Is an Hour an Hour

[LBrown59]

Just got finished with a test on my B2150. My "hour" meter records only a true "Clock hour" if running at rated PTO Speed. anything less than that rpm and the meter records less "clock hours". I wish an phd in engineering would explain the rational of monitoring the engine hours in this fashion which ignores the moving components of the drive train and only follows the revolutions the engine is making. Does a bearing have "more" life if run at lower than its rating? Who knows. Having BOTH time and engine measures would be the best. after checking out my own meter i realized my true running hours on my tractor could be anything,
the meter does not really give any true indication of use or abuse. kjgces.

Yes it does.
500 on the meter would mean far less use then 1500 say.

[aczlan]

Just got finished with a test on my B2150. My "hour" meter records only a true "Clock hour" if running at rated PTO Speed. anything less than that rpm and the meter records less "clock hours". I wish an phd in engineering would explain the rational of monitoring the engine hours in this fashion which ignores the moving components of the drive train and only follows the revolutions the engine is making. Does a bearing have "more" life if run at lower than its rating? Who knows. Having BOTH time and engine measures would be the best. after checking out my own meter i realized my true running hours on my tractor could be anything, the meter does not really give any true indication of use or abuse. kjgces.

Its because you have a cable driven tachometer and the hourmeter is driven off of that much like the odometer on a car.

Aaron Z

[kjgces]

LBrown, if the previous user ran the tractor at low rpms in high range all the time, the "miles" on the rest of the unit other than the engine would be about 3 times as high as the hour meter would indicate. wouldn't this mean 3 times the wear on all the components versus the total rpms that the engine had run. That is of course if you believe the other components are as important as the engine. i agree the engine is "typically" the most important but n\there are other high cost items on these things that wear out with time no matter how fast or slow the engine is running. just my thoughts...

[BobRip]

LBrown, if the previous user ran the tractor at low rpms in high range all the time, the "miles" on the rest of the unit other than the engine would be about 3 times as high as the hour meter would indicate. wouldn't this mean 3 times the wear on all the components versus the total rpms that the engine had run. That is of course if you believe the other components are as important as the engine. i agree the engine is "typically" the most important but n\there are other high cost items on these things that wear out with time no matter how fast or slow the engine is running. just my thoughts...

There is no perfect way to monitor tractor wear. The problem here is that they call it an hour meter and it is not. This creates confusion. It would be interesting to hear the rational behind this. It sounds like a marketing scheme. Marketing has a way of distorting information until it is worthless.

[kjgces]

BobRip, i totally agree, would not be a problem at all if it wasn't called and labeled as "Hours". Also agree on Marketing schemes.

[mvwicker]

There is no perfect way to monitor tractor wear. The problem here is that they call it an hour meter and it is not. This creates confusion. It would be interesting to hear the rational behind this. It sounds like a marketing scheme. Marketing has a way of distorting information until it is worthless.

Airplanes often indicate two measures of use: "Hobbs time" or total time the engine is on, and "Tach time" or the number of engine revolutions divided by the rated RPH of the engine (such as 2400RPM x 60min/hr). Tach time is almost always less than Hobbs time, though some engines can be (legally) run over rated RPM for short periods (such as during takeoff).

Hobbs meter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tach Timer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I think tractor tach time with PTO RPM in the denominator is a reasonable single number to use.

[Redneck in training]

The piston and cylinder are the parts that wear the fastest. Therefore if the "hour meter" counts revolutions of the engine it, in essence, measures the distance the piston traveled in the cylinder. That is what matters. The rest of the tractor, in general, might outlast several overhauls of the engine.