Yes, if you have a gear which gives you the ground speed you want/need at full throttle, then the gear drive is perfect . . . . until you run into some heavier cutting and need to slow down a bit. On my old gear drive, I did that by slipping the clutch until I was through the heavy stuff and could again go at the ground speed to match the gear I was in . . . . or, you can shift to a lower gear and probably go slower than you really want, but no need to slip the clutch With a hydro, you set the engine for max torque and then you have infinitely variable gound speed to match whatever the operation you're doing calls for - A real time saver, plus you have maximum torque at the exact correct ground speed I wore out 3 different gear drive tractors, used about 90% of the time for mowing. Now that I have a good hydro and know what I would be missing, I wouldn't consider another gear drive and would hate to be forced into one because I was worried about breaking the transmission in it Kubota (and others) have been manufacturing small diesel (and gas) garden tractors designed for ground engaging work with hydro transmissions for more than 20 years and you don't find many threads here about any of those models with broken or ailing transmissions. True, they are more expensive than 'box store' lawn mowers, but I've ridden (and worn out) enough junk that when I go looking for a good machine, it's NOT at one of the box stores - I would rather buy a used tried and true macine with 1,000 hours on it than a new box store model . . . . for the same money If you have a fixed budget at say $2K or less to buy your 'lawn mower' and you are dead set on a new machine, then you do have a tough choice to make because no doubt the gear drive tractors in that price range are probably less prone to transmission failures than many of the hydros are - It's just another one of those 'you can pay me now or pay me later' deals Don

Well guys, We still live in the house we bought to in 2014 in order to move Donna's aging mom who was (at that time) showing symptoms of dementia. The dementia progressively took its toll on her mind, and then in October of 2016, she was diagnosed with stage 4 bladder cancer. She lived until early February 2017 and died here at home with us, as she wished and she had made us promise not to let her die in a hospital or nursing home. She died surrounded by family and a hospice nurse was present. I only relate this story because Donna's mom's health situation was the reason we bought a house big enough for all of us to live in, under one roof.........and the subsequential multiple projects and renovations.........were the reasons I dropped off of the forum. As soon as we moved into the house, I had a long list of things that HAD to be done, and a long list of lesser things we WANTED to do......so my time on the forum just could not be justified.....I simply had too much to do. The first things to be done were to come up with safety measures to help prevent an elderly woman with dementia from injury by being proactive about preventing her from "escaping" the house. I had to equip all exit doors with a deadbolt lock keyed inside and out (all keyed alike) and we had to come up with a nearby "hiding place" close to each lock location for spare keys in case of emergency. This house has a full basement with stairs, and we did not want her mom to have access to the stairs, so I included the same deadbolt on that door too. The sliding door to the second floor deck was a challenge in that it had a key lock on the outside ONLY with just a paddle lock lever on the inside. I had to come up with a way to make that door lockable with a key from the inside. My solution was to remove the lock assembly from the door and "reverse" location of the paddle lever plate and the key tumbler plate, so that the key tumbler would be on the inside. I stripped out the guts relating to the paddle lever and covered the hole where the paddle shaft came through with a small brass plate.....heavily epoxied in place from the backside (inside the door). All you can see from outside is a small hole blanked off with brass. The deck is on the second story on the backside of the house with stairs leading down the the pool, which is enclosed inside a fence, so we never use the sliding door as a "key entry" point anyhow. Then there is the attic storage space epic adventure. The attic space when we bought the house, was almost non-existent. There was a total of 4 sheets of 4' X 8' plywood (128 sq. ft.) on the joists at the top of an extremely rickety pull down wooden stairs. Stairs were the first to go. Replaced with a sturdy aluminum pull down folding stairs. Then I hauled 22 4' X 8' sheets of 3/4 OSB into the attic space.(each sheet was cut in half lengthwise to fit through attic stairs opening). We now have about 800 sq. ft. of usable attic storage space. I built 2 inverted trusses (strong backs) to attach to the joists on the sections spanning the 12' kitchen and the 18' den. These trusses ensure that the load imposed by the extra OSB and stored material are ultimately borne by the load bearing walls at the hallway, den, and both walls of the kitchen. The addition of the trusses assures that the ceiling joists do not assume a sway back shape over time resulting in cracked ceiling gypsum board. I assembled the trusses in the attic and fabricated them to have about 1/2" "preload bow" on the 18' truss and 3/8" preload bow on the 12' truss. This was to ensure that the trusses were actually carrying some load right from the start. After I got the trusses built and fastened onto each joist they served with metal strapping, I built a 30' long, 2 tier shelf system into the truss structures. Shelves are 24" wide and the bottom shelf is 20" off the floor, while the second shelf is 46" off the floor, so you have the attic floor under the shelves, and the 2 shelves themselves for storage, That yields 180 sq. ft. of space, plus the remaining 720 or so sq. ft. of attic at various head space. The tallest overhead clearance is about 6'2" at the rafter collar ties (and I added collar ties so that every rafter has a tie, instead of every third rafter as the house was built). There were 4 rafters that had "split" open due to improper orientation by the rough carpenters. They had placed rafters with knots situated on the lower chord of the rafter (tension side), which is a no-no. These rafters had to be jacked back into place and reinforcement panels of 3/4" plywood "scabbed" onto each side, glued and screwed. The original scheme had the ventilation exhaust fans from both bathrooms simply dumping into the attic space, another no-no. I extended the exhaust hoses over to the gable area of the house and busted through the brick and installed 2 bona fide exhaust hoods with insect screens. On the longest hose, which was a 4" hose....I built a booster fan box in the middle of that run and wired it so that it turns on when the original fan turns on. I felt that a 16' run of 4" hose would probably need all the fan power it could get to keep from simply "stalling out". The other hose was 6" and only 8' long, so I felt it was adequate with no additional help needed. I could go on and on about other projects, but these were some of my most major undertakings, Now, about my employment. I no longer work as a forklift mechanic in the shop. In midsummer 2015, I took over running the parts department when our longstanding partsman retired. This was challenging in that it put me to the task of acquiring and dispensing the parts instead of installing them on vehicles. It has also been challenging in that I was the first partsman in our history to actually have the capability of searching the Volvo and Daimler websites to look up parts. It was in the summer of 2015 that the company finally got onboard with software to enable this. Prior to that advent, our method of ordering parts involve looking the parts up in hard copy paper parts manuals, or talking to a vendor/dealer on the phone and trying to describe what you wanted, it was sometimes a crap shoot whether you would get the right parts or not. The outgoing partsman never had to use the computer to look up and order parts, and when it was introduced, he refused to do it saying that his time was too short to need it, so he told me to get all the training and he would just watch. LOL He and I worked side by side for 3 months while he showed me most of the ropes before he retired in October 2015. That is a summary of what I have been up to. I know this was completely off topic, but since the request was posed here, I felt OK in responding here.

It is android so they are all pretty much the same, just like one pc Running windows xp is about the same as any other. Android is extremely easy and intuitive. Yes you can get other browsers but I would work with the one designed for that device till you are more comfortable. There are hundreds of applications you can add there will be an icon for market just hit that, use your google log in, and take a look around. The most popular browsers are Dolphin, opera mini, sunfire, firefox, not as good as pc version, you can try out as many as you like, delete what you don't want. There are other good markets you will want to add, Amazon market, just add the market apk to the unit then you can get Apps from there too, another I recommend is getjar market they have a lot of free ones that are pay for on the others. For security I recommend Lookout security, it's free and good. Not sure what you mean by video's, to view them just play like on a pc. Go to you tube and try one. The camera willhave a camera icon just tap and try the pic will be found in the gallery. I am sure this is all in the manual. Just jump in and play, enjoy it is a fabulous tablet.

We have a pop-up camper. We've camped in several western states at various campgrounds including national parks, forestry service, BLM and a few others. Most are a lot less expensive than the KOA costs mentioned above. Most have cost $15-$25 per night. Some spots are even free. It all depends on your wants and needs. We have a generator and don't necessarily have to be attached to water or electricity. If you're going to be camping in certain states on a regular basis, it would be worth it to buy a couple of books that detail the campgounds within a state, their views, amenities, comfort, etc. You can also look up some info on-line so you know what to expect. My dh always likes to plan his trip before we go. Sometimes we get the campgrounds we want and sometimes they are full. Some campgrounds are reservable and others are not. The book can usually give us ideas on other areas to look. It will also let you know if the camping area is big enough for your RV. The books are also good for sightseeing ideas that we would have otherwise missed. There are also on-line forums for those who like to camp. It's nice to have a first hand account on whether an area is worth your time or not.