ZETOR 4341 comments/opinions re potential purchase

[Renze]

Hey guys, these new Zetors of yours, how many hours have they done ?

when getting to 100 working hours you really NEED to give those engines a beating, pulling 15 ton trailers or something, or they will keep consuming lots of oil for the rest of their life.

In the early 80's a guy from the Dutch importer went through the country, with a PTO dynatester, tractors that kept consuming oil were given a good beating at the PTO dynameter, with some oil additives to force the piston rings to "wear into" the liners.

But make sure that your tractor is at a good working temperature before you load them, 90% of the wear occurs at cold engine starts.

 

[sassafraspete]

Renze, You have a good point I believe. I know an engineer that works on the Cummins Dodge engine... he also owns a Dodge/Cummins truck with about 8,000 miles on it. He was saying that he needed to find a trailer with a heavy load to pull to really "seat" the rings. This is a guy that looks at these engines every day , so knows what he is talking about. So I think what you are saying may be something that would benefit all diesels....although our human nature is not to abuse these engines when we've shelled out the cash....

sassafras

 

[sideboiler]

Renze,
Thanks for the information on seating the rings. My tractor has only 12 hours on it at this time. As it accumulates more hours, I will work it harder. About 10 years ago, I drove a new fire engine with a Cummins diesel engine from eastern Pennsylvania to Washington state, across the northern United States. For the first 1000 miles, the engine was really tight and did not have much power. As it broke in, it began to develop more power and we could really feel the difference. I once knew a guy that rebuilt gasoline engines and, after a break in period, he would recommend towing a heavy trailer up a long grade to properly seat the rings. I have been told that it is best to avoid running a brand new engine at constant high RPM for extended periods of time. I believe the theory is that it is better to vary the RPM so that microscopic ridges are not formed on the cylinder liners at the top of the piston travel. Others here may have more knowledge on the subject.

 

[Renze]

( ....although our human nature is not to abuse these engines when we've shelled out the cash....)

...know what our Zetors do.. ??

4712: 1974 2.7 liter three pot, 45 engine hp. At age of 20, tested at 53 PTO hp. (fuel pump untouched, this performance was achieved by many years of hard work excercising)

6718: 1976 3.5 liter 4 pot, 65 engine hp. Worked with rotavator, in wet soil at max depth, which was advised to be driven by a 140 hp tractor...
It can drive a PTO water pump for irrigation in summer (temperatures above 27°C). in 100 hours i had to top up the oil just once.. The clock has 0003 hours on it... it's a nice moment to see the clock's 9999 turn into 0000...

our current 5245 was one of these tractors that were built too much wear resistant, and it had an old grandpa as first owner. It was never beaten in properly in the 3700 hours it did in the first 14 years of its life. Now, four years later, at 5050 hours, finally the piston blow-by is reducing...

It is a little late for the piston rings to set, causing more wear, so this one wont do 15.000 hours.

 

[sideboiler]

Renze,
I will certainly use the tractor hard in order to properly seat the rings as it gets up to around 40 to 50 hours on it. It is good to hear of your positive experiences with the Zetor tractors and I'm sure that I will be asking you for advice from time to time.

One problem is that a lot of the chores that I will do with this tractor could be done with a smaller tractor but I wanted enough tractor so that I could run my old PTO MF Model 12 square baler on the hills on my property without being bounced around. After the warranty period has expired (2 years) I will probably use it to skid some good size pine logs. The warranty specifically excludes logging activities so I will wait until later to do that.

Thanks for the information on your Zetors.

 

[BarryinMN]

I did the same thing overbought tractor size. Could've stayed with 40HP but wanted more mass & power. We have lost a couple of large birch trees so I'll get them dragged out before the thaw for firewood.

1st additional implement I'm looking at is a ditch bank mower that requires 50 PTO minimum. Owners manual says watch for jams/bending the implement when pulling with over 10,000 lb tractor. My config on new machine is just over 10K lbs without loading the tires.

Stopped in to the dealer today & saw my new tractor. Joystick, loader frame & the second seat are installed. Second seat has a seat belt! Balance of bits & pieces should be in over the next couple of weeks.

 

[Renze]

My logging activities on oak trees, diam. about 35 cm, do not allways include a chainsaw. I have pulled over an oak with the 5245 ballasted with a 3 point lift bucket full of sand, hooking up the chain high on the 3p lift bucket so that i get a lot of weight transfer.

You've gotta know what you're doing when performing these actions. If you disengage the clutch and the front axle drops down, you could damage something. Anyway the 3p lift makes it easy to set the front axle gently back to the ground..

 

[Cabinholler]

dancce

You stated in this post that on a 4341 Zetor tractor with a loader on it, that rear wheels needs to have some kind of fluid in them, and also have the wheels spread all the way out. When wheels are spread all the way out, could wheels on each side be spread out 6 inches or more from the standard position?

Cabinholler

 

[sideboiler]

Cabinholler, I have a 4341 with a 102SL loader and I have been very happy with it. Check your owner's manual for different combinations used to spread the width of the wheels. There are about four different options. I have some side hills that I must traverse so I have my wheels set to the widest option. You can reverse the wheel discs to get wider spacing and change the mounting position of the wheel rims for greater spacing. If you are doing heavy loader work, you will definately want to load the rear tires. With loaded tires and a 500 pound implement on the back, I was able to pick up and stack 3000 pound 2'x2'x6' concrete blocks. I was lifting these blocks without the bucket on, using the strong mounting frame for the hay spears. This put the load close to the mounting pins of the loader.

 

[Cabinholler]

sideboiler

You stated that you had your wheels on your 4341 Zetor tractor spread all the way out. Do you know how many inches on each side that they are spread out from the standard position? I bought a new 4341.1 Zetor tractor on 02/18/05, and the wheels were already spread out about 6 inches from the standard position on each side by the dealer. I was wondering, if the wheels can be spread out more than 6 inches on each side. I don't think that I am going to spread these wheels more than the 6 inches on each side that they are already spread, because the rear wheels are already spread little over 7 foot measured from outside tread of tire to outside tread of tire. If these wheels are spread any wider, I will have to go with a 8 foot rotary cutter instead of a 7 foot rotary cutter that I was going to use so that the wheel tracks of the tractor tires will be cut out.

I know that this sounds off the wall, if I am not going to spread the wheels any wider than they are already spread, but I just was wanting to know how many inches on each side of the wheel that they would be spread, when the wheels are spread out all the way. One of these days, I might want to spread the wheels out all the way according to what job that I might be using the tractor for.

Cabinholler