Washing your tractor

[123rday]

I have tried rinsing it a couple of times, but with the hard water just seems to leave bigger spots.:confused2: But after my last job where I replaced the roof on a lean to in a barn yard, I had my son give it a good hosing. I didn't think my 3038e would have seen any farm use as well as the benefits of cheap fertilizer.:laughing:

 

[oldballs]

Mr Bird in Texas,
I, too, used to wash my car/truck engines back in the 60s and 70s, but quit doing that when I bought new 1999s. They have so many electronics, modules, sensors etc that I don't do that anymore. I've been just hand wiping and using compressed air. Of course, now that i'm one of those old retired geezers, a. I don't drive that much anymore. b. hardly every get off a paved road. Thus there's lots of time to fiddle with my BX...but it rarely needs more that wipe down and compressed air. IMHO.

 

[gauthier]

I have owned three tractors,never ever washed one of them,blowed them off with air,,alot,cleaned lights with a rag,but never washed,,,same with lawnmowers,,,now never had mud from head to toe on one either,maybe if that was the case,I might,,had mud on them don't get me wrong,,just not to that washing point.[for me]

 

[willfick]

I washed Mr. Haney, my old Farmall, back in 2003 when he was going to be in a parade. I've committed to taking him to the same event again (Coon Dog Day, Saluda, N.C.) in 2013; I imagine he'll need another bath. Maybe a spritz of paint here and there, too.
Old Stoney, the backhoe, gets cleaned as needed for maintenance. He got a new clutch last winter; that took a lot of power washing and soot scraping.
Wm

 

[Tig]

When I first got the tractor I cleaned the engine with a tooth brush. I keep it up by wiping with a rag. The rest of it gets "washed" with a broom. After snowblowing season it's pretty clean.
I'll do better, someday, I guess.

 

[Rogator]

Isn't it in the manual??? Every ten years or 1000 hours???

I'll let you know if it gets washed.... I have not done it, yet... five years and counting.


.

In your profile you said your pto dosent always shut off.
Maybe its full of dirt.

 

[johnamon]

I wash the 2320 three or four times a year, unless I get it real dirty. It gets waxed once, maybe twice a year.

Today for the first time since we have had the tractor, four years, I tool off the wheels/tires, scrubbed both sides, and sprayed on a nice coat of tire shine.

Almost every time I mow I blow it off, under the hood and radiator included.

 

[teg]

In your profile you said your pto dosent always shut off.
Maybe its full of dirt.

Oops... corrected that Thanks... The cable that turns it on and off broke a little while ago and has been replaced with a new bracket and cable, it's been working fine since. It hasn't seen that much dirt... 2005 model with 250 hours... :ashamed: The cable is a poor design but that's just my opinion...

 

[clemsonfor]

I sprayed the pollen off with water once or twice, to get the yellow haze of off it and so i was not covered from touching it. When real dusty or seedy i hose it off, not washed it yet but i only had it like month and its under cover mostly. Heck i dont even wash my vehicles much more than once or twice a year and never more than the pressure washer on the onld k10 and i have had it 6 years, i spray the mud off the under side to slow rusting, and it stays under a shed.

 

[dave1949]

I use the same procedures as Bird and Ray66v more or less. I hose my tractor off a couple times a summer, clean the radiator fins out a bit. I try to keep it clean enough to see everything clearly and it's not a pain to do maintenance. I do enough bush hogging in deep stuff that the underside is always shiny.

I hose it off on a nice sunny day with a breeze, let it air dry. Then I start it up and run it to cook off any remaining moisture around the engine. The dryer the better. My tractor is always parked in the garage at the end of the day, even if it is mud-caked from backhoe work.

Someday - I need to tackle the grease globs around my loader pins. Some of those are not easy to wipe clean since they are back inside a channel. Simply Green and a pressure washer would be the way to go on those I think.
Dave.

 

[Cat_Driver]

WOW! I don't think I have ever seen WASHED and TRACTOR in the same sentence in my life!

When it rains the tractor gets washed and here in the Desert that means the tractor gets washed once every couple of years whether it needs it or not.

 

[Wacky]

Wash mine every time I use it for mowing, which is every week.....that is until the wreck.

 

[TrippleT]

I wash mine and give it a waxing ever once in a while. It helps to find issues as one post said. I have found things that need attention every once in a while if I wash it and wax it.

 

[Earl Ohl]

I wash mine and give it a waxing ever once in a while. It helps to find issues as one post said. I have found things that need attention every once in a while if I wash it and wax it.

Yep, gotta agree here. Before retirement, I was a school bus mechanic for almost 27yrs. One thing we used to do when school was out for summer is pressure wash all engines & chassis. You'd be surprised at some of the stuff (defects, damage) you find pressure washing that you may not see otherwise because it's covered with dirt or grease. When I pressure washed, I used to have some plastic bags available to cover water sensitive items like alternators & electronics. Also, a good lubrication is absolutely necessary immediately afterwards to chase the water out of the grease joints. And don't forget to run that engine till it's up to normal temperature also.

 

[jesnic]

Earl, great advice to run after washing. The only time I ever washed my tractor was after using it to pull another stuck tractor out of the mud. I pressure washed it and left it overnight only to find the clutch had stuck. I had to start in gear and drive slamming the brakes and dropping the bush hog quickly to unstick. If I ever wash it again, I will keep the pressure washer nozzle away from the clutch area and start after washing and run it to chase away water. Maybe even leave a slight slope so water can drain.

 

[MoreCowbell]

Aside from making sure my radiator and HST are clear of debris, I really don't clean the tractor. However, I do go pretty crazy about washing my MMM after mowing. I don't want all those wet clippings caked on it and rusting it out. Regardless if the weather is rainy or dry, the clippings hold a lot of water and I like to hose them off right away. I then turn the blades back on and go to full throttle to blow as much of the water away as possible.

 

[Retro]

I'll take an air compressor to mine every now and then and wash it a couple times a year when it really gets grimy. When I wash I am also looking for maintenance issues to take care. Also do that when I'm greasing the FEL and other points.

-A

 

[MiserableOldFart]

I've found this thread interesting. I wash my tractor once a year and wax it then as well. I might occasionally hose it off when dusty or muddy, but I don't really consider that a washing. Spent an entire day washing and waxing the tractor, FEL (which I have never taken off) and the brush hog finishing mower and painting the loader bucket in hopes to cut down on the sticking snow in the winter.. After that, and washing and waxing my car and attempting to clean the deck on the house by hand I decided to get a pressure washer. I went to Lowes, Home Depot and Sears, but the only model I liked was at HD and it was too expensive and too big to fit in my car (My 24 year old pickup is too old and crotchety to take the 50 miles or so to get there.) So I ordered one online and it's on its way. Hope it gets here in time to do the deck as the days dwindle down to a precious few lol. Anyway, armed with that, I expect to wash the tractor more often. Waxing is important for me because I don't have a garage or barn for it, so it's really a necessity, and I should be doing it more than once a year. I wanted a Cat pump model, but had to settle on an AR pumped model with a 5 hp Biggs engine because that was what they had in stock. It's a triplex plunger type and I hope it will outlast me, though I also hope to last for awhile myself..