What do you call your gears?

DFZ · Aug 28, 2016

Just wondered what everybody calls each gear on your tractor with dual range transmissions.

I find it humorous when I talk to my father in-law and he talks about mowing with his Ford 4600 in light grass in First and High. I ask, "Don't you mean 5th Gear?".

On our tractors, mostly fords, we call the gears in low range 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, (Of course), but select high range 1st becomes 5th, then 2nd becomes 6th, 7th, and 8th.

Adding to that confusion, most all of our work tractors have Dual Power. We say 1st and low, 1st and high, 5th and low, 5th and high and so forth. That gives us 16 forward gears but the low and high does not mean the range selection lever, only dual power.

In my opinion it was a mistake of Ford and many other manufacturers to label the range selection lever Low-High. I wish they had labeled the lever 1-4 and 5-8. It also makes it difficult training a new employee to drive tractor that the High low lever does not mean High low, it just selects whether you are selecting 1st-4th gear or 5th-8th. High and low to us means Dual power high and low.

Does anybody do differently? Do you call 6th gear 6th or High 2?

oc-18guy · Aug 28, 2016

1st high and so on.

jm. · Aug 28, 2016

This part of the country very few real farmers will talk as you do. Most will be like the other poster and say Low 3rd. or high second. Or speak the range first then the selected gear 1/4. And as in a ih with ta or massey with multipower, sometimes mention low range or high range.

paul · Aug 28, 2016

The Fords have them spec at 1st through 16th. It's really a 4 speed with a hi/lo on either side. Would be confusing calling it 1st low low, first low
high, first high low, first high high, 2nd low low, ......

The old international has a 5 speed with TA, so that one comes out 1st or 1st low, 2nd or 2nd low, etc.

Paul

Leroy · Aug 28, 2016

Had 3 Fords 2 4100 & a 5100 with the 8 speed and it was always 1,2,3,4,5,6,7&8 . Same as printed on the decal on the dash. Never heard any other way. Same with the to stick Deeres, 1, 2, 3, & 4 for the 4 speed models and 1,2,3,4,5 & 6 for the 6 speed models. Everything from factories refer to things as this as well. It always throws me for a loop when posters refer to high or low and ?. What are they talking about?

notjustair · Aug 28, 2016

What about IH? I like to rake hay with the 886 in
first high direct or second high under. Of the three
ways to alter speed I only see one as gears - the
others are ranges and amplifiers.

Traditional Farmer · Aug 28, 2016

On my David Brown 1200 with 3 gears and 4 ranges I suspect you'd have a very hard time figuring out which 'gear' you were really in doing it your way.Even my Bolens Iseki with 3 gears and 3 ranges would be hard to determine which 'gear' it was,much better to say Medium 2nd or high 1st,low 3rd etc etc.Tractors like my D19 AC lowest speed is low range 1st gear,2nd lowest speed is
2nd gear low range,then 1st gear high range is 3rd lowest,much simpler to say 3rd gear low range.

Traditional Farmer · Aug 28, 2016

Or the Oliver and Whites with Over,Direct,Under and a 6 speed transmission hard to determine exactly what gear would be what.

Moonlite37 · Aug 28, 2016

What about trucks. Duplex. Triplex etc.

First I want to tell you about a little 17 year old girl I took out who was about my age at the time. Her daddy had a DC Case and we had an old WC Allis Chalmers and a B Farmall. Her daddy let her do custom baling with the DC although she was petite and pretty little thing weighing about 100 pounds and relatively smart. I was equally interested in the tractor. I asked how many gears it had because I had never been around a Case. She replied, It has a first, a second, a third, a fourth. a neutral. and a reverse. I guess it has six".

DFZ · Aug 28, 2016

(quoted from post at 20:03:18 08/28/16) What about IH? I like to rake hay with the 886 in
first high direct or second high under. Of the three
ways to alter speed I only see one as gears - the
others are ranges and amplifiers.

But isn't First High direct faster than Fourth Low Direct?

I haven't driven one, but looking at the speed chart provided on TractorData.com, I would call First High 5th gear just like my Fords. I would think it would be easier to say 6th under than Second High Under.

DFZ · Aug 28, 2016

I guess with a three range transmission, call the gears whatever you like because the speeds are all over the place.

But at least with a Ford with a 2 range transmission, 5th gear, (Or First High for some), is clearly faster than 4th gear (4th Low).

Also to clear some things up, even though on our tractors with dual power 3rd low (3rd Low Under for some?) might be slower than 2nd High (2nd Low Direct), we know that there is a direct progression in the direct drive gears 1st through 8th.

dcarp · Aug 28, 2016

I say the range then the gear then hi or low. So 1-1 high or 2-3 low or 3-3 high. To try and tell someone which one of 24 possibilities (i.e. 15th gear) is which, just confuses them because they can't see those numbers. They can see 1,2,3 on the range selector 1,2,3,4 on the gear selector and hi & low on the dual command buttons.

jacksun65 · Aug 28, 2016

Pretty much the same 1 low 1 high. Drove many trucks 5 speed mack to 15 spd splicer or
eaton. Didn't matter what gear was named it was either right or wrong for the job.

Weldon K · Aug 28, 2016

I refer to my IH's as numbered speed ( 1-2-3-4 ) High, Low, Reverse with TA lever forward or back. Anyone I need to instruct on operation understands it quickly.

JerryS · Aug 28, 2016

My dad referred to 4th gear on the 8N as "road gear". I call low range, 1st gear on my 4000
"grandma". On second thought, maybe I should call it "Jerry".

bja105 · Aug 28, 2016

It took me a while to understand that my Ford has1st through 8th and it didn't take much thinking or interpretation. My confusion stems from my Mountain bike. It has a three speed front sprocket and a seven speed rear sprocket. I never bothered counting teeth, so I never knew if 1/4 was faster than 2/2. I just ran it in second range as a seven speed unless I needed very slow or very fast.

jimg.allentown · Aug 28, 2016

Well, if you ask me for 5th gear, I might or might not know what you mean. But if you tell me 1st high, there will be no mistake. All a question of point of view.

Two Dogs · Aug 28, 2016

I call mine low first, low second, low third, high first, high second, high third . It is all in my own feeble mind and causes no confusion to anyone but myself. TDF

David G · Aug 28, 2016

I call the lower ones 1-4 and upper 5-8 on mine.

Jim Naden · Aug 28, 2016

(quoted from post at 12:22:49 08/28/16)

(quoted from post at 20:03:18 08/28/16) What about IH? I like to rake hay with the 886 in
first high direct or second high under. Of the three
ways to alter speed I only see one as gears - the
others are ranges and amplifiers.

Click to expand...

[b:73def80cf2]
But isn't First High direct faster than Fourth Low Direct? [/b:73def80cf2]

I haven't driven one, but looking at the speed chart provided on TractorData.com, I would call First High 5th gear just like my Fords. I would think it would be easier to say 6th under than Second High Under.

They're not labeled that way, use the markings on the quadrant to call out the gears.

Don't tell us old IH guys what to call our gears.

Jim Naden · Aug 28, 2016

(quoted from post at 13:16:31 08/28/16) I refer to my IH's as numbered speed ( 1-2-3-4 ) High, Low, Reverse with TA lever forward or back. Anyone I need to instruct on operation understands it quickly.

Yep.

K Effective · Aug 28, 2016

With the two stick Deeres, we showed drivers how the Roman numerals were for range, then the numbers for gear. I usually left the high/low out of the discussion until they became familiar with the straight gears. The newer 5400 has three lettered ranges with three gears in each, even easier to yell to the baler driver to step up to "Bravo one" from "Alpha 3".

Took me a while to get used to the CVT in the 8530, but since I didn't have to steer, adjusting the target speed closed to actual ground speed made eliminating wheel hop during chisel-plowing easier.

larry@stinescorner · Aug 28, 2016

mine is a ford with a six speed ,hi lo ,,I Dont call it anything,,,but Im the only one that drives it mostly..and I shift without looking much,,,lol

4520BW · Aug 28, 2016

Those are easy! Try to teach some one
to shift a syncro Deere! My fil is an
ih man and has a he!! Of a time on the
40/4520s. And then the quads...he will
not run them at all....

newhollandnut · Aug 28, 2016

I heard a guy call it 2nd hi hi (6th with the dual
power in high range). He is related to me but only
by marriage!!

farmer boy · Aug 28, 2016

On an Allis power director, I've always called it 1st low and 1st hi. I've never felt it was correct to call 1st hi 5th gear, because 5th gear would be way slower than 4th gear. On a tractor with 4 speeds and
2 ranges, then I suppose you could call 1st high 5th gear, because it'd actually be faster than 4th gear(low), but in that case, I'd almost certainly still call it 1st low and 1st high

oldtanker · Aug 29, 2016

(quoted from post at 11:39:48 08/28/16) This part of the country very few real farmers will talk as you do. Most will be like the other poster and say Low 3rd. or high second. Or speak the range first then the selected gear 1/4. And as in a ih with ta or massey with multipower, sometimes mention low range or high range.

HMMMM? Real farmers? Round here fake farmers cut a little hay with a sickle bar mower and make small idiot cubes for their horses behind an old H or M Farmall. Then once they have put up 50-100 bales they buy the rest they need for the year.

The very few around with older tractors it's whatever gear in either low or high with the IH guys seldom using the TA as another range and only use that with tillage work as needed. On the slightly newer ones like something with 3 or 4 ranges and a power shift whatever the range and then the gear. Then most of the guys around here fall into that BTO category and are running much newer equipment, who knows? They don't talk to anyone unless it's a land owner and they think they might be able to rent the land out from someone else.

Rick

Pair-a-dice farm · Aug 29, 2016

I've never given it much thought, I just put it in whatever gear works best for the conditions. I guess I've always called it low 1-4 and hi 1-4. There's never been any confusion. It may just be a difference in terminology kinda like the bushog discussion a while back.

Jim Phelps · Aug 29, 2016

I agree, 1 hi is not 5th gear as it would be slower than most of the other gears in low range.

RodinNS · Aug 29, 2016

It's one through eight for me and that's how Ford labeled them too. With dual power it would be 1 high, 5th high, etc. And yes, fifth low is
slower than fourth high in most cases... but that does not change how Ford labeled them on the speed chart.

Rod

What do you call your gears?

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