|
|
|
Power Hop
Has anyone ever heard of this? Is it for real?
Article at http://www.dcequip.com/tractor%20tips.htm
A Well-Grounded Tractor Optimizes Field Performance
If you've ever pulled a load through a dry field and your four-wheel-drive tractor started to shimmy, shake, then literally jump or bounce off the ground, you've experienced the phenomenon of power hop.
"It's like your tractor is having a convulsion," says Joe Neal Ballance, a farmer near Bowling Green, Kentucky. "I've seen four-wheel-drives hop so bad that you could hardly get to the throttle. It's like an amusement ride . . . without all the fun."
|
|
 Add Photo
Bookmarks: |
|
|
|
|
Power Hop
It is VERY true, the delaer warned us about it when we got our big new JD (yes Randy, I bought a Greene tractor,  )delivered this spring.
Luckily for us it's not much of a problem since our property is VERY sandy so it isn't a 'hop' to us, it's a part revolution spin.
What they say aboput ballasting and traction in that article is very good info. though. A lot of it is very applicable to CUT's also.
Best of luck.
|
|
Add Photo
Bookmarks: |
|
|
|
|
Power Hop
It's seen quite often even from switching tire makes and staying with the same size tire! We have had to cure it in both compacts as well as the Ag tractors. Fortunately for compact tractor owners when we first saw it on them we knew what was happening.
|
|
Add Photo
Bookmarks: |
|
|
|
|
Power Hop
Newcrunch; Art is right we swiched from Firestone radials to Mchelin radials all identical size. Both setups were ballasted and pressures used that the owners manual recommended. Under full field load the firestones were terrible, the Mchelins solved the problem. Frank.
|
|
Add Photo
Bookmarks: |
|
|
|
|
Power Hop
When we set up new Ag tractors we have guides that tell us the different leads that the farm tractors have depending on tire make. Watching these units over the past years I think that about two to four percent is about perfect. not to much, not to little. The faster you spin the front the more they dig and tear. Below he two percent and you often are trying to push the front especially on corners. Either way you wear out the tires faster from the scuffing.
|
|
Add Photo
Bookmarks: |
|
|
|
|
Power Hop
Art; I really don't know how much lead Deere uses or recommends, but it's real easy to tell if you're close by following the guage mark left by corn planter when you make the nest pass trying to keep the center of the tractor on the mark. While planting you are usually in fresh worked soil that the tires sink into a bit. If you find it hard to keep the tractor on the mark your lead is too little, when your front tires ar pulling their share of the load she'll stay right on the mark without wandering. In heavy tillage your wheel slip allways exceeds the lead percentag so it is cancelled out. I usually watch the slip percentage readout and try to ballast the tractor to keep total slip between 6 and 10% under full load. I don't know for sure about the other series but the 8000 series Deeres turn the front wheel assist off soon as you touch either brake pedal for an end row turn around then it kicks back in when you let off the brake, that makes turning lots easier on things. Frank.
|
|
Add Photo
Bookmarks: |
|
|
|
|
Power Hop
Frank I don't get to sit in a tractor seat long enough to see what you are talking about with the lead. I'm normally on the sidelines working to stabilize and walking the tracks to see what is going on. Manufacturers have built the four wheel drive tractors going back to the fifties long before the electronic age came into play to disengage front ends such as they are being done today. SAME was the first to introduce one in 1951 for mass production. Deere was the last. We have been selling gear drive units going back into the early 70's here in the northeast and have seen many types of lead and lag ratios on many different tractors. Seen 7% lead and worn out front tires in 1000 hours as well as being cut up from stone damage. Seen tractors with lag that would get stuck before they got to the wet hole and couldn't turn unless you did disengage the front axle. I enjoy the safety from the auto engage of the brakes for my boys on the hills with the big wagons when driving down the road. The rest of the auto stuff like the slippage control that automatically raises the implement at a set wheel slippage point is for the fellow who isn't used to driving a tractor so you know that he will come home at the end of the day driving what you sent him out there with.
|
|
Add Photo
Bookmarks: |
|
|
|
|
Power Hop
Art, Murf, Hardwood - thanks for your comments. Guess Power Hop is real! From the situations you describe it appears be more prevalent with the larger more powerful tractors. Although Art says he has seen this on compact tractors also.
|
|
Add Photo
Bookmarks: |
|
|
|
Gas Generator Weather Protecti
06-08-2004, 13:14 
Digg It 
Del.icio.us 
