What do you consider to be high hours?

[dragoneggs]

The imagery tractor in discussion has 4000 hours. That's pretty heavy use compared to the average TBN user.

Can't argue with that... my little BX has 330hrs of hard use. Still looks, acts great, but I do take care of it. If I get 4000hrs of this kind of abuse, I'm happy!

 

[olPete]

My main girl clicked over 7860 today while i was mucking around cleaning and maintaining my silage gear in the rain. She's had hours and hours of everything, and still on the original brakes.. it all comes down to exactly what hours you think is high. I will probably look at something newer than 1992 for the next one, but she'll stay. I'd say another 40 years will be hard enough to find parts

 

[tcartwri]

We rented a large stationary generator years ago that showed 40,000 hours. It did smoke quite a bit though.

I was talking to a diesel tech who was getting ready to install a new power unit in a ferry and he said it had over 100,000 hours on it.... i thought I heard wrong, so I asked him again. He explained that they were going to have to replace the motor with a tier 4 diesel for north of $1M.... Thus the ferry owners persistence in maintaining the old unit.

 

[aarolar]

My main girl clicked over 7860 today while i was mucking around cleaning and maintaining my silage gear in the rain. She's had hours and hours of everything, and still on the original brakes.. it all comes down to exactly what hours you think is high. I will probably look at something newer than 1992 for the next one, but she'll stay. I'd say another 40 years will be hard enough to find parts

What is your main girl.

 

[RNeumann]

I keep wondering if the OP is trying to figure out the ideal time to trade in machines. It looks like he has a landscape business and several machines. Maybe the sweet spot of getting good use out of it but not have hours that are so high the resale is in the tank.
I know in fleet service the idea is to divide the vehicle cost (purchase minus resale) by the number of years kept. On a graph this is a horizontal line. Then calculate annual maintenance costs. The older the vehicle the more the cost. On a graph this is a line that raises as it moves left to right. So the graph has cost up the left side and years/hours across the bottom. The replacement occurs when the two lines cross.
Again, not sure the goal of the OP's question. So if this is it great. Otherwise simply do what the wife does and ignore me.....haha

 

[joeu235]

I asked several knowledgeable people the same question when I was looking for a used skid steer. The general answer I got was to expect the engine to need rebuild at 6,000 hours and the hydraulic system at 10,000.

I've always heard the rule for farm tractors to expect 10,000 hours before a rebuild. My dad's JD 4020 has a stuck hour meter reading 9,500 hours. If we were plowing with it I bet it would need an overhaul. For pulling hay trailers and feeding round bales it runs just fine.

 

[bspeedy]

For compacts, 4-5000 hours is the brink of disaster, I would think. I would not buy a CUT with more than 2k hours unless it's a super bargain. 2000 hours is not big deal if I've put most of those hours on the tractor and know how it's maintained.

 

[olPete]

What is your main girl.

A reasonably well behaved Same Explorer 90 turbo. Italian made. She's got features that I would find hard to trade in! Really good nimble tractor with enough grunt to do farm stuff, but can use her round the yard as she turns on a dime. A lot of sentimental value too, she was my uncles last tractor and that means a fair bit to me.
If you work it out, it's less than an hour a day. I'd prefer to have a tractor like that, than one that was parked up for a time with 'low hours' we just tick around, spent lots of time with the grease gun, and park her nose to the sun.