Scrub Puller
Senior Member
I'm not sure if this is relevant or of interest, but I reckon the readers of these forum posts will have a vast collective knowledge of little tricks and wrinkles they have learned...or had passed on to them from a previous generation.
Little seemingly inconsiquential things (that could make the day a little easier for others) but which they pretty much take for granted....like the old timer who told me way back the only thing I needed to remember when backing a trailer was to turn the BOTTOM of the steering wheel in the direction I wanted the trailer to go.
Simple hey? Beats all those other instructions and, over the years I reckon it has saved a bit of confusion when I have passed it on to learner drivers... they sort of get it straight away.
Another thing, how do you inch a clutch/brake steered power-shift?
A few weeks back I watched a feller loading a Komatsu 65 onto a float (probably a lo-boy to you blokes in the US). Turned out he was pretty much a newbie, had a few hours up on stick shifts but had never driven a torque converter. He walked up the ramps okay and overcentred nice and gentle but it all went a little pear shaped when he tried to line her up.
He needed to move her a tad to the left and went too far and then over corrected a time or two and the truckie (trucker) started yelling. It didn't help that I was watching and I could see he was getting flustered and embarassed but I managed to catch his eye and clambered on up there.
It was an open ROPS I introduced myself and told him I'd been around a little and did he mind if I gave him a couple of pointers. He was a bit resentful at first but he knew he had a problem.
He'd been trying to manouvre at low idle with the left steering clutch pulled back and his foot on the brake and then ease her into gear. That's the hard way, the transmission is either engaged or it's not and it can make for an unpredictable lurch.
I showed him how it was much easier to put foot on left brake, THEN ease the transmission into gear. The engine will load up as the tractor stalls out on the converter and then it's just a matter of feathering that left steering clutch allowing the right track to pick up the slack and ease the nose across in a controllable fashion.
He cottoned on real quick of course and I must say the grin and nod I got when I jumped down kind of made my day.
But then again that's the way everyone does it...isn't it?
That kind of thing, little trick and wrinkles youve picked up across the years.
Little seemingly inconsiquential things (that could make the day a little easier for others) but which they pretty much take for granted....like the old timer who told me way back the only thing I needed to remember when backing a trailer was to turn the BOTTOM of the steering wheel in the direction I wanted the trailer to go.
Simple hey? Beats all those other instructions and, over the years I reckon it has saved a bit of confusion when I have passed it on to learner drivers... they sort of get it straight away.
Another thing, how do you inch a clutch/brake steered power-shift?
A few weeks back I watched a feller loading a Komatsu 65 onto a float (probably a lo-boy to you blokes in the US). Turned out he was pretty much a newbie, had a few hours up on stick shifts but had never driven a torque converter. He walked up the ramps okay and overcentred nice and gentle but it all went a little pear shaped when he tried to line her up.
He needed to move her a tad to the left and went too far and then over corrected a time or two and the truckie (trucker) started yelling. It didn't help that I was watching and I could see he was getting flustered and embarassed but I managed to catch his eye and clambered on up there.
It was an open ROPS I introduced myself and told him I'd been around a little and did he mind if I gave him a couple of pointers. He was a bit resentful at first but he knew he had a problem.
He'd been trying to manouvre at low idle with the left steering clutch pulled back and his foot on the brake and then ease her into gear. That's the hard way, the transmission is either engaged or it's not and it can make for an unpredictable lurch.
I showed him how it was much easier to put foot on left brake, THEN ease the transmission into gear. The engine will load up as the tractor stalls out on the converter and then it's just a matter of feathering that left steering clutch allowing the right track to pick up the slack and ease the nose across in a controllable fashion.
He cottoned on real quick of course and I must say the grin and nod I got when I jumped down kind of made my day.
But then again that's the way everyone does it...isn't it?
That kind of thing, little trick and wrinkles youve picked up across the years.
........... ask the wrong person a dumb question and you will probably get a dumb answer.