Combines Optimum Gear Hydo lever Combination

lowest gear possible with hydro handle as far forward as possible = lowest operating pressure. Try it the other way for a while and, like my cousin with his N5 you will get to find out what a new hydro costs. He came down the road in high gear and forgot to shift into a lower gear when he started cutting, the machine finally stopped moving and the oil was hot. A couple years later he put a rebuilt hydro in the machine.

Could give you all kinds of graphs and figures, but it all boils down to this - the hydro efficiency increases with swash plate angle. Given equal pressure, it is most efficient at full propel. In your combine application, lower gears give the double benefit of lower pressure and higher efficiency. Use the lowest gear that will give you the travel speed you need.

Run with the transmission geared down and the hydro opened up. The oil temps in both the Hydro and Transmission will stay cooler. The Hydro cools itself with oil flow and low flow will cause it to heat and start damaging the hydro. I run my N6 in lowest gear possible to acomplish the highest hydro speed setting and have had no problems, atleast the hydro handle is 2_3 to full forward. This keeps the pump, hydro and engine cooler(because it is not pulling hot air from the cooler into the radiator).