Idle tractor or turn off?

[CalG]

Well, If you are not there, off driving a dump truck or what ever, Then a needless running engine means nothing, I guess.

Sort of like a leaky toilet valve. It's just water, You get used to it. ;-)

 

[bdog]

Most the time I have been loading the dump truck and dumping the dirt less than 1/2 mile away on my property. Maybe 10 minutes round trip.

 

[brown40]

It think the majority of wear on start up is because the oil film & supply from the last run has had the chance to return the the sump; I believe a warm, wet motor that's had a chance to lubricate and get a film everywhere will wear less than the cold, dry overnight startup... of course the longer it sits the more gravity works...

 

[MortOz]

It surprises me that there isn't more emphasis in the replies here on the problem of bore glazing. The main issue for diesel engines running lightly loaded is that deposits build up on the surface of the bore leading to poor sealing of the piston rings. That can even eventually lead to a run-away situation where sufficient lubricating oil gets past the rings and keeps the engine running at ever-increasing speed until it destroys itself or someone cuts off the air supply.
Not too likely in a tractor, but you should definitely not leave a newish engine (<100 hours is a common suggestion) idling for extended periods, instead making sure it is running under at least a 60-65% load. The fact that you put a decent load on the tractor driving it around avoids this problem most of the time, but if it is just sitting and idling, probably better to turn it off.
There is a good discussion on this in the wikipedia article on generators (Diesel generator - Wikipedia), where it is a big problem when generators are run under light loads for a long time, so power is available constantly. Our farm portable diesel generator (8kVA) is stored with a couple of old electric heaters, which are permanently plugged in when it is running to make sure it has at least a 50% load unless it is running the whole house in a supply failure situation, or running the welder on farm repairs where all the power is needed.

 

[N80]

The context of this discussion is 10 minutes to an hour at the most. I doubt bore glazing is an issue in this context.

 

[CalG]

The context of this discussion is 10 minutes to an hour at the most. I doubt bore glazing is an issue in this context.

I wish I could cut to length an entire tree lenth and move the cuts out of the way in 10 minutes. Ahh! To be young again! ;-)

 

[N80]

One of the situations that I leave mine running for a while is when I'm cleaning up my woods roads. I'll have chainsaw, axes, machete etc in the bucket. Stop, get off the tractor and start working down one side of the road clearing brush and overhanging branches. I'll go a ways then work back down the other side back toward the tractor. Put tools back in bucket and then drive down to where I left off and begin the cycle again. Each interval might be 15-20 minutes so I leave it running. Altogether it might run like that an hour or more easy. I'm just not going to worry about that.

 

[jmh1783]

Being less than a year into diesel tractor ownership, I've read this and many other threads like it with much interest. Afterall I want to get the most life out of my tractor with the least amount of down time. Surprisingly there seems to be no expert source that can provide a diffinitive answer. It seems to me that staying away from either extreme should be fine for most tractors.

 

[brown40]

If the unit is cold, fuel is cold, and load is low/none, your odds of wet stacking are higher than on a hot day with warm fuel and a warm engine. If you do decide idling is for you, bump your throttle up to ~150% idle rpm's to keep your oil pressure up and keep feeding the cylinders lubrication--at least until up to operating temperatures. The additional noise may also encourage you to save the fuel and operating hours...

 

[Billy Bee]

Would it make a difference if it was HST or gear? My TC 33 is a gear model, and I usually shut it down if I am going to idle more than 5 or 10 min. I am more concerned with excessive wear on clutch bearings, or is that nothing to to be worried about?