Operating hours

[JDgreen227]

I was telling my college aged nephew yesterday that my Deere had 900 operating hours on it, and he didn't quite understand the concept because he has never owned anything except cars, which record usage as miles instead of hours. Most of the medium size diesel trucks I drove for a living had hour meters, but we still used mileage to figure service intervals.

Might be a stupid question, but I wonder how operating hours on a typical tractor would compare to mileage on a car. The problem is, a tractor isn't used for transportation and most of the time while operating it's moving a load, or running a mower, or a pto driven implement. A car running at 60 mph is using very little of the horsepower available, while a tractor spinning a 6 foot MMM at maximum revolutions is using much of the power it can develop. Ditto a tractor with a loader moving a half ton load in the bucket.

I said it might be a stupid question, but how many "miles" of use would you say are placed on a typical tractor during each operating hour, compared to a car or light truck transporting only a driver at 60 mph? The vehicle gets 60 miles of use per hour, while the working tractor gets how many miles, in your opinion?

One of the reasons I am wondering is because my NEPHEW asked me if there is any reasonable comparison, and he is a really bright kid. I told him I would investigate the idea. Thanks.

 

[RPW]

I have hear of a basic computation to get an equivalent milage but I think you could also equate it by what's the average gear range your in and multiply that by the hours to get an approximation of mileage.

 

[smstonypoint]

WOW. This may be a question for which there is no answer, but is nonetheless fun to debate.

I would try to back into an answer. Let's say the recommended oil change interval for a tractor is 200 hours and the recommended oil change interval for an over-the-road diesel is 6000 miles. (I'm just making up these numbers.) In this case, one hour of tractor use would "equate" to 30 road miles.*

Does this make any sense?

Steve

* Edit -- I realize that's mighty fast for a tractor. After rereading the OP, I answered a question that wasn't asked.

 

[blueriver]

Maybe near impossible to fiqure. An average speed while cutiing hay may be 5-6 MPH ... average speed with a bucket full of dirt may be 1-2 MPH ... average speed grinding feed would be 0 MPH.

I don't know .. interesting. I have 300 hrs on one that if the average is 4 MPH... 1200 miles ....I quess its a Low Milage One Owner (Driven to Church By an Old Lady)

 

[JDgreen227]

WOW. This may be a question for which there is no answer, but is nonetheless fun to debate.

I would try to back into an answer. Let's say the recommended oil change interval for a tractor is 200 hours and the recommended oil change interval for an over-the-road diesel is 6000 miles. (I'm just making up these numbers.) In this case, one hour of tractor use would "equate" to 30 road miles.*

Does this make any sense?

Steve

* Edit -- I realize that's mighty fast for a tractor. After rereading the OP, I answered a question that wasn't asked.

One of the reasons I posted the question was because I thought it would be fun to debate...and I told my nephew if the experts here couldn't give an answer, nobody could. And for what it is worth, the recommended oil change interval for my tractor is 200 hours, but it takes me over two years to reach that point, so I change it every 50-60 hours. Overkill maybe, but I never heard of an engine dying from too frequent oil andf filter changes.

 

[HiTechTed]

I don't think there is any "universal" way to compare the two. For every piece of equipment, I would think it would vary depending on what the manufacturer requires as far as maintenance for the particular machine. A diesel generator would have 0 miles on it regardless of the hours on the meter. You can compare 2 generators but comparing a generator against a tractor or against a car really doesn't make sense.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I have a Nissan Truck and 2 Ford Trucks with hour meters along with odometers. All three have been right at 35 mph average so if you multiply that by the 900 hours your tractor has that's about the equivalent to having about 31,500 miles.

So for maintenance I would say every 100 hours would be about like doing 3,000 mile oil changes in your car.

By the way I change my oil and filter every 50 hours also. Fuel, air, and hydro filters every 250. Easy to remember.

Hope that helps.

Chris

 

[JDgreen227]

I don't think there is any "universal" way to compare the two. For every piece of equipment, I would think it would vary depending on what the manufacturer requires as far as maintenance for the particular machine. A diesel generator would have 0 miles on it regardless of the hours on the meter. You can compare 2 generators but comparing a generator against a tractor or against a car really doesn't make sense.

Well, suppose the service life of a well maintained car is 250,000 miles and that of a well maintained tractor is 5000 hours...would that make sense? If so, that equates to one operating hour on the tractor to being 50 miles of use.

 

[smstonypoint]

Well, suppose the service life of a well maintained car is 250,000 miles and that of a well maintained tractor is 5000 hours...would that make sense?

Maybe. Would a better comparison be between the expected service life of a well-maintained over-the-road diesel semi-tractor and a farm tractor? I don't know.

Steve

 

[bigbull338]

a hour of engine time will not equal an hour of riding time.an hour of engine time is dictated by the speed you run your rpms.for example if you run at 2600 rpms youll put on more hours than you would at 1500rpms.sometimes i take my tractor out to check hay an look at the cows,an im gone 30mins more or less,an i put on 1/10th of an hr doing that.