Do backyard tractors need grease?

[Torvy]

why would a manufacturer include a grease zerk if it was not necessary to grease a given machine, backyard or commercial use? don't understand the question

I hear you, but to be fair, my cars have nuts all over the place. Only a few are really intended for user maintenance. If you don't know, ask the question. I tell students this a great deal...they don't listen, ergo they don't learn as much.

 

[78WHALEYVILLE]

This past year, I bought a John Deere, full-sized backhoe instead of a backyard Deere, Kubota or New Holland.

Knowing nothing about them, I had to jump into the deep end of the pool, to learn about operating, maintenance and repair.

The first thing I learned was that grease was the center point of backhoe ownership. My unit has nearly 45 grease fittings on the front end loader, the backhoe arm, the drive shaft, and the steering. And those fittings have to be greased every 8 hours of use. If you are using the unit for 8 solid hours, experts even suggest greasing every four hours. If the unit sits, unused, you still need to grease regularly to get the water out of the joints. I ended up buying a Milwaukee electric grease gun, and two cases of mining grease. It takes an entire tube of grease to do the entire 310.

I've never heard backyard or farm guys talking about grease though. My friends who own Kubotas or Deeres never grease them when they have been working around my property, and I've never heard the obsessive grease talk that occurs on heavy equipment forums on tractor forums.

Do home and farm tractors not need grease? Do these tractors come with sealed pins and bushings? Or do farm and home guys just not bother?

Enquiring minds want to know.

When compared to the cost of machinery, grease is CHEAP.

 

[Tinhack]

Not all Zerks are for grease. My Bridgeport mill has Zerks all over and NONE are for grease--They're used to inject Way Oil.

 

[Martin Roper]

This past year, I bought a John Deere, full-sized backhoe instead of a backyard Deere, Kubota or New Holland.

Knowing nothing about them, I had to jump into the deep end of the pool, to learn about operating, maintenance and repair.

The first thing I learned was that grease was the center point of backhoe ownership. My unit has nearly 45 grease fittings on the front end loader, the backhoe arm, the drive shaft, and the steering. And those fittings have to be greased every 8 hours of use. If you are using the unit for 8 solid hours, experts even suggest greasing every four hours. If the unit sits, unused, you still need to grease regularly to get the water out of the joints. I ended up buying a Milwaukee electric grease gun, and two cases of mining grease. It takes an entire tube of grease to do the entire 310.

I've never heard backyard or farm guys talking about grease though. My friends who own Kubotas or Deeres never grease them when they have been working around my property, and I've never heard the obsessive grease talk that occurs on heavy equipment forums on tractor forums.

Do home and farm tractors not need grease? Do these tractors come with sealed pins and bushings? Or do farm and home guys just not bother?

Enquiring minds want to know.

YES. Most people coming to do a job grease the machine before leaving their yard so they can do any other jobs that turn up that need doing at the same time. Yes grease it or wear it out prematurely.

 

[ljjhouser]

My Kubota says grease every 10 hours. So I do that. I think in commercial business, this is a big problem, most contractors use a mobile lub service to make sure it is done. Cheaper that having a equipment operator mess with it. The machine is ready to go when the operator shows up.

 

[redman135]

Hello rogersmithiii, you will hear stories by the dozen anbout worn joints that died of grease stavation, you won't hear about a joint dieing of grease poisoning.

Cost of down time and repair vs cost of grease = no brainer.

 

[Andrew007]

This past year, I bought a John Deere, full-sized backhoe instead of a backyard Deere, Kubota or New Holland.

Knowing nothing about them, I had to jump into the deep end of the pool, to learn about operating, maintenance and repair.

The first thing I learned was that grease was the center point of backhoe ownership. My unit has nearly 45 grease fittings on the front end loader, the backhoe arm, the drive shaft, and the steering. And those fittings have to be greased every 8 hours of use. If you are using the unit for 8 solid hours, experts even suggest greasing every four hours. If the unit sits, unused, you still need to grease regularly to get the water out of the joints. I ended up buying a Milwaukee electric grease gun, and two cases of mining grease. It takes an entire tube of grease to do the entire 310.

I've never heard backyard or farm guys talking about grease though. My friends who own Kubotas or Deeres never grease them when they have been working around my property, and I've never heard the obsessive grease talk that occurs on heavy equipment forums on tractor forums.

Do home and farm tractors not need grease? Do these tractors come with sealed pins and bushings? Or do farm and home guys just not bother?

Enquiring minds want to know.

Just give each nipple two pumps prior to use, that will be fine for whatever you do. Just make sure both pumps go in

 

[Sidney71]

They pot those Zerk fittings there for a reason- . If you don't the grease in the fittings will get hard and you can't push it out with a conventional grease gun. You will then have to replace the fittings. As someone else said in an earlier post- grease is cheaper than parts .

 

[Sberry]

Sticky black bear shat for pins and bushings and pretty pink for stuff goes round and round.

 

[Greench]

Lock n Lube should be a law. Those are awesome, especially the long-reach ones. I too have extra fittings to reach something the locknlube can't. The first thing I taught my boys was that you are never lucky enough to finish greasing a tractor, bush hog or backhoe on the last pump. That grease gun better not be empty because that means two things. One, you left my freaking grease gun empty. Two, you did not finish greasing what you were greasing.