Is it time for a gasoline engine tractor?

[ultrarunner]

If I could get 87without I personally would not waste money on the premium because it will serve you no better that the regular and in 99% of the uses of gas it will actually perform less efficiently than the regular. I have done extensive dyno testing back when I was racing and with almost every engine we tested fuels with they all made more power and better power curves with regular than they did with premium or race fuel. I still laugh when people pay the extra for it when they are driving anything less than a full on sports car that calls for it because of a high performance engine that will never end up in your lawn mower or tiller or even the family sedan.

A lot of higher end European cars require minimum 91 in the states which is lower than what is specified in Europe and as a result the HP of American market cars from BMW are slightly de-rated as it was explained to me.

 

[ultrarunner]

My daughter's Honda Accord had "smart carburetor". It was a maintenance nightmare. There were about 20 vacuum tubes connected to it. Even the dealer couldn't fix it.

My 1985 Chevrolet 305 V8 3/4 truck is carbureted... 31 years and still going strong and I have never touched the carburetor or engine... hope I'm not jinxing myself...

 

[GManBart]

All the manufactures of ULSD all paid off the costs for the equipment to refine ULSD on the same day? As for that equipment being paid off and low cost. After 10years the ULSD refining equipment is becoming worn and antiquated which requires $$$ investment by the refiners .

No, the upgrades took a number of years to be implemented and paid off, with some variation from refinery to refinery. The last refineries were upgraded around 2010. The average time to amortize those costs was supposed to be around 5 years going off a couple of industry sites.

You're completely guessing when you say that ULSD refining equipment is becoming worn. Refineries didn't spend $8B just to have to spend it again in a few years because they didn't build a system that would last for a long time.

 

[GManBart]

Rated for full continuous power and the the Tier IV emission equipment would work much better that way. However Uncle Putz on his rural estate cleaning drive way of getting the horse a bale of hay with his 100hr per year CUT is not using the tractor anywhere near rated power continuously .

That has nothing to do with the duty cycle the machines are built for. Just because some people don't run their CUTs hard doesn't mean some don't, or that they aren't designed for that.

I ran my Massey for three hours this weekend....2+ of that was at PTO speed. That's not uncommon at all for anybody who uses their tractor to mow, till, throw snow, brush hog, etc, etc.

 

[Redneck in training]

You clearly don't understand what a duty cycle is. CUT aren't cars or light trucks, or forklifts, or man lifts, and comparing them is pointless.

What CUT or SCUT manufacturer publishes a limit to the amount of time their machine can run at full rated power? None. Any diesel rated for continuous full power is NOT a light duty application.

Diesels tractors (or generators etc) engines have low specific power. Typically around 20-25 HP/liter. They run, at full throttle, only at less than half of the power they could possibly generate if used to full potential. That is why they last forever. Give them more fuel and/or add turbo and you can easily more than double or even triple the power.
Many manufacturers have tractor models with various power output using exactly the same engine with different injection pump setting.

 

[Turbys_1700]

I ran my tractor at the rated PTO speed last week for over 10 hours bush hogging pasture that had been left untouched for over a couple years. I have not read anything about duty cycle just that the oil change interval is listed at 300 hours. I would estimate that New Holland considers normal yearly use at 300 hours perhaps. Most CUT hours are probably lower.

I know that typical hours before rebuilds on diesel engines back in the day when my dad sold Allis Chalmers would run in the 8-12K hours range. They would see 6-8K hours on a typical AC Power Crater gas engine. Those were wet lined engine. We own 2 with over 4500 hours that have not had any engine work.

 

[buickanddeere]

Carburated gassers cars burning unleaded if they made it to 100,000 without at least a valve job and a set of rings . They were a wheezing oil burning clunker. Now a fuel injected gasser running unleaded doesn't even rate mentioning for going 300,000 with just filters, belts and two spark plug changes.
The 300,000 mile gasser makes more power per cu" than the old carburated gasser. Seem to hold together just fine without blowing up with the "added stress".

 

[Industrial Toys]

I found it interesting when I read a few years ago, that a modern fuel injection system can put fuel to an engine like an old school, high performance 4 bbl carb never could.

I have not been following the evolutuion (up to Tier 4 final) off-road diesel engines. Do any still have a conventional injector pump and injectors? Then, if push came to shove, you should still be able to make it run, and just throw the rest of that stuff in the garbage where it belongs.

 

[stuckmotor]

I've been told that a Farmall Super M, with an all fuel engine, when disking, would typically go through a full tank of gasoline by dinner time. Hopefully, a modern fuel injected gas tractor would do better.

 

[Turbys_1700]

I've been told that a Farmall Super M, with an all fuel engine, when disking, would typically go through a full tank of gasoline by dinner time. Hopefully, a modern fuel injected gas tractor would do better.

We could run through 2 tanks a day running our M. Same usage with our D17 Allis Chalmers gassers.