# GT5000 and reverse



## jpc430 (Oct 2, 2004)

I have been using my GT5000 with dozer blade to remove snow from my driveway and have been very pleased. I have wheel weights, chains and the rear deck with extra weight added. The tractor moves forward fine but is very slow in reverse. Seems like reverse is getting slower or has less power than before my winter set up was added. Any ideas why reverse is so weak? Is it the extra weight? Should I purge my tranny? Or? 

I have the Kohler Pro 25hp and automatic transmission.


----------



## 911radioman (Jan 18, 2005)

> _Originally posted by jpc430 _
> *I have been using my GT5000 with dozer blade to remove snow from my driveway and have been very pleased. I have wheel weights, chains and the rear deck with extra weight added. The tractor moves forward fine but is very slow in reverse. Seems like reverse is getting slower or has less power than before my winter set up was added. Any ideas why reverse is so weak? Is it the extra weight? Should I purge my tranny? Or?
> 
> I have the Kohler Pro 25hp and automatic transmission. *


JPC430, I have the GT5000 with the Briggs ELS 22 HP V-twin, I've had it about a week now. Although I don't have the front blade on it, I have noticed that reverse is pretty slow on this particular model. I think it is the way they have them engineered because it will fly in forward speed.

Actually, I don't want mine to go too fast in reverse, might cause me to run into something!  Mine seems to move at a sufficient enough rate of speed for me in reverse.

I'd go ahead and do a transmission purge on it and see if it makes any difference. Might not, but it won't hurt to try it anyhow. I purged mine today (its been cold up here and I haven't done anything since taking delivery other than get my brush guard and hour meter installed) and went ahead and did an electric clutch burn-in. Don't know if the clutch thing was a necessary thing or not, but I did it anyhow.


----------



## guest2 (Dec 27, 2003)

Does the owner's manual give a spec for MPH in reverse?


----------



## jodyand (Sep 16, 2003)

Welcome jpc430:friends: I think old Willie said once on here that if you follow the rod that controls your forward and reverse down to the trans and there should be some linkage there so you can adjust it to where you have more reverse speed. But it will take away from your forward speed.


----------



## aegt5000 (Feb 22, 2004)

The 25hp with Hydro has a break-neck reverse speed of 2.1 MPH.
I would list that as my single complaint about the tractor.
3.5 MPH in reverse would be much more reasonable. 

My HT-23 goes 5 MPH in reverse. It really makes a difference 
when you're plowing snow.


----------



## guest2 (Dec 27, 2003)

aegt
My 6 speed GT is rated at 2.1 in Hi reverse also. My bolens feel at least 2X as fast. 
I wonder if most newer tractors are as slow as the craftsman? Might be a safety issue, maybe someone got tossed?


----------



## aegt5000 (Feb 22, 2004)

sixchows...

I’ll bet that’s it. Most of the horror stories you hear are about back-up 
accidental run-overs. Even so, 2.1 MPH really is too slow.


----------



## aegt5000 (Feb 22, 2004)

I looked around, these are the reverse speeds for some other garden tractors.
Maybe the 2.1 MPH limit is how Sears gets by without the reverse lock-out
on their mower decks.

John Deere
LX 3.0 MPH
LT 3.5 MPH
GX 4.0 MPH

Cub Cadet
2000 3.5 MPH
2500 3.5 MPH
3000 4.0 MPH

Simplicity 
Conquest 3.0 MPH
Prestige 4.0 MPH
Legacy 5.5 MPH


----------



## 911radioman (Jan 18, 2005)

> _Originally posted by aegt5000 _
> *I looked around, these are the reverse speeds for some other garden tractors.
> Maybe the 2.1 MPH limit is how Sears gets by without the reverse lock-out
> on their mower decks.
> ...


Actually though, Craftsman has the RIO on their mowers. On mine it is on by default, then I can turn the key back one notch and disable RIO if I wish.


----------



## jpc430 (Oct 2, 2004)

Thanks for the feedback. Perhaps my memory of reverse from this summer is incorrect. Plenty of speed going forward but it seems to crawl in reverse.


----------



## Topdj (Jun 9, 2004)

there was a fix for this I forgot exactly how it was done
correctly


----------



## bhanecak (Jun 8, 2008)

I'm bumping this thread to see if anyone has found a solution to this problem. I purchased a GT5000 this past summer (couple years old). I expected the reveres to be slow due to reading this thread, but I have recently installed a snow blower, chains, and weight pan and it slowed it down severely. So slow and under-powered that it will not even back over the small lip into my garage. In forward, it is plenty fast and the engine doesn't bog down when the snow blower is engaged.

Any updates?

Thanks,
Brian


----------



## bhanecak (Jun 8, 2008)

I FIXED MINE!!!! I took a look at the linkage from the speed lever to the transmission to see if there was an adjustment I could make to get more "throw" on the lever. I took the right rear wheel off and started looking around. What I found makes sense!! A portion of the speed control linkage was hitting the upper support arm of the weight tray mounted to the back of the tractor. I adjusted the support bracket to allow the clearance necessary for the speed control lever to move back far enough. I put everything back together and it worked GREAT!!!!

I hope this helps someone!!!


----------

