Covert tractor hours to miles???

manganos · Sep 8, 2002

I went over to my neighbors farm today and he asked me a question and I told him I'd have to ask it over here

He has a Ford 5000 and it has a little over 9000 hours on it. He is wondering how many miles that would be equivlent too. Any estimates would be great

Oh one thing about the Ford that I didn't know is that it measures one complete hour only when the engine RPM is at 2000 RPM if that means anything. I assume it goes around 13 mph so just mulitply 13 x 9000? Or am I wrong? Thanks

MossRoad · Sep 8, 2002

Unless he used it for the same task at the same RPMs I can't see a way to come even close to a best guestimate.

beenthere · Sep 8, 2002

Re: Covert tractor hours to miles???

Does it travel 13 mph at 2000 rpm in every gear?

Seems this (miles) would be a meaningless number at best. I suspect keeping tabs of the number of hours on the hourmeter is the best usable figure their is, when it comes to a tractor.

Was your neighbor pulling your leg when he asked this question?

Steven · Sep 8, 2002

I don,t even have a clue to this one. just assume that he left it running for 9000 hours and never had to move it. the engine components would have 9000 hours, the tractor 0. so how can you calculate miles from the hour meter when the tractor sits at idle some times running up the hour meter and does not move. like the people with remote starts for their cars, they are putting more hours on the engines than what the odometer reads in miles. maybe vehicles and equipment should come with both.

Ozarker · Sep 8, 2002

I am unaware of any way to make such a conversion so you would have to invent one. If I were going to invent a way to make a comparison, I would use service interval as a measuring stick. Service interval is an indication of normal wear in both tractors and cars.

We service tractors every 100 hours so a tractor with 9000 hours has seen 90 services.

We service cars about every 3000 miles so for a car to see 90 services it would have to go 270000 miles.

I therefor declare that 9000 hours = 270000 miles.

Gary_in_Indiana · Sep 8, 2002

There is no number of miles to which 9000 would be equivalent. It's a completely different system and type of engine use.

My best guess is what he was really wondering was how would 9000 hours be compared to car mileage in terms of high or low mileage, possibly based on the age of his Ford.

A better place to ask something like that would be a tractor dealer who handles a lot of used equipment. I'll bet a lot of it depends on the engine, too, just like a car or truck.

I'm not at all concerned with 100,000 miles on a Chevy 350 while the same miles on a little Quad 4 is way high. I'm guessing the same might be true of his 9000 hours. It depends on the engine.

BigDave · Sep 8, 2002

Ozarker,

I like your idea of comparing to maintenance intervals, but wouldn't a better comparison be to a tractor trailer's maintenance interval. I'm not sure how long it is, but it would have to be more than every 3,000 miles.

Anonymous Poster · Sep 8, 2002

Hi,

In my mind, I just multiply hours of tractor use by an average MPH that I would get out of my car/truck during normal use.

Sometime I work my car/truck hard..sometimes I am stuck in traffic. On the highway I may run at 80 mph sometimes. In the city I may average 20 mph.

My guess is that overall I probably average 35 or 40 mph. For the sake of easy calculation, let's pick 40 mph average for my car/truck.

9,000 hours times 40 Miles/hour = 360,000 miles.

That's the way the equations works in my mind.

Bill in Pgh, PA

MossRoad · Sep 8, 2002

/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

I second your declaration! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

beenthere · Sep 8, 2002

I think you and Ozarker are on the right track. And a tractor with 9000 hours on it is probably up there with a car or truck with 250,000 to 300,000 miles on it. The tractor may even have one or two complete overhauls on the engine in that 9000 hours too.

Ozarker · Sep 8, 2002

Perhaps, but trucks are on the highway and operating in a fairly clean environment. Very little stop & go type of driving in a big rig.

Might compare more favorably with local fleet operations such as dump trucks, delivery trucks and city busses.

Kodiak · Sep 8, 2002

Talk about stop and go driving in large trucks. You would have to be talking residential garbage truck operation.

BigDave · Sep 8, 2002

I figured the big rigs would be good since they are diesel and they spend much of their time at a single RPM much like a tractor.

Maybe 20, 30, 40, or 50 mph * 9000 hr would also work depending how the tractor is used.

Mosey · Sep 9, 2002

I agree with Bill in Pgh - “In my mind, I just multiply hours of tractor use by an average MPH”

The tricky part is estimating the average MPH. Sometimes tractors don’t move at all, such as when running an elevator with the PTO. Other times they’re going full speed on the road going from one field to another. If you could get a good estimate of the average MPH, you could get a good estimate of the total miles. Ask the guy what he spent most of his time doing with it and try to estimate the MPH. You’ll only end up with a very rough estimate!

Dobber30052 · Sep 9, 2002

The average mph seems the best to me. If your neighbor REALLY wants to know, have him install an odometer, and after sufficient time/miles have been logged to establish a mph, there you have it! He may be interested in usage as mentioned above, but my guess he's wondering how far he's driven the old beast. When I used to skydive, we logged the height we jumped from, it was kinda interesting to figure how many miles you have "flown".

Dob

PS I have tried to log "covert" hours too, but, my little property won't let me hide very well!! /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Anonymous Poster · Sep 9, 2002

Back in the day when we changed oil every 2000 miles, The rule of thumb was 40 running hours on a machine = 2000 miles.
If you want to believe the new generation of oils are superior, and you only need to change them every 3000 miles, 60 running hours would = 3000 miles.
40 years of following this rule has yet to cause me to rebuild an engine due to oil failure.

nicklan · Sep 9, 2002

It was always my understanding that 1 hr on a hour meter was 60 mph. My Dad always said that. He worked for IH for 26 years. Never comes up in the computer/network world.

As always - mudding up the waters
Nick

chrisjbell · Sep 9, 2002

Well, you see, "covert" miles don't count /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif. Actually converting them would require far more knowledge than I have /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif.

But seriously, I would agree that you have to figure a tractor undergoes pretty hard usage and should be compared to a garbage truck (hey, I haul some nasty stuff in my bucket!) or something like it. 9000 hours? I'd say that in dog years that thing has done its duty and more!

If putting a tractor out to pasture would make it happy I'd do it - but working tractors are happy tractors so as long as it is "the little tractor that can" it is still probably worth some real money. Forget the hours and focus on what the thing can do and how well it does it - I'm sure someone will want it as long as it keeps going.

manganos · Sep 9, 2002

Thanks everyone. He was just wondering to how far he has driven on his 1600 acres.

I'll print out this thread and let him decide

rotr · Sep 15, 2002

Can't stay out of this one!
My car (6 cyl. chevy)
On the hwy, 2000 rpm is roughly 63 mph.
In town, the spirit only knows.
So, if equating to hwy driving miles - 9000 x 63 = 567,000 miles.

in town that is probably (wild guess) about 1/4 of that.