Operating on steep hills and Engine/HST oil starvation?

[Rock Crawler]

A fellow was at my property yesterday and we took a ride to look at the logging trails that I am repairing with my tractor and he brought up a question that nor him nor I really know the answer to. His comment was about the angle I am working on, call it 35-40 degrees, and what is happening with the engine oil pickup as well as the HST oil pickup and am I potentially running dry on these hills while working facing up or down the hill.

So to any of you that may be mechanics on tractors or otherwise have experience or knowledge of this type of situation, am I at a threat of spinning a dry bearing while working these roads?

 

[TractorGuy]

Make sure your low oil pressure light is working and if it doesn't come on you should be good to go.

 

[hawkeye08]

I have a L3130 and a number of years ago had the same question after reading about the hydraulic pump going out on someone's L3130. There was a change and fortunately, my tractor was good to go. I was really happy since a big reason for having it was to mow a steep hill that had caused me issues on small garden type tractors.

I found the answer searching on TBN IIRC at the time.. no idea what search criteria.

 

[LouNY]

Make sure your low oil pressure light is working and if it doesn't come on you should be good to go.

I wouldn't trust a factory light, many of them will not activate till almost zero,
you can get lights and sensors with a higher pressure set from performance auto (stock cars) that will
function better to give you a warning. If your engine does't have good deep sump it is possible to suck some
air. I did with my Oliver 1550 after I saw my mechanical gauge bounce on a steep hill I ran her a quart over full
which helped till I pulled the motor down for new bearings at which time I welded in a gallon and half sump
and lengthened the pickup tube. We work some steep hills on the farm all those engines have pretty good oil pans
but we usually run overfull on transmissions/hydraulics, 5-10 gallons over on the Magnums, my little 8050 I keep just over the top of the full
sight glass.

 

[Billrog]

I've been working on side hills for over 25 years with 1 small tractor 4500 hrs. and no problems now 600 hrs. on my Kioto and so far it's still going . As long as your tractors moving the HST must be getting oil . As for the engine the oil light would at least flicker if you were ever on to steep a slope to pick up oil.

 

[timswi]

A fellow was at my property yesterday and we took a ride to look at the logging trails that I am repairing with my tractor and he brought up a question that nor him nor I really know the answer to. His comment was about the angle I am working on, call it 35-40 degrees, and what is happening with the engine oil pickup as well as the HST oil pickup and am I potentially running dry on these hills while working facing up or down the hill.

So to any of you that may be mechanics on tractors or otherwise have experience or knowledge of this type of situation, am I at a threat of spinning a dry bearing while working these roads?

I'm not yet getting a "warm and fussy" from the responses so far.

 

[Jim Nelson]

The shop foreman at a Kubota dealer told me to always keep the transmission/hydraulic over full at least 2 quarts when working step areas. All my property is pretty steep and so far his advise has worked.

 

[MHarryE]

I've designed engine applications for many off highway machines. Standard off highway engines are good to 30 degrees in any direction. Steeper applications required a special deep sump. There is a factor of safety built in - for example 30 degrees is with Engine oil level at the add mark. Continuous 40 degree operation is pushing it. Customers have used our equipment for paving super speedway at up to 36 degree slope without engine modification but I'm not sure if the paver guys had them overkill engine oil. Hydros were never a problem as our pump feed inlets were good to at least 45 degrees. The crank sloshing in oil going up and down steep slopes is not a problem.

 

[Grandad4]

Back in about 2002 there was a guy who came on to TBN with a problem of getting his brand new HST Kubota, just like mine, stuck a couple of miles back in a West Virginia ravine, on a trail that was so steep the fluid pickup was sucking air. Because we had the same tractors, I took a fair amount of interest in trying to help him, such as I could. As recollection serves, it was indeed a very steep grade, probably something like 100% (45 degrees). Yes there is a limit, but it's pretty extreme.

 

[RjCorazza]

Interesting. I was relocating dirt last year with my L4060hst on a 30-40 degree slope and was unable to lower the FEL at the top of the hill (straight up the slope). As I recall, I was holding in place with the brakes (not with the hst) and had to push the fel into float to get it down. I will look into slightly over filling the hst. Anybody know what the potential risks are to over filling?