Oil & Fuel Gas guage shot, how long will engine run on one tank

[Mowdyman]

Never had to think about this, but my gas guage on my NH 1520 is shot. Now the question is, how long will it run on a full tank of gas? If I'm not mistaken, the tank holds a little over 7 gallons. Gotta get my deer patches cut and plowed soon and don't want to get stuck on the way back 40.

 

[square1]

You'd be safe using 2 Gal per hour at PTO RPM.

 

[Poopdeck Pappy]

You would know better than anybody else how much fuel your tractor consumes in a given time period. Obviously, it will depend on whether you are running at PTO speed or putting around at barely above idle. I'd keep a 5 gallon diesel can handy and fill it sooner rather than later, and I'd soon have a pretty good idea of how much it uses.

You do NOT want to let it run out of diesel. Unlike gasoline engines, you usually can't just add some diesel and start it up again.

 

[Sprinklerman]

Untill the tank is empty ? I have a tow behind gas compressor , gas gauge never worked , I just carried a 1 gallon can with me , when it ran out I always had enough then to finish , then fill up again .

 

[Leejohn]

Have you heard of sticking a fuel tank? Gas stations had to do it all the time in good old days. Just don't use a match so you can look in it.

 

[GManBart]

Untill the tank is empty ? I have a tow behind gas compressor , gas gauge never worked , I just carried a 1 gallon can with me , when it ran out I always had enough then to finish , then fill up again .

That's a bad practice for a diesel....for several reasons.

 

[Jkott]

Yours is a 35hp tractor? My Boomer 30 is 28hp. I haven't measured very closely, but I'm pretty sure my usage is well under a gallon an hour.

I'd suggest just taking a 5 gallon can with you, use it all morning and then fill it when you stop for lunch. You can pretty easily estimate how much you used from what left in the can and divide by the number of hours to see how long you can go.

Is this tractor new to you? If you start the day full, Have you ever had to fill the tractor in one day because it was out?

If you do let it run dry, make sure you read the manual on how to bleed the pump and injectors and have tools with you

 

[dieselcrawler]

Keeping the tank topped off sounds easy enough to do. Doubt it would run dry in 3-4 hours use, top off the tank, approximately guess how much fuel it took, and when compared to known tank size, you know about how long it could run on a full tank.

 

[SimS]

Not to be a smartazz but it will use the same amount of fuel as it did when the fuel gauge worked. Just try and recall how often you fueled the tractor and take that much fuel with you when you are in the back 40. I like the stick idea in the mean time.

SimS

 

[mguitas]

Have you heard of sticking a fuel tank? Gas stations had to do it all the time in good old days. Just don't use a match so you can look in it.

Do that all of the time on the allis 170, gauge never did work. But it gets the job done.