How Many Hours Do You Spend on Your Tractor(s)?

[rockinbbar]

More of a poll, just out of curiosity, more than anything else...

How many hours do you operate your equipment?

A year or so back, I had an issue with a tractor and was talking to the dealer and service manager about it, and asked them if they had seen failures of that model tractor at 1000 hours like mine had... They looked at each other and said they didn't have anyone even close to a thousand hours on that model.

So, how many hours do you put on your tractor?

As a bonus question, location and cab or open station?

 

[paulsharvey]

About 50-60 hours per year is what I'm doing right now; but it's sporadic. It might be 12 hours a month for a bit, maybe more, and then just an hour per week at other times.

Open station, NE/NC FLa, and the heavier use is going to be May through Oct.

I figured I'd put 200 hours per year, but that just isn't the case.

I don't really just ride on it, or take it to check the mail, when it's running, it cause I'm doing something.

 

[paulsharvey]

On a more professional kinda approach; I think people use the 8- 24 hrs/week as a general number for a heavily used piece of heavy equipment; so 400-1200 per year for a money making machine isn't unusual.

Edit: that is more of a construction equipment kinda situation; Ag, you might have a large tillage machine, that gets 16 hrs/day, but only 4 weeks per year; and then smaller machine for chore type work.

 

[EddieWalker]

I have several tractors, and it's not a lot of hours on any of them. My 2003 open station 37hp tractor was my first one that I bought, and I think it's still under a thousand hours after 21 years of owning it.

I got the Deere a couple years ago, and just use it to put round bales out, or dig post holes. It might get 40 hours a year on it. It's 65hp and open station.

My Massey has a cab, and it's super fancy compared to the others. Air seat, AC/Heat, and a Radio. I've spent most of a day in it, but rarely use it two days in a row, and doubt I've ever put more then 20 hours on it in a busy months. I'm just over 100 hours on it in two years.

My backhoe is what I use the most. It's my workhorse. I converted the front bucket to a Quick Attach, so I can put on pallet forks, a grapple, hay spear, or the one yard bucket. I bought it with 1,900 hours in 2003, and today it's just over 8,000 hours

 

[TerryR]

My 28 year old JD 870 has 1500 hours on it.

It's an open station, because I wasn't offered a choice when I bought it. But I've never considered a cab because of all the trees I mow under. And, being retired I can just avoid running it when it's too hot, and delay until it warms a bit when plowing snow.

 

[scootr]

My last tractor got an average of 50 hrs a month over 14 yrs of ranch work. Got a newer Kubota MX5200 last year and put about 250 hrs on it, some hours were hired out for mowing etc. Never had a cab so it sits during the hottest and coldest days.

 

[oldnslo]

When was on dairy farm had 3 tractors put over 500 hrs on each of them. Today around 100 hrs on Branson and 60 - 70 on X540. Hours are dependent on rain fall for mowing and snow fall in winter.

 

[Mtsoxfan]

I run 200 plus hours per year on property management, tree clearing, soil/material handling, brush hogging, snow removal etc. Open station, upper Vermont.
I'm retired, and our property was raw when we bought 4 years ago. I could see that number decreasing in a year or two...

 

[Jstpssng]

I bought mine in 2017 with 175 hours on, it now has around 1050. Annual use depends on what I am doing. I did the 800 hour service on it last fall, so this year has seen more use than other times.

I have a canopy, which is nice on sunny days. I have crunched that on trees often enough that I can't imagine having a full cab.

 

[oosik]

Usually 60 to 75 hours per year. However - because this area has become the - banana belt - it's now down to 20 to 30 per year.

We get up to six inches of snow with a storm - melts in a couple days.