Valtra direct

[chaos]

Recently brought a valtra 174 direct quite like the tractor very different to my old power quad
John Deeres,not sure about the vario gearbox. great for power harrow drilling. But seems very power hungry on
hills.so I want tips on how to set the gearbox for road work. And field work.
Or should I have brought a versu?

 

[DrDunc]

Recently brought a valtra 174 direct quite like the tractor very different to my old power quad
John Deeres,not sure about the vario gearbox. great for power harrow drilling. But seems very power hungry on
hills.so I want tips on how to set the gearbox for road work. And field work.
Or should I have brought a versu?View attachment 1078972

Valtra direct is 100% hydrostatic and seems like it hits a wall on hills hauling a load. My experience of hauling home straw for the last 3 years from 30 miles away is that the Direct is actually no slower than powershift tractors on the same run

Is yours a touch screen, or an older one like mine with an actual knob you turn to set engine droop?

In hard PTO work like mowing or harrowing, I find it best to set droop about 30% biased towards engine power. This makes it more responsive to load and keeps the engine speed above about 1800

Also set it there for hard front loader work like mucking out. Again it keeps the revs "up" when lifting a couple of tonne and changing direction at her same time

Feeding livestock I'll set the droop about 50% biased towards the transmission. The engine runs at lower rpm and it saves a fair bit of diesel

For just about everything else (ploughing, wrapping bales, tedding, etc etc etc) I leave the droop in the middle and I find it works lovely

Would not want to ever go back to a powershift for any job now, including transport

 

[chaos]

Valtra direct is 100% hydrostatic and seems like it hits a wall on hills hauling a load. My experience of hauling home straw for the last 3 years from 30 miles away is that the Direct is actually no slower than powershift tractors on the same run

Is yours a touch screen, or an older one like mine with an actual knob you turn to set engine droop?

In hard PTO work like mowing or harrowing, I find it best to set droop about 30% biased towards engine power. This makes it more responsive to load and keeps the engine speed above about 1800

Also set it there for hard front loader work like mucking out. Again it keeps the revs "up" when lifting a couple of tonne and changing direction at her same time

Feeding livestock I'll set the droop about 50% biased towards the transmission. The engine runs at lower rpm and it saves a fair bit of diesel

For just about everything else (ploughing, wrapping bales, tedding, etc etc etc) I leave the droop in the middle and I find it works lovely

Would not want to ever go back to a powershift for any job now, including transport

Thanks for reply. Mine has a touch screen.so droop set on transmission screen.if you were going up
A long step hill,average 12 mph ,would you put it in c range?

 

[DrDunc]

Thanks for reply. Mine has a touch screen.so droop set on transmission screen.if you were going up
A long step hill,average 12 mph ,would you put it in c range?

I run mine with auto C/D shift selected. Don't find it shifts down to C unless speed is below about 8mph and dropping suddenly

What weight you pulling for it to die back to 12mph? Hills are steep around here and mines not often below 20mph with 14 tonne of straw?

 

[chaos]

I run mine with auto C/D shift selected. Don't find it shifts down to C unless speed is below about 8mph and dropping suddenly

What weight you pulling for it to die back to 12mph? Hills are steep around here and mines not often below 20mph with 14 tonne of straw?

16.5 ton gross not over steep, 1 mile iong hill

 

[DrDunc]

Only 16.5 ton gross not over steep, 1 mile iong hill

Hmmm...... Unless there's lots of folks come on here to say their horse is the same, then it might be worthwhile getting the tractor on a Dyno. How many horses has your Deere power quad and what speed did it get pulled down to on the hill?

I've 145hp at the shaft, and grossing 3 tonne more than you (couple of tonne more behind and a tonne of loader and grab on the tractor), it takes a fair hill to drag it down much below 20mph

I previously had a Deutz powershift with 155hp at the shaft, and there's no difference in speeds up the hills hauling straw, indeed the valtra may even be a couple of minutes quicker overall because it accelerates up to speed much faster than a powershift

All that said, when I first bought the valtra it was only 110hp at the shaft (probably why it was "cheap" for a year old tractor). It was embarrassing before the remap

 

[KB6930]

Hmmm...... Unless there's lots of folks come on here to say their horse is the same, then it might be worthwhile getting the tractor on a Dyno. How many horses has your Deere power quad and what speed did it get pulled down to on the hill?

I've 145hp at the shaft, and grossing 3 tonne more than you (couple of tonne more behind and a tonne of loader and grab on the tractor), it takes a fair hill to drag it down much below 20mph

I previously had a Deutz powershift with 155hp at the shaft, and there's no difference in speeds up the hills hauling straw, indeed the valtra may even be a couple of minutes quicker overall because it accelerates up to speed much faster than a powershift

All that said, when I first bought the valtra it was only 110hp at the shaft (probably why it was "cheap" for a year old tractor). It was embarrassing before the remap

I had a174 direct on demo with twin mowers it was pathetic with 2 and when the front 1 shat itself it wasn't much better with a single mower . Not heavy crop either 2nd cut .

 

[DrDunc]

I had a174 direct on demo with twin mowers it was pathetic with 2 and when the front 1 shat itself it wasn't much better with a single mower . Not heavy crop either 2nd cut .

The hydrostatic gearbox in the valtra direct is definitely NOT the most efficient way of transmitting power, but it shouldn't be so bad as needing be described as pathetic ?

Mowing acres per hour are actually greater here than the powershift it replaced, despite 10hp fewer

(Though it really was truly awful before remap, but mine had 30hp less than it was supposed to have out the factory)

 

[KB6930]

The hydrostatic gearbox in the valtra direct is definitely NOT the most efficient way of transmitting power, but it shouldn't be so bad as needing be described as pathetic ?

Mowing acres per hour are actually greater here than the powershift it replaced, despite 10hp fewer

(Though it really was truly awful before remap, but mine had 30hp less than it was supposed to have out the factory)

I can't remember speeds but it was my own rear mower and the 155 hp jd 185 on boost doesn't know it's there in second cuts the valtra was crawling up the hill .

 

[HarryB97]

The direct is an average transmission at best, changed mine for a Fendt and that really made the direct look bad! I found all manner of setting changes made little difference.

 

[Jon]

Recently brought a valtra 174 direct quite like the tractor very different to my old power quad
John Deeres,not sure about the vario gearbox. great for power harrow drilling. But seems very power hungry on
hills.so I want tips on how to set the gearbox for road work. And field work.
Or should I have brought a versu?View attachment 1078972

The Direct is a Versu transmission, but with a hydrostatic pump to fill the gaps between gears.

Have a play with the 'droop' setting. You can bias it to favour engine revs over transmission speed, and vice versa.

 

[chaos]

@DrDunc How do I drive down over a step field.with a heavy trailed implement.
If I am in lever mode and apply the brakes the tractor then goes into
neutral and does not maintain a constant speed?

 

[HAM135]

You need to take it out of declutch mode,done through the screen,is it a smart touch?

 

[chaos]

Yes it is a smart touch.How do you get rid of brake to clutch

 

[DrDunc]

@DrDunc How do I drive down over a step field.with a heavy trailed implement.
If I am in lever mode and apply the brakes the tractor then goes into
neutral and does not maintain a constant speed?

My direct "pre dates" touch screen, and just has buttons and dials

Increase transmission braking (press a button next to the speed lever, no need to find the screen and look away from the hill your about to go sledging down at high speed), and squeeze the brake pedal if needed

No idea what you do in smart touch, sorry

 

[Spud]

We demo'd a Valtra Direct last September. Very underwhelmed after 3 generations of DynaVT MF's. Great engine and suspension, but none of the 4 of us that drove it liked anything else on it.

 

[DrDunc]

We demo'd a Valtra Direct last September. Very underwhelmed after 3 generations of DynaVT MF's. Great engine and suspension, but none of the 4 of us that drove it liked anything else on it.

At least you tried something different

Some folks are shy about throwing their keys into the bowl

 

[Spud]

At least you tried something different

Some folks are shy about throwing their keys into the bowl

Aye we do take the blinkers off occasionally!

Valtra Sept 21 - Underwhelming
Fendt 720 June 14 - Ok but main driver said too complicated
Case Puma CVX June 14 - Better than expected but too noisy (and a lump dearer than MF)
NH 7050 Auto Command Autumn 13 - I thought it was ok, but the team said if I bought it I'd have to drive it myself!
JD 7530 DD Sept 13 - came on a demo drill - didn't like the gearbox. JD made their name with the 40, 50, 6000 & 6010 series because any idiot could suss out how to drive them in 5 minutes. How things change! To quote the driver who's tractor we were replacing at the time 'How the hell are they the market leader?'

The bottom 4 on that list led to us buying a second MF7620 DVT in 2015 thats still here with 8200hrs on it now, and is probably the next one to change.

What will it be? Who knows. 8r225 DVT and Fendt 722 on the shortlist, but budget suggests not for at least another year!

 

[HAM135]

Yes it is a smart touch.How do you get rid of brake to clutch

Go on to transmission page,top left hand there should be 3 boxes,it's one of them.

 

[bravheart]

How many drivers are going to remember to reprogramme the computer before going down the hill? This sounds like a horrific accident waiting to happen. A software update should happen immediately before a fatal incident.