re: The tractor almost killed me
No, YOU almost killed yourself ! While I don't have your riding mower, every on I've owned for the past 6 decades had a page or two on how to cut grass on a hill. Going sideways is THE way to kill yourself. You found that out not once but TWICE !! It's NOT the tractor's fault.
With only 64 hours on a 10 year old machine, I'd have to see WHY the brakes didn't work. NIW comment was to the point, the brakes should have stopped you. Perhaps they need adjusting ?? HST units do not 'free wheel', unless you push or pull a lever. Similar to automatic transmissions when in gear, they 'auto brake'....
The BIG question for me is WHY did the engine stall ? Was the rider low on fuel? Was the hill steep ? How old is the fuel ? When were the filters changed? Again only 64 hours and the engine 'stalled' would be a 'red flag' for me. My BX23S, 5 years old ,has almost 1000 hours on it and has never 'stalled', even on the 'billy goat path'.
Thanks. Once again to be perfectly clear... I was mowing straight up and down the hill. The tractor was brand new last year... how you assumed 10 years is beyond me. I have heard several folks talk about that they transmissions cannot 'free wheel' unless you make them do so. That was what I stated... I did nothing but hitting the brakes and when accelerating backwards decided to try to go slightly across instead of straight down. This all happened in perhaps 5 seconds, including the roll over which certainly was caused because I got too much angle. That GlideSteer is really responsive... and in this case... too responsive.
To answer your questions. My question was why did it stall, so I will not answer that because I don't know the answer, it was MY question. Fuel was very near capacity full! Whatever fuel had been consumed in about 10 minutes from filling was the difference between completely full and a slight amount of fuel used. The hill was steep. The exact percent grade remains to be measured. The fuel was very fresh and came from an almost fresh tank... as I pulled in to fill my cans as the tanker was leaving. So only guess work can tell if I really got fresh fuel... but I have heard some talk about getting fuel from freshly fill tanks.
Yes, the red flag is certainly flying as to why a near new machine would do such a thing. I guess I should also detail where it is stored... in a climate controlled garage in my home. After each use it is blown clean, radiator screen cleaned, all debris removed, and it gets a quick whip on the outside. So I guess we are all concerned as to why this happened. Most of the folks around me have Kubota's and that is why I bought this one. Some have BX's and some have GR's. I didn't buy the BX because I have two other larger tractors and really wanted just a mower that was four wheel drive. I live in very hilly country and slipping and sliding is no fun. All of my big tractors are 4WD. I think you touched on something that I have been teaching my grandchildren to use the transmission when going down a hill. I cannot imagine putting an HST system into a neutral position and using only the brakes... but I guess some do. I never would. Your right... I caused the roll over because I steered to radically in my panic. Like I said, that GlideSteer is great... too great. Hope this helps to continue making my original post more clear.
1. Mowing up and down only
2. Full tank of fresh fuel
3. Engine stall, quick acceleration DOWN HILL BACKWARDS.
4. Confusion as to why the wheels kept turning without the engine running.
5. and most importantly... the first thing I did when I started rolling backwards was to attempt to brake!
6. attempting to slow down by going slightly across the hill most likely resulted in an over correction... thanks partly to the very responsive steering. Had I tried to do the opposite angle perhaps the mower deck would have helped prevent a tip... because it is the 54" deck and sticks out pretty far on the left side. Hind sight...
Thanks to everyone for the technical information.
