idleing tractor for awhile

criddlesperger · Feb 17, 2011

i am building a house and using the tractor alot, when i idle the tractor should i leave the powershift and the transmission both in neutral it is a ym2010. thanks

beenthere · Feb 17, 2011

Either/or will/should work, with the park brake on.

BurningBushFarm · Feb 17, 2011

So is it better to leave it idling than shut it off?

beenthere · Feb 18, 2011

Didn't think that was the OP's question.

But would be a decision to make. Depends for me, and there is no rule of thumb for every instance.

Gary Fowler · Feb 18, 2011

Mechanically it doesnt make any difference. Safety wise, it might be better to take it out of gear also. When I park my Yanmar 4220 for any reason that I leave it running, I lower the FEL bucket hard down so it raises the front tires a bit, just so it doesnt wander off just for safety sake. It is so easy to bump the shift lever when getting back on. Whenever I park it, I take it out of gear for safety since mine will crank with it in gear and without clutch depressed. I just keep the habit of shifting the gear shift to neutral just in cas the powershift gets left or bumped into gear. As for idleing times, I will shut mine down if I am going to be off it for more than a few minutes. I dont think you will hurt a diesel by letting it idle, it will blow out a bunch of carbon when you rev it up after setting for a while idling, so it does carbon up a bit. Truckers leave them idling when they stop for meals etc and those with sleeper leave them idling all night while they run the AC to keep cool so I would say as for idling, not problem. We used to have an old D17 Allis Chalmers that never would start right and had to be pulled off nearly everytime. We pulled it off every morning and it ran till we quit at night, sometimes idling for more than an hour at lunch. Never hurt it any.

California · Feb 18, 2011

I usually shut the engine off, for safety.

Several times I've gotten the gearshift lever up my pants leg halfway through dismounting. A stumble at that point could be deadly. It starts easily so shutdown/restart is simple.

The manual says always shut it off before dismounting.

normde2001 · Feb 18, 2011

BurningBushFarm said:
So is it better to leave it idling than shut it off?

Idling causes carbon build-up, not a good thing.

clemsonfor · Feb 18, 2011

The shut down would be after a cool down high idle was done. Sayif you just got off the bushhog, let it idle for a few mins at like 1300rpms then shut it down so all the internal hot parts equalize to a cooler temp.

criddlesperger · Feb 18, 2011

i'm on and off of it so much figured it would be easier on it. just didn't know if i should put the trans and powershift both in neutral, didn't know if it would still pump hyd fluid to all the internals this way. thanks