"Jim" wrote in message
**snip**
| Sometimes you've just got to be in the right place at the right
| time..
|

Mark THAT a bargain!
Kate

| Regards,
|
| Jim

"SVTKate" wrote in message
link.net...

"Jim" wrote in message
**snip**
| Sometimes you've just got to be in the right place at the right
| time..
|

Mark THAT a bargain!
Kate

| Regards,
|
| Jim


Hello group,
Been reading everyones posts about the driving tractor mowers. We are
building a house in the country with a huge front lawn(not our idea, it's
required by the community), and we are trying to decide how to handle it
(lawn service or mower) After reading some posts regarding these things
having "automatic transmissions" and how they make the job easier, I am
curious..I am sure they don't have transmission like a car which shifts
gears and such, but was wondering how they work? Can you slow down, stop
and go without having to disengage the gears and such? My guess is a
standard one with a clutch you would be clutching and going to get around
flowerbeds and such...Seems the auto is the way to go if your gonna have
one..But just curious as to how they actually work...

Thanks so much!
John

John wrote:

"SVTKate" wrote in message
hlink.net...


"Jim" wrote in message
**snip**
| Sometimes you've just got to be in the right place at the right
| time..
|

Mark THAT a bargain!
Kate

| Regards,
|
| Jim




Hello group,
Been reading everyones posts about the driving tractor mowers. We are
building a house in the country with a huge front lawn(not our idea, it's
required by the community), and we are trying to decide how to handle it
(lawn service or mower) After reading some posts regarding these things
having "automatic transmissions" and how they make the job easier, I am
curious..I am sure they don't have transmission like a car which shifts
gears and such, but was wondering how they work? Can you slow down, stop
and go without having to disengage the gears and such? My guess is a
standard one with a clutch you would be clutching and going to get around
flowerbeds and such...Seems the auto is the way to go if your gonna have
one..But just curious as to how they actually work...

Thanks so much!
John

I don't know how the others work, but my previously mentioned
Agway/Murray garden tractor has a Hydrostatic Automatic drive.
It has a throttle handle on the dash that stays in whatever position it
is set. An L shaped rocker type foot pedal on the right operates the
mower's speed either forward or in reverse. Push more, faster. Push
less, slower. It does not have cruise control, so the foot has to be
kept on the pedal when moving, like a car. The mower engine speed is not
affected by the foot pedal. The engine's rpm stays at whatever the
throttle is set at, no matter what the foot pedal position is. When
going down hill, lifting the foot from the foot pedal causes the mower
to go into a sort of braking mode, so the mower does not freewheel down
the grade.
There is no shifting of the mower transmission that I can hear. A brake
pedal is on the left side.

"John" wrote:

After reading some posts regarding these things
having "automatic transmissions" and how they make the job easier, I am
curious..I am sure they don't have transmission like a car which shifts
gears and such, but was wondering how they work?

A lawn tractor must run the engine at a constant speed to keep the mower
running at a constant speed. To change the tractor speed you use a
different gear. My garden tractor has 6 forward speeds (gear
selections). The highest is primarily for going from point a to point b
in a hurry. The next is slower for mowing under normal conditions. The
next is even slower for mowing around objects or in heavy growth. The
next three gears are really creeper gears for snow blowing, very heavy
mowing, etc. If your lawn has few objects, then the automatic
transmission won't be doing anything. The advantage of an automatic
transmission is it is easier to slow down when mowing around objects.
It acts more like the gas peddle on a car but is operated by your hand.
You push a lever one way to go faster and you push it the other to slow
down or go backwards. With the automatic you only have a brake pedal.
With the regular you have a clutch and brake. However, you don't have to
worry about how you let out the clutch like in a car. You just put it
in the gear you want to use and let the clutch out. Tractors are like
that. You stop when you want to change gears. With a little practice
you will get so it starts smoothly, but you don't need to master the
fine skills of using a clutch to use a tractor.

Mechanically, the regular transmission has metal gears that last
forever. The automatic transmissions have belts that can break. For
reliability a regular transmission is best. For convenience an
automatic transmission is best.

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Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman