Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

FWIW, I bought my 1st 2 stager - Honda unit - without ever demoing a unit that had Hydrostatic Transmission.
Just short of the fact that it's variable infinite speed, can anyone just give me a laymens primer on the benefits of a Hydrostatic Transmission ?


BTW, how often if any do you do a OCI on the hydro transmission.

I was just surprised how much ~harder~ is is to move when not engadged as opposed to ~regular~ geared transmission.
I was at the local orange borg last night and wheeled the Organge buckets around and they wheel so much with ease...

Variable infinite speed and very high efficiency are the benefits, along with high reliability.

The downside is they are terribly expensive. Despite the reliability, they can and do fail. You usually can't fix it yourself and repairs are very expensive, if even possible - you might just end up having to replace the whole thing. Parts are often proprietary and thus expensive, if even available. You already know about the lack of freewheeling.

A hydrostatic is an enclosed unit that contains a variable speed hydraulic pump, valving, and motor(s). None of these would be terribly expensive but they are all custom parts. A true hydraulic drive, as is found on some tractors (not "lawn" tractors), has separate single speed pump(s), valving, a differential, and motor(s) which are fairly universal and easily replaceable - and often they are "rebuildable". The penalty for this is a loss of efficiency (more power to move = less available for work) and it's nowhere near as compact. That is acceptable on a tractor, but not so much on a walk behind that has to be kept small and light (relatively speaking).

When you change fluid on your hydrostatic, be very careful that you do not allow any foreign particles into it.

Thx for the primer. I was reading the manual and I am still unclear. Does one need to disengage  when going from forward to reverse.
While I get the variable speed going forward OR backward, does the clutch need to be disengaged anytime when switching F-R or vice versa

I think it's okay to shift from forward to reverse without declutching, move the lever to neutral slowly so you don't shock the drivetrain.  It's probably okay on ice or snow, since, the tracks or wheels will slip a little, but probably very abusive to the drive train on clean pavement.  Use common sense, you wouldn't want to pull the e-brake on AWD car to drift unless you like to get a new differential.

Great analogy.....I'm not thinking straight.

Augers are coming out today. I have a half day today ;)

Do you mind taking pics and post them online?  I'd do it myself but don't have the luxury of taking out half days to play with my toys.  :)

I'll try. Sometimes I get into the heat of the moment and just wrench on..

This time of the year is crazy...even taking 4 days before T day to prep, it's always a madhouse...

I'm trying to cram sealing/finishing the cedar, build shed foundation, trim bushes, build shed all between now and 10 days from now.
That is just on my short list of of to dos ----all thanks to this new red bucket of mine. Eeeks - Does that mean 10 days minus 4 days of Tday Prep = 6 days.

aa335 wrote:

Actually you should be able to pull the e-brake to drift on an AWD car to drifty with no problem. You can see Ken Brock doing it in his videos. But You pull it just enough and then let it go.

I'd say the hydrostatic is similar to a cars automatic transmission. How fast do you want to be going forward and then jam it into reverse? On my 928TAS I came to a stop and then reversed it. I think reversing it while moving would be a bad idea.

Steve_Cebu wrote:
I don't know what his car is set up is like, but I wouldn't do it on a normal car.  When you pull the e-brake, all the torque from the rear wheels goes to the front wheels, that sounds like driveline shock to me.

AA...going to button her back up in a hrs or 2.
Any more pics you want..

Yeah, how about pics of the blower / impeller and what do you need to take off to free it from the shaft>