Conversation Between Dozerlarry and rickemd1

The gearbox is sometimes hard to engage and sometimes it pops right in. The twin shift deal seems to work better than the one stick but it seems like a lot of trouble to make one to me. I think I'll keep mine as is. I bought a Hustler a while back to fix up (no time) for my wife and it has a spring loaded shifter deal that looks like it would make the tranny easier to shift. I may try making one up for my Max. As far as steering, I am a heavy equipment man and don't really pay a lot of attention to steering forces. I'm used to things that take a grunt sometimes to operate. The only thing I can say here is you are welcome to come and drive mine and see what you think. It would seem to me that if both levers are about the same to work and move about the same the bands would be good. There is a way to check the bands, look in the manual section on the home page and you can find out how. Another reason I'm not sure is mine is the only Max I've ever driven. Hope I was some help.

LB

Larry, It's taken a while and a lot of busted knuckles but I've got the max on the road. Although initially I thought I had some gearbox issues what I found was that when shifting I wasn't getting box sides of the gearbox engaged. Newbie error right?
Anyway, I'm curious about how much effort is required when pulling back on the steering levers? It seems to me that it takes a lot of effort. So much effort that I'm sure a young kid probably wouldn't have the strength to use the controls. Or are my bands worn out and causing my extra effort. It seems like it doesn't matter which direction I'm going as the effort seems to be about the same.
How much effort does it take to turn your machine?
Thanks.