My John Deere would only go 6 hours of mowing on a tank which was really irritating having to fill up 2 or 3 times in a day. I haven't run my MF hard yet but I get around 20 hours to a tank manure spreading and loader work. The MF has 30 more hp, is a lot bigger/heavier but so far uses slightly less fuel then the John Deere. 180L tank.
How many hrs before refuel?
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AxleHub
Elite Member
Greetings Niko,
Its commonly known that you don't run any car, truck, or tractor out of fuel. In the automotive side . . its very hard on fuel pumps because gas acts as a coolant to the pump . . as well as keeping tank sludge from clogging filters.
But with diesel relating to cars/trucks and tractors/construction equipment . . its ALSO about bleeding the lines.
My cousin and I were just talking the other day . . . he has run tractors and skidsteers for 30 years and has never run dry and never will because its a problem.
Now in the Massey GC1700 series its common knowledge that the tank fuel indicator hardly moves the first 2 quarter indicators and when you get to the lower 3rd quarter indicator . . it will not be long before empty because the last "quarter tank" is not 25% left and empties much much faster. And remember any fuel tank of any gas or diesel unit doesn't need to be completely dry to start sucking air into the fuel lines.
If you read your manual . . It describes how the fuel filter gets changed and that is the start of the air bleed process also.
Now some responded with some extreme descriptions . . the GC1700s aren't that bad . . but I as yet have never gotten down below the 1/4 tank level and have no desire to EVER experience running dry.
Also . . . never ever use starting fluid . . a diesel engine is not designed like gas engines. You have glow plugs which are hot . . and starting fluid and hot glowplugs can create unexpected detonations.
JMHO
Axlehub
KennyG
Elite Member
As others say, running out of fuel is never a good idea. Whether or not you can restart it is dependent on engine design. Older designs almost uniformly required bleeding the systems. One of the advertising points of newer John Deere models (at least with the Yanmar engine) is that you can restart after running out of fuel without manual bleeding. I don't intend to ever put it to the test though.
NewLight
Bronze Member
I'm refilling between 10 and 12 hours om my Massey. That's about how long it takes for the fuel gauge to start moving around. I'm always on some degree of an incline so there's no good way of telling what the fuel level really is. It always looks half full when I take the fill cap off, though it's likely not. I'm not sure about my Kubota, the fuel gauge on it is quite accurate so that's all I ever watch on it.
What he said… "Whether or not you can restart it is dependent on engine design. " But I don't plan to find out either.
It was a royal PITA with an '82 Peugeot 504D wagon I had for a while. The fuel filter housing had an arm on the top of it that you worked up & down as a pump. Took a long time to purge all the air out. Newer engines may not be that way, however-- that 504D was strictly old-school, with indirect injection, Ricardo pre-combustion chambers and a strictly mechanical Bosch injection pump.
If I run my GC for more than an hour, I simply top off the tank, but I've found that it only takes a gallon --or less-- to mow my whole lawn, about an hour-and-a-half job; it actually uses less fuel than the 2-stroke Toro push mower I used to use. (And does a better job!) Snowblowing will definitely use more fuel, but again, I top it off after each use.
It was a royal PITA with an '82 Peugeot 504D wagon I had for a while. The fuel filter housing had an arm on the top of it that you worked up & down as a pump. Took a long time to purge all the air out. Newer engines may not be that way, however-- that 504D was strictly old-school, with indirect injection, Ricardo pre-combustion chambers and a strictly mechanical Bosch injection pump.
If I run my GC for more than an hour, I simply top off the tank, but I've found that it only takes a gallon --or less-- to mow my whole lawn, about an hour-and-a-half job; it actually uses less fuel than the 2-stroke Toro push mower I used to use. (And does a better job!) Snowblowing will definitely use more fuel, but again, I top it off after each use.
