Washing your tractor

[DiezNutz]

You guys that wash yours once a week or every time it's dirty or whatever... all I can say is you must have a whole lot more free time than I do. When I'm in the middle of a major project with the tractor, I don't have time to keep it clean. It gets cleaned up at the end.

The last time mine was "washed" was this winter plowing snow - which actually does a pretty good job of cleaning it. I am religious about greasing (which requires me to at least clean the zerks) and blowing out the radiator, screens, and grille.

Mud eventually falls off or gets rubbed off if you leave it alone.

 

[gwdixon]

Mud eventually falls off or gets rubbed off if you leave it alone.

Hopefully, this is not the measure of your personal hygiene. :laughing::laughing:

 

[Toyboy]

I don't get it. On one hand you guys drool over someones old abused tractor that has been restored to like new condition. On the other hand a lot of you seem to take pride in not keeping your machine clean.

I don't like junk or any of my cars/truck, tractor, boat or Harley to look like junk. I make sure all of them are kept clean and waxed at least once a year. Guess it's just part of my makeup.

 

[gauthier]

I didn't think you were supposed to wash tractors?

 

[General Lee]

The "newness" hasn't worn off of mine yet. As time goes on, I'm sure I will clean it less. But lately I've been wanting to keep it in tip top shape because of possibly trading up.

 

[TripleR]

I don't get it. On one hand you guys drool over someones old abused tractor that has been restored to like new condition. On the other hand a lot of you seem to take pride in not keeping your machine clean.

I don't like junk or any of my cars/truck, tractor, boat or Harley to look like junk. I make sure all of them are kept clean and waxed at least once a year. Guess it's just part of my makeup.

Don't know that anyone here demonstrated that; just a different view of what a tractor is used for and needed care.

Some of us grew up on tractors working on farms and ranches where the thought of washing a tractor never occurred to anyone after spending ten to fourteen hours a day, every day on one.

Guess that is just part of my makeup.

 

[redka]

I'd like to ask these two questions that I've thought about several times....should I let the engine and radiator cool down to outside temp before spraying cool water on it?
And is it ok to hose the top of the motor?
Thanks

 

[DiezNutz]

Hopefully, this is not the measure of your personal hygiene. :laughing::laughing:

:laughing::laughing: nice one. I'll have you know I typically take 2 showers a day.

I like our vehicles, etc. to be clean also, which is a struggle itself.
Any time I get to spend with the tractor, needs to be spent working the tractor. Maintenance is a necessity, cleanining & waxing is a luxury.

The best thing I do for my tractor is keep it in a garage out of the sun and weather. It will survive being dirty, and whenever I do eventually clean it up, it looks good as new. :thumbsup:

I'm thinking if we conducted a proper survey, we'd find the highest distribution of clean tractors among 2 groups:
1) Tractors with low hours/getting low usage.
2) Retired dudes that have the time.

 

[DiezNutz]

I'd like to ask these two questions that I've thought about several times....should I let the engine and radiator cool down to outside temp before spraying cool water on it?
And is it ok to hose the top of the motor?
Thanks

As a general rule, remove grille and screens and blow the radiator out (from inside) with compressed air. Blow the engine off with compressed air.

Only after you've blown off as much loose debris and dirt as possible, should you think about getting it wet. The last thing you want is a radiator full of mud pie.

And yes, don't spray cold water on a hot engine. It doesn't have to be completely cooled down.

 

[TGF]

I have to agree with TripleR and Deiznuts, I am not sure where you guys find the time to wash your tractor after every hog session or every anything. Usually I get done with the bush hog, or snow removal or tree removal and I am already late to start my next task be it going to work, shooting some rifle with a buddy or working on other stuff in need of maintenance.

 

[TripleR]

:laughing::laughing: nice one. I'll have you know I typically take 2 showers a day.

I like our vehicles, etc. to be clean also, which is a struggle itself.
Any time I get to spend with the tractor, needs to be spent working the tractor. Maintenance is a necessity, cleanining & waxing is a luxury.

The best thing I do for my tractor is keep it in a garage out of the sun and weather. It will survive being dirty, and whenever I do eventually clean it up, it looks good as new. :thumbsup:

I'm thinking if we conducted a proper survey, we'd find the highest distribution of clean tractors among 2 groups:
1) Tractors with low hours/getting low usage.
2) Retired dudes that have the time.

Probably close to being right, but this "retired dude" has been running a tractor until 1900 hours and time/energy is at a premium for me at least.

I was told not to retires as I would have nothing to do and be bored:laughing:

 

[TGF]

I'd like to ask these two questions that I've thought about several times....should I let the engine and radiator cool down to outside temp before spraying cool water on it?
And is it ok to hose the top of the motor?
Thanks

This would make sense. Rapid expansion and contraction of metal is a good thing to avoid when possible. Think of the process of how steel is stress relieved. They heat it up to nice hot temps then slowly cool it to below freezing over 12-24 hours. This process gets ride of weak lines where stress cracks would appear over time. Spraying cold water on a hot engine would be the opposite of this process. Best to let it air cool IMO.

Here is a good site on stress relieving and cryogenic treatment of steel.

http://www.efunda.com/processes/heat_treat/matl_modify/stress_relieving.cfm

 

[DiezNutz]

Probably close to being right, but this "retired dude" has been running a tractor until 1900 hours and time/energy is at a premium for me at least.

I was told not to retires as I would have nothing to do and be bored:laughing:

What's funny is, as I was typing that I was thinking "of course there are exceptions" and you were the first one to pop into my head.

 

[gauthier]

Well,maybe some stress relieving,but stress relieving done in field on weldments you don't bring it down to below freezing,just ambient temp...

Has nothing to do with washing your tractor,just thought I point that out.

 

[Bird]

I'd like to ask these two questions that I've thought about several times....should I let the engine and radiator cool down to outside temp before spraying cool water on it?
And is it ok to hose the top of the motor?
Thanks

I know there are some different opinions, but I've been washing the engines of my cars and trucks since I was 16 years old, and I also washed the engines of my tractors. A little over a week ago, I raised the hoods on both of our vehicles, sprayed everything with Simple Green, then hosed them off. And I don't worry about getting water anywhere it shouldn't be, except that I never spray water where it could enter the engine's air intake. As DiezNutz said, the engine doesn't have to be cold, but I don't hit it with cold water when it's hot either.

Only one time in 54 years has washing engines caused me a problem. Many years ago, my 1970 Oldsmobile wouldn't start after I washed the engine at a coin car wash. Some of you may be old enough to remember when those distributors had a little slide up and open door on the side so you could adjust the dwell with the engine runnnig. I failed to notice that door being open and had gotten water inside the distributor.

Now I do use compressed air to blow off the excess water after washing an engine, and then I always run it long enough to completely warm up and evaporate any remaining moisture.

Just my personal experience; yours may differ.

 

[jimgerken]

I clean my tractor up once a year. At that time I will use the pressure washer very carefully. If you powerwash, you wash out protective greases and oils from everywhere. Then you must take the time to disassemble and clean and dry and relube all that stuff, like 3 point fittings and every simple unsealed bearing area (such as linkage pivot points and even the loader pivot points if you inject water into them in your efforts to get the surface grease off). After growing up on a farm, owning tractors and equipment for years, owning and riding and cleaning and servicing off-road vehicles, I have learned to try real hard to never get equipment wet, like leaving it out in the rain, powerwashing, washing in general. The mud and grease will not hurt it as fast as the rust. A nice alternative cleaning method for dust and even loose dirt, is to use hi pressure air. It won't put a shine on the hood, but after all it is a tractor, not a BMW.

 

[TGF]

Well,maybe some stress relieving,but stress relieving done in field on weldments you don't bring it down to below freezing,just ambient temp...

Has nothing to do with washing your tractor,just thought I point that out.

The question came up as to putting cold water on a hot engine, I personally don't like being told no without some sort of reason behind it, so in a round about sort of way this discussion is thread related.

Its also done on rifle barrels, or at least that's where my experience comes in with it. I have seen several cross sections of steel under a powerful microscope, after stress relief and cryotreatment. The changes in the steel carbon matrix is very interesting. Prior to stress relieve you will have long veins of iron which is where your stress fractures would occur, after they are almost gone. Maybe if I ever reach retirement age I will go back to school and study some metallurgy just out of sheer curiosity.

Obviously several differences between rifles and engines in the sense that a rifle has to with stand 50000+ PSI sometimes for a fraction of a second. Where as an engine maybe much less but several times a second.

 

[TripleR]

What's funny is, as I was typing that I was thinking "of course there are exceptions" and you were the first one to pop into my head.

In all fairness, you did qualify it with "retired dudes who have the time"

I guess in the end it all comes down to priorities and how you view your tractor. My background in farming formed my view of them as tools. I do take pride in ownership, but that applies to my rusty old Ford NAA as well as my still somewhat shiny M8540. My Rhino and Grizzly 700 EPS don't get washed either, but all are well maintained.

 

[ray66v]

Sometimes good intentions do more harm, than good.

There is a guy, or gal, on every street, who washes their vehicle, once a week, and then puts it in the garage.

At a minimum, allow it to sit out in the sun for several hours, and evaporate moisture left in the nooks, and crannies.

Moisture is the mortal enemy of steel; without moisture there is no rust.

 

[wvpolekat]

I hose the big chunks off from time to time, but can't say that I "wash" it.