clockwise as is normal.  Drive your first cut up the middle of the field first then turn around and come back down driving the tractor on the bit you've just cut gradually opening up the field from the centre working anticlockwise.   (you can always do a couple of laps around the outside first to give yourself a headland at each end of the field to turn on or indeed open the headland by just cutting across it then reversing back to the start and coming across again a few times)

Always leave a mowers width around the edge of the field to the very end.  It is best that the last thing you do is cut the final swath up to the boundary as the last thing you do before finishing the field as this is the area where you are most likely to hit obstructions such as stones that have fallen off the wall, which will blunt your mower or worse break it completely.  If this happens at least you only have a little bit of field uncut, or to cut with blunt blades, not loads of it !

Hope all that makes sense !
« Last Edit: March 20, 2017, 08:56:02 am by stufe35 »

shep53

  • Joined Jan 2011
  • Dumfries & Galloway
Re: Recommendations of a 70hp 4WD tractor?
« Reply #21 on: March 20, 2017, 06:48:50 pm »
AH late 1960's  driving an international  B275 ( 38hp so a lot less than your 135 ) no cab and no roll bar until 1976 I think ,         with  an international finger bar mower ( that only liked cutting standing dry grass ) then an acrobat followed by a wuffler  , baled with an international baler and a wooden sledge that you stood on and stacked the bales then pushed the stack off ,  then onto a trailer using pitchforks ,      all on sloping fields      MEMORIES  :farmer:

Fieldfare

  • Joined Feb 2011
Re: Recommendations of a 70hp 4WD tractor?
« Reply #22 on: March 20, 2017, 07:50:10 pm »
Hi all- this has given me great food for thought! Stu- thanks for the extra info. on gears(!!). And some really interesting stories...thanks! Yes, cutting (and baling?) the steepest bits downhill only sounds interesting. I already have wide headlands as I don't need all that hay and want to keep some tufty stuff for wildlife. I'll read all this again closer to haying!
 

stufe35

  • Joined Jan 2013
Re: Recommendations of a 70hp 4WD tractor?
« Reply #23 on: March 20, 2017, 08:49:53 pm »
Now is the time to source and fit some new blades for your mower (if you haven't done it already !)  whilst time is on your side.

Just to confirm(or perhaps explain slightly better) the sequence of gears on any ferguson 35,135,165,, etc etc.starting with lowest ratio to highest ratio  is 1L, 2L, 3L, 1H, 2H, 3H  (this isn't necessarily the case on other makes of tractor where the ranges sometimes overlap)

So if you run out of power in 1H the next gear down is 3L.

Don't hesitate to ask any other questions you have. Great to see the pics of your kit in action.
« Last Edit: March 20, 2017, 08:52:46 pm by stufe35 »

Fieldfare

  • Joined Feb 2011
Re: Recommendations of a 70hp 4WD tractor?
« Reply #24 on: March 20, 2017, 09:52:15 pm »
OK- thanks for all that advice...my mind is set on trying to work with what I have as it does look lovely! Blades will be sought for the mower- or at least sharpened  In fact from about 3 acres of unimproved pasture I am getting about 180 bales which is masses more than I need- and is actually quite a job to haybob all that before work so am sort of thinking of reducing my hay cut by half (to 1.5 acres), taking my time, missing out the worst of the hilly bit or cutting down-hill and strip-grazing these bits off hard with my sheep instead (only problem being that this means splitting this field length-ways to keep them tight on it!- possibly with hurdles- but is a solution).

stufe35

  • Joined Jan 2013
Re: Recommendations of a 70hp 4WD tractor?
« Reply #25 on: June 19, 2017, 10:36:12 am »
Have you done this years cut yet ? How did it go  ?

stufe35

  • Joined Jan 2013
Re: Recommendations of a 70hp 4WD tractor?
« Reply #26 on: June 20, 2017, 10:15:38 pm »
Bump

Fieldfare

  • Joined Feb 2011
Re: Recommendations of a 70hp 4WD tractor?
« Reply #27 on: June 27, 2017, 05:44:56 pm »
Hi Stufe35- just seen this! Heavy farming action has been curtailed so far this year as I had a hip op in April! At the moment I dare only sit on the tractor! Not sure if I will be able to do it in late Aug...but if not will get a neighbour to do it with a big machine...or I even fancy leaving it uncut and see if I can strip graze it back over the winter as foggage. Hope all is well with you?


 

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