Hour meter operation??

[jinman]

Back in the early 90s, I rented a Kubota with a mechanical fuel cutoff lever. I discovered early on that the hour meter would stop if I turned off the key, but the engine would keep going. If I had wanted to run the tractor for more than 8 hours per day, all I had to do was shut off the key and keep going.

 

[Soundguy]

Lets have both, then you will know if the hours where put on with lots of idling or lots of wide open throttle.

On the 399 if you shut the key off it doesn't count any hours.

When did we get the new smilies? I like 'em. :thumbsup:

I've seen quite a few units with both mechanicalproof meters and electrical clocks. some cat equipment has a clock that runs whenever the battery key is on, whether or not the main ignition key is on..

soundguy

 

[Soundguy]

Back in the early 90s, I rented a Kubota with a mechanical fuel cutoff lever. I discovered early on that the hour meter would stop if I turned off the key, but the engine would keep going. If I had wanted to run the tractor for more than 8 hours per day, all I had to do was shut off the key and keep going.

mechanical oil pressure gauge or idiot lamp? if mechanical gauge you'd be good to go.. if lamp.. many are key on only..

soundguy

 

[brandoro]

One time that I happened to notice last summer I ran the B3030 almost exactly five hours but mostly about 1800RPM running the BH and rolled up a bit less than 3 hours on the meter. It does seem a lot closer to clock time when I am mowing or some other job running PTO speed. I'll have to check it when I have a PTO RPM job and see how close it is.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Not that this is tractor related but most every small airplane I have flow has had a hour meter that comes on as soon as the master electrical switch is turned on. They also have tach hour meters that accumulate 1 hour at XXXX rpm. Guess how they charge you when you rent them? They do the maintenance by the tach meter.

The jet and turbo prop airplanes use a weight off wheels method. So you could sit on the ground with the engines running for eternity and not rack up a single hour but as soon as the weight comes off the wheels it starts counting.

Chris

 

[Bedlam]

What was that song, from 1970? "Signs" by Five Man Electrical Band

"Sign Sign everywhere a sign
Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign "

YouTube - Signs, signs everywhere a sign!!

 

[varmint]

Ah! This thread answers my earlier question about my B8200 tach- it is a tach that reads one hour for one hour at rated RPM, which is suppose is the 540 PTO speed of 2600 engine RPM. I can see how engine speed would relevant to engine hours, but long idle periods would require survice, too.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Ah! This thread answers my earlier question about my B8200 tach- it is a tach that reads one hour for one hour at rated RPM, which is suppose is the 540 PTO speed of 2600 engine RPM. I can see how engine speed would relevant to engine hours, but long idle periods would require survice, too.

This is why I would never buy a contractors truck, old police car, fire truck, ect. Too much idling that is not accounted for.

Chris

 

[dfkrug]

There is one more wrinkle to this (not to beat a dead horse).

My first tractors used cable-driven hour meters (Kubota), so even
turning off the starter switch would allow hours to add up if the engine
was running (no shut-off solenoid).

The JD4300 I am rebuilding had an electronic hour meter that had failed,
and the instr cluster got its signal from the alternator. This implied that the
hour meter could be engine speed related OR just a real hour indicator. It
would be easy to make the JD hour meter count pulses, like the electronic
tach does, to read "hours" like the old cable-driven meters did. I don't
know what JD did there as my factory meter was DOA. I added a
"proof meter" that works off the battery signal thru the starter switch.

As SOUNDGUY indicated, the owner's manual should tell you how the hour
meters work, but none of mine do.

I don't know how often these LCD electronic meters fail, but there sure
is valuable info lost if they do! This applies to your road vehicle too. I
don't know anyone who has had a LCD odometer fail (yet).

 

[RobertN]

Some fire engines have odometer and hour meter. On scene, you may be running while scene lights and stuff are on. The midship pump runs with the tranny in gear; I do not remember if it shows as miles.

One of our engines has extra hours on it; almost 10. Does not seem like much, but that was one incident. Engine/Medic responded to medic call; person had been shot. The shooter was still thee, and threatened. Medic unit was able to drive away; logistics required abandoning the engine for crew safety so they literally ran from the scene. Was hours before they could go back in. Person was holed up for a while, shot Deputies, before all was done(person finally shot themself). Bad call to be on... Still, would be on the hour meter.

And, it would be FUN to have an old late 50's American LaFrance Hours or not

This is why I would never buy a contractors truck, old police car, fire truck, ect. Too much idling that is not accounted for.

Chris