Case 446 vs 226

No, it won't add anything to the hydraulics since the hydraulic system "power" is limited by the pressure relief valve. The only value of the bigger engine is that it will power the bigger deck (60") better in heavy grass and will have a little more power for the snowblower. I have both 16 and 18 hp tractors and really don't notice any difference.

Ok great, thanks for the info. I'm new to these tractors but love the idea of the hydraulics. I hate listening to a bunch of loud motors for chippers and splitters and stuff, would much rather hear a deeper tone of the tractor doing the work. When running the hydraulic splitters or whatever, does the tractor have to be full throttle, or can it be near idle and have the same hydraulic pressure?

Many splitter users say that they run their tractors slightly above idle and get excellent splitting results. The chipper is a completely different animal because it has a motor in it. To get the best results from the chipper, the motor must spin at full speed and that only happens when the tractor's engine is running at full speed.

Hydraulic pumps put out oil volume. The amount of volume is related to the speed of the engine driving the pump since every revolution causes the pump to move .625 cubic inches of oil through it. The revolutions during one minute, the more oil is moved through the pump.

Pressure is something that occurs when the oil being pumped meets resistance in its travels. The more something tries to stop the oil from getting back to the reservoir, the higher the pressure will rise. When the pump is forced to provide higher pressure in the system, then the motor is forced to provide more HP to turn the pump. If the motor is not at the correct speed to produce 14 hp, then it will stall and quit. Therefore, you cannot run a chipper/shredder at a low engine speed and have enough available engine hp to spin the chipper motor once it starts causing the hydraulic pressure to rise.

Ahh ok, makes sense. My reason for asking is just curious how loud it would be to run these...but still a full throttle (or close) tractor motor is much less annoying then the higher pitched sound coming from the motor powering the chipper. I HATE the sound of chippers and splitters and push mowers, etc for some reason and despise using them due to that, but somehow the deeper tone of a tractor doesn't bother me, and I love running chainsaws as well, which is much higher pitched than the chippers and whatnot, but then again hate weed whackers which sound nearly identical to chainsaws...Hmm, am I messed up or what?

If you do much wood splitting then you realize that the "power" is rarely all that important since 95% of the time whatever you're splitting will split with far less pressure than the splitter is capable of. What is important is cycle time because it can get pretty boring waiting for the hydraulic ram to retract. So, even though the tractor will easily power a splitter at idle speed the cycle time will be slow and eventually you will decide to run it at a higher speed. I'm always amused at the sales pitches for splitters that focus on how many tons it has. I have a good sized standalone splitter that is rated at 28 tons but rarely use it opting more often for my little Ingersoll splitter that is probably about 7 or 8 tons. When I run across an oddball log that the Ingy can't handle I toss it in a pile and let it sit until I get the big beast out.

I would encourage you to get some ear muffs to wear when using noisy equipment like chainsaws. In my younger years I rarely bothered and now my hearing is not 100% according to my wife. I now have a bunch of those earmuffs in handy places and try to use whenever making a lot of noise. My wife thinks it's a good idea....I'm still trying to decide!

Ahh, Me nevers thinkeded of thats. I guess since I've never really had to split wood, except for enough to a campfire, which used an ax, and never needed a splitter. Kinda like the air compressor market. Who gives a crap how much horsepower it is, how much air can it cycle and how fast is what is needed, not the HP and DEFINITELY not the HP calculated with the surge current

My 4023's Vanguard was fairly quiet at wot running the chipper. The chipper/t.pump was actually louder when up to speed than the tractors engine. Between the tractors pump, chipper motor, and chipper's inards spinning around, it was quite loud. Then add wood/brush and WOW, that was waaay loud. This is where it performed best and I always ran it wide open. Never had an issue at all. I did over load it once or twice and could hear the relief squeal, and waited a couple seconds for it to regain speed and kept on chippin'. It was by far the best attachment I had, well the most enjoyable.

The splitter was happy running just above idle. It would not split any better at full than 1/2 or what have you (setting) as it's a single stage pump directly off the tractor. Again, to me the most noise that comes from these (mine anyway) is the whine of the hydraulic pump. It did not bother me as it sounded like a serious piece of equipment, as it was.
I had a few pieces of miserable maple that got stuck as it is only rated at 9 tons. But went through all the red oak I had with ease. it was very quick too with a 10.7 second cycle time. I could split alot of wood in a short period of time all by myself. When my young son helped it was even faster.

The most impressive attachment (noise wise) was the deck. The rm48 was so smooth and quiet when running, the only noise was from the engine muffler. The hydra vac makes quite a bit of noise to.

I wore hearing protection at all time as I still do no matter what I'm running.

MU