Doesn't eat much

[Highbeam]

"If you don't already, try taking the loader off when you mow. Much easier to turn and I found that I was able to cut in high range part of the time without bogging down when hitting heavy wet grass. I just needed to back off the peddle a bit and slow down. Seems to help the fuel consumption also"

That's due to the aerodynamics! The loader weighs over 1000 lbs so it would help your gph. The trouble is that the loader protects the low slung tie rod from hidden obstacles. If you know the area is obstacle free and that your front end won't be too light without the FEL ballast then it might be worth the hassle of taking it off. It sure feels funny driving around without a loader.

I just noticed that my diesel barrel is nearly empty again. Dangit. Now I need to refill that bugger with fresh red fuel. I've got a three day weekend of work grading and I just know that a full tractor tank and 3 jerry cans will only just barely cut the mustard.

 

[malk315]

Good point -- I do mow w/ the loader and haven't taken it off yet. Good excuse to take it off and make comparisons.

My tires are loaded -- so I imagine the front may feel light w/o the loader, but I figure since it's a mid-mount deck instead of an RFM, that should help. The deck is 400 lbs according to specs. If the front feels too light, I'll figure out a way to ballast the front a bit or see what Kioti sells.

It is a bit much that I mow w/ a tractor w/ loaded tires, but I figure the compacting of the soil I'm doing is a good excuse to get the aerator. Kioti's own aerator is a competitive price and I won't be using it commercially, so I think it would be a good balance of heavy duty implement high use versus cheap implement use it once or twice a year.

I'll do some measurements of fuel consumption with and w/o loader. I sure would love to be able to keep the pedal all the way down when mowing uphill.

Part of the point of getting the Kioti over the wheel horse machine I had was the loader can be removed and installed by myself (no helper needed) and without tools. So now I'll take advantage.

I'll report my results.

 

[dn58]

I've pretty much got the loader down to on or off in 5 minutes or less. The area I mow is fairly smooth (as smooth as an old field can be), with no large rocks to run over. There's not much danger of hitting anything. I have a rear finish mower, and I do notice that the front end is a little "lively" when the mower is off the ground, but it's fine when it's down and cutting.

 

[IslandTractor]

I've never seen anyone on the Kioti forum discuss suitcase weights. Those might be handy if mowing without the FEL. Anyone got other solutions to add 100lbs or so to the brush guard to compensate?

 

[gladehound]

According to the Kioti site, my engine does the most work per gallon at about 2000-2200 rpm. So I rarely run above that. I recon that at 2800 rpm it would burn up about 50% more fuel in an hour based on the chart. When I can, I run a 1500 RPM to save fuel and enjoy the more mellow exhaust not at that rpm. I'm sure if I ran at rated speed all the time I'd use twice the fuel. As it is, the tank seems to last a while. I wouldn't be surprised if I am getting over 10 hours per 5.5 gal. tank. My 16hp gassoline zero turn uses more gas per hour for sure. But I run that wide open all the time.