How many hours is a lot of hours...?

[nards444]

I wasnt willing to really look at anything past 500 hours but I was looking at compact tractors and nothing really past 1000 hours at all. Really wasnt the hours in relation to the engine that was my problem, although have heard these small diesel engines 4000 hours or so is about all you get, just what I heard.

Anyways on the compact side when you started looking at hours say 500 or more, generally you were looking at something that was getting old, doesnt mean bad, but from what I found is you start see rust, things broke, and just home owner abuse over the years. I also quickly found out in tractors the used market wasnt worth it in price, the better purchase was buying new and thats the way I went.

 

[Tonyinohio]

Our commercial mower fleet (200+ gas powered 60" deck mowers) all comfortably run past 2000 hours with 100 hour oil change intervals. Typical 750 hour seasons so they are traded in around 3 seasons max. These run 3600 rpm nonstop.

These CUT diesel engines run low rpm's so 4000 hours should be a given, however.....

We also have 30 CAT skidsteers for mostly winter snow work. Since they sit waiting for snow in the elements all year they have tons of problems. Lease ended so we traded them in at 3 years, less than 1000 hours, lots of electronic and turbo issues.

 

[kthompson]

Ditto ... !!!! I've seen piece of excrement tractors that only had 100-200 hours. You can bend a lot of linkages, burn out a clutch, and generally ruin something fairly quickly. There are probably folks out there that try to destroy stuff just so they can get a better case out of getting their money back on what they conceive as their ' lemon ' tractor. Lots of folks buy a tractor and are clueless in how to drive/care for it, and probably some that just don't care. I personally know someone that drove his shinny new tractor around with the emergency brake on. And I cuss him out each time I see him in the mirror.

Hard to believe there are people like that, however there are and some post here.

 

[5030]

Hard to believe there are people like that, however there are and some post here.

No chit..........

 

[5030]

Just had my Kubota dealer completely go through my 2002 open station M9. Checked compression, adjusted the overhead, spray tested the injectors, checked it all over and replaced some electrical components that need replacing. I use it to farm with and it has over 3500 hours on the meter. Everything checks out as it should. They put it on the PTO dyno and it's making 89 PTO horsepower at rated (2100) rpm. It's supposed to be (by Kubota specs), 83 pto.

I'm expecting at least 10K hours before a motor rebuild, maybe more as it gets serviced (by me) on the recommended service intervals or sooner, usually sooner than later. One thing I thought was telling is, I was there when the Kubota tech pulled the valve cover. At 3500 hours, there was absolutely NO blowby or sludge in the valve cover or on the horizontal head surfaces. None, and I ran my finger over the top of the head between the valves to see if there was any deposits. Nothing.

The unit has had a steady diet of 5-40 Rotella T6 for the last 7 years and before that 15-40 Rotella T3. I always use Kubota filters too. No aftermarket. Genuine Kubota filters are not that much more expensive than aftermarket filters.

Compression was within spec, injector delivery pressure within spec, spray pattern perfect too. I use Powerservice grey bottle in the winter, white in the summer and Archoil fuel supplement too.

Very happy with the results.


Next comes my M9000 Cab tractor (next fall). It's due for an overhead adjustment as well.

 

[LouNY]

One thing to consider is that most of the newer equipment is on clock hours,
all the older equipment with the hour meter incoorporated in the tachometer the hours are at engine rated rpm.
There will be a considerable difference on a unit with 5000 hrs at pto speed as a unit with 5000 clock hours.
I suppose I should put a disclaimer in here, typically operated farm tractor, as I have no idea how many small tractor
operators run them on the governor constantly. On the farm tractors that I operate the clock hours accumulate at least twice as fast
as the old engine hours do.

 

[aczlan]

I have never been able to use a tractor enough to wear one out but at work we have worn out a couple of forklifts one with a 4 cylinder perkins diesel it was still doing a 45 hours every week when we sold it but getting slower at 22,000 engine hours and another forklift with a ford 5000 tractor engine went 15,000 hours and is now just a standby machine getting occasional use

We have numerous forklifts at work (mostly Toyota LP forklifts) that are at 10,000-18,000 clock hours.
IMO, regular maintenance, working them hard enough to keep them at a good operating temp and not abusing them are the keys.

Aaron Z

 

[goeduck]

One thing to consider is that most of the newer equipment is on clock hours,
all the older equipment with the hour meter incoorporated in the tachometer the hours are at engine rated rpm.
There will be a considerable difference on a unit with 5000 hrs at pto speed as a unit with 5000 clock hours.

^^^^ along with that to consider is if a used tractor with a mechanical meter has a gear transmission. Gear transmissions tend to be run at lower RPMs. HSTs are run at higher RPM. But as has been said, condition and care are the most important things to look for.

 

[jjp8182]

I would think the average user may put 75-125 hours per year on a tractor(if used year round).So the year x say 100 hrs.would be average use.Conditon and maintenance also comes into play.
Mine is right on the formula;1300 hours in ten years.
Recently heard of a very similar tractor as mine with 8,000 hours;I would guess used commercially.

Personally I starting getting uncomfortable when the hours average out to be less than that since it starts begging the question: how was the fuel (and other fluids) treated for storage, and how was it stored?

A ten year old tractor with only a 100 hours on it which has been parked outside the entire time would concern me far more than a 5-10 year old tractor with 1000+ hours on it (especially if it was being properly maintained and stored inside).

 

[aczlan]

For comparison, we have a 2005 Yukon which has about 180k miles and about 5400 hours.
That averages out to about 33 miles per hour to clock run time.
So, a tractor with 2000 hours would be like a car with around 66,000 miles.
A tractor with 10,000 hours would be like a car (or truck) with 330,000 miles.

Aaron Z