On Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:36:30 GMT, JohnH wrote:

Good story, too. You've made me rethink the manual transmission idea. No
wonder the Army went to automatic transmissions years ago.

Almost all tractor manufacturers now have shiftless hydrostatic torque
drive or automatic transmissions - manuals with clutches are few and
far between.

I saw a new John Deere 9630T a few weeks back - 525 hp monster that
Chapman Farms bought for their cropping operation in New Jersey and
Pennsylvania - automatic.

http://www.deere.com/servlet/ProdCat...R&pNbr=9630TRW

Amazing.