there's word of a tractor with a hydraulically actuated boarding ladder. Do you think such features make all that much difference in acceptance, or are hydraulic improvements more evolutionary than revolutionary despite manufacturers' claims?

I'm am going to take a guess and say that this tractor is for agriculture, Its not important.

When I was on the farm. these boarding ladders, though not frequently do get in the way at times. mostly from working in wet ground were the tractor sinks. And sinks deep. (When I was about 16, I buried one to the platform about 5 ft)

These ladders the are stationary bend (more times than not into the tire). I say it just an improvement, being it hydrauliclly operated well that bells and whistles.

in the present there is currently Hydraulic Buses, and some hydraulic vehicles in developement another concept for Hybird, although they require diesel engines to pressurise the accumulated hydraulic fluids, it is the way of the future for many devices that can go hydraulic.

check out this website on the Hydraulic F150 Ford.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/02/60_mpg_ford_f15.php

Hydraulic bus:

http://www.chinabuses.com/english/news/0806/20005.html

I have had the pleasure of overseeing the assembly and hydraulic control system installation on a version of Hydraulic buses for Canada, that we built at Stewart and Stevenson a while back.

It is defenetly important