Shifting the Hydro.

[Harold R]

I've now got about 6 hrs. mowing on the used 1450 I got about a month ago. I also have manuals on the way, which may give me this info, but how are you guys shifting from fwd to rev, when mowing in a tight spot?
I haven't been stopping the tractor completely, in fact, it seems to work well just slowing to a crawl, then going right into rev. I just don't want to tear anything up by using the wrong technique.

[Paul B]

What you are doing is fine. You can go from forward to reverse about as fast as you are comfortable with and not hurt anything, specially at mowing speeds, provided of course all the driveline connections are in good shape and not worn excessively

[gitractorman]

What you are doing is just fine. You should refrain from using the brake pedal on a hydro, which I assume you are doing, but a-lot of people do not get it, and use the brake pedal to go back to neutral. The brake pedal on a CC hydro is almost totally useless. It should be listed as a parking brake. Anyway, using the brake pedal to get the shifter back to neutral will wear out the linkage in the hydro, and cause a bunch of slop.

Simply push the lever forward for forward travel, bring it back to neutral, and further back for reverse. As stated before, if everything is in good working order, you can do this as fast or slow as you feel comfortable, without hurting a thing.

[Ritter107]

Don't worry... you have to do something pretty violent to a Cub cadet hydro to damage it. They are extremely robust and almost never wear out. You'll get used to it.

[Fordlords]

You are doing it just fine as the others said hr's49Cub, that is how we use them. Just as long as you aren't jamming the lever up and down between forward and reverse and are making the transition at a crawl as you mentioned it's fine. I agree with Gitractorman completely, don't use the brake for operation. It is fine for parking and it will stop the tractor in a heartbeat in an emergency, but the hydro lever itself is the main deal for all speed control. While at the show in PA I noticed a lot of the old timer hydro users keep their right hand on the hydro lever at all times, and often use a left mounted wheel spinner to steer.

-Fordlords-