Tractor idiling running woodsplitter

[bigtiller]

OH... Good Question.
Modern engines don't do it much if at all but older diesels did - especially if cold or running too slow. And also when burning heavy #2 diesel fuel.
When it happens, you won't forget it.
The engine will cough about twice and then spit a load of black wet sloppy half burned diesel blobs out the exhaust and up into the air to shower you and the work.

That's why I hang out here, to learn things. Thanks for posting.

 

[newbury]

Ignorant question...

someone does work at lower rpm...how do they ascertain that they've wet stacked or not? cant see cylinders, engine isnt talking... ??

Like rScotty wrote. When you see a bunch of wet coming out of the stack it's wet stacked.
I use to see it happen on 25KW generators run by the Army in Germany. The guys would shut down all the equipment that was supposed to be using the generator, let it idle for hours, then it would start throwing up.

 

[Richard]

so if you have wet stacked, you can fix it by revving up, maybe add some load or???

is or can it be damaging or just a mess?

 

[dkmc]

One way to correct the issue is to install a flow control on the tractor hydraulic system. Not easy but flow to aux port can be adjusted down then throttle increased. Load on engine will still be light given application...

 

[Gordon Gould]

People over here tend to spend loads of hours splitting wood with the tractor barely above idle, without any issues.

I really like that foot pedal control on the splitter - something to think about !

gg

 

[oosik]

I don't have a wood splitter. I have a Wallenstein PTO chipper. BX62S. When I chip the tractor is run at 2140 rpm. That's 540 rpm at the PTO. I will run the chipper for two or two and a half hours at a time. The tractor will be at 2140 rpm that entire time. I will be pulling pine trees off a previously stacked pile of trees.

Then it's time for a break. I will turn the tractor OFF during the break.

Pretty simple - huh???

 

[ptsg]

I really like that foot pedal control on the splitter - something to think about !

gg

Definitely! In my opinion, it helps speeding up the process, as you now have two free hands to handle the split wood.

I'm converting mine to foot pedal as we speak.

 

[DieselBound]

There's RPM and then there's load... At some point too little/too much is an issue. My generator plugs along at 1,800 rpm but the load varies depending on electrical demand/load. I'd think that the same thing happens with splitters, though, perhaps, in shorter bursts.

 

[Beaver Cove Deere]

I had an oil analysis done when I changed the oil last spring. I normally didn’t care much about idling and did it a lot warming up the oils before going out in single digit temps but no more of that nonsense as the report spelled it right out in Red.
Too much idling was diluting the engine oil.
Now I give it a minute or two and suffer in a cold cab for a while bundled up till it warms up and I get down to my tee shirt.

 

[DieselBound]

^^^ Yup, and there's that!

I wait only until I know the hydraulics are flowing well enough (HST).

 

[dodge man]

I’ve never been a fan of idling anything for long periods of time, including warm ups and cool downs. Just a minute or two for warm up and take it easy a few minutes if it’s cold out. For cool down, you don’t want to shut the thing off after working it hard like when mowing heavy grass, especially a turbo engine but a 10 minute cool down isn’t normally needed either.

Wet stacking and diluted oil? Seems like that’s going to be more of a problem this time of year especially this time of year when it’s old out.

 

[grsthegreat]

I worry about idling a turbo diesel, not too worried about non turbos though.

 

[mini14]

I idle my skidsteer and tlb for many hours and the thermostat cycles like it's supposed to.

 

[zzvyb6]

OH... Good Question.
Modern engines don't do it much if at all but older diesels did - especially if cold or running too slow. And also when burning heavy #2 diesel fuel.
When it happens, you won't forget it.
The engine will cough about twice and then spit a load of black wet sloppy half burned diesel blobs out the exhaust and up into the air to shower you and the work.

You just ruined my coffee.

 

[beenthere]

WI'll running a woodsplitter at idle (800) rpm for a couple hours hurt my engine on a newholland t4020

Likely won't hurt it, but will cause wear and tear. Maybe, maybe not, be more expensive than a small 8hp engine.

 

[ArtMech]

In my opinion, if engine idle speed is enough to keep running a hydraulic pump which feeds splitter cylinder, then everything is fine. More or less it's the load.
Usually diesels do not like maximum RPMs.
At idle they may not fully burn fuel mixture, but if later you will give it some more use of power for more heavy jobs, then it'll be okey. You'll simply blow out the soot accumulated in the muffler at higher RPMs.

 

[SmallChange]

My New Holland WM25 manual includes this step while operating the geared transmission to start the tractor in motion (their bolding):

2) Move the hand throttle lever (2) forward until the engine speed is above 1500 RPM.

They don't elaborate on why. There's also a note about not lugging the engine during the first 50 hours. They explain "lugging" means operating the engine under such a load that increasing the fuel cannot increase engine speed.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Another day today, powering my PTO splitter for several hours,

and once again, my tractor just chugged along sipping fuel slooowly, making me money. lol

SR