Hours on a tractor

[herofan]

I've never payed much attention to the hour thing with tractors. I know the true answer to this is going to be, "it depends," but what is considered an average number of hours to put on a tractor in a year. If you were going to buy a year-old tractor, what number of hours would make you say, "that's about right." What number of hours in a tractor's life is "a lot of hours," like in the old days when 100,000 miles was "a lot of miles" on a vehicle.

 

[Bigfoot]

Some big gun will give you a different answer, but a lot about a tractor is maintenance, and use. Was a tractor somebody used to rip ground with, or did it pull tobacco scaffles. If they didn't maintain it, then it doesn't matter either way. Personally, I'd call 4000 hours too many for me to be interested in it.

 

[Nesikep]

I don't consider 4000 hours a lot.. there's lots of them out there with over 10,000, but Bigfoot is right, how was it used and how was it maintained. Doing nothing but putzing around may be easy on the drivetrain, but it's excessive and it never gets a workout it isn't necessarily good for the engine.

Also, different tractors count hours at different rates... some newer tractors have an electronic meter that counts run time, while others have an engine driven meter that counts revolutions... Some count them at 1500 RPM, others at 2500 rpm.. now the one that counts at 2500 RPM is going to show less hours when used in the same way as the other..

I stay away from things with over 8000 hours. tractors with front end loaders I look at VERY closely... I don't want a repainted rusted out dairy barn demucker.

How much use in a year? well, for someone who just rakes their horse's round pen, they might put 20 hours a year on it... I have many tractors so that I can pick the best one for any given job.. The Massey 165 is the only one that sees over 100 hours in a year (about 200) because it does the majority of the haying work... Next there's the IH684, it does the bale hauling, and most of the fieldwork, plowing, disking, manure spreading.. Hour meter just quit, it sees about 75 hours a year... The Ford County sees about 30 hours a year, if I have serious subsoiling to do, or scrape manure, it's the behemoth that'll do the job.. drinks a lot of fuel, leaks oil everywhere, about a 200 ft turning radius, but that thing can pull like nothing else. Lastly I have a little gas powered Leyland 154, it does the really light work.. seeding, cultivating, and powering the combine (40" cut).

 

[jedstivers]

My utility tractors get about 3-400 hours a year. Some even less. My go to the field tractors get 800-1,000.
My two "new" tractors, a 2010 and 2011 model have over 5,000.
Several with 10-15k. Some prol over 20K but the meter quit long ago.
Now that being said I have one with a little over 4,000 and its a pos that's fixing to leave. It's been pampered too.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Older tractors with engine rpm meters often need an overhaul at 4,000 to 8,000 hours. But if you like old iron - - it is not uncommon for them to have had several overhauls and still be in use. I would say 20,000 hours is a lot.

I have a JD 5075E FEL tractor with 2,000 hours on it and I know it is not built heavy. How long do some of the never lightweight utility tractor hold up?

 

[greybeard]

I've never payed much attention to the hour thing with tractors. I know the true answer to this is going to be, "it depends," but what is considered an average number of hours to put on a tractor in a year. If you were going to buy a year-old tractor, what number of hours would make you say, "that's about right." What number of hours in a tractor's life is "a lot of hours," like in the old days when 100,000 miles was "a lot of miles" on a vehicle.

Just how much is 100,000 miles in hourmeter terms?
100,000 miles.....converted to hours.
60mph at 8 hrs/day=480 miles each day.
100,000 hrs ÷ 480=208 eight hour days.

useless information.

 

[Nesikep]

I heard for an average, use 40mph to convert hours to miles.. so 5000 hours would be 200,000 miles. On a lousy vehicle that's the end of it's life, on a good one it's middle aged with lots of life left.

Honestly, replacing an engine is the cheapest thing to do, transmissions, final drives, brakes, steering system, hydraulics etc all get much more expensive really quick. If I'd find the tractor in a model I wanted that was well taken care of but had some engine disaster, I'd probably pick it up because I can get it dirt cheap and have it running for $3000 in most cases.

 

[Nesikep]

Oh, and I forgot to mention TIRES!!! they're getting really expensive now.

 

[John SD]

I heard for an average, use 40mph to convert hours to miles.. so 5000 hours would be 200,000 miles. On a lousy vehicle that's the end of it's life, on a good one it's middle aged with lots of life left.

Honestly, replacing an engine is the cheapest thing to do, transmissions, final drives, brakes, steering system, hydraulics etc all get much more expensive really quick. If I'd find the tractor in a model I wanted that was well taken care of but had some engine disaster, I'd probably pick it up because I can get it dirt cheap and have it running for $3000 in most cases.

The want ads on the radio currently have an ad from some guy wanting to buy a 4430 WITHOUT engine. I'm wondering if he has a 4430 with a good engine and bad transmission, or more likely junking out whatever JD combine used the same engine as a 4430? :???:

 

[denvermartinfarms]

On the kind of tractor you've been talking about, i consider 6 to 8000 hours to be pretty high.

 

[bigbull338]

hours on a tractor vary from user to tractor use.my tractor is almost 2.5yrs old and has 400hrs on it give or take.now in 2012 we bought a 5yr old tractor that 1000 hours on it.now if i was buying a tractor up to 2000 hours wouldnt bother me.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I used to buy tractors w/o working hour meters. Now I have moved up, and usually buy "low hour" tractors with 4000 to 6000 hours on them.

 

[John SD]

hours on a tractor vary from user to tractor use.my tractor is almost 2.5yrs old and has 400hrs on it give or take.now in 2012 we bought a 5yr old tractor that 1000 hours on it.now if i was buying a tractor up to 2000 hours wouldnt bother me.

Kubota I bought in summer 2012 now has almost 300 hrs on it. I put more hours on my lawn mowers

 

[dieselbeef]

mile a minute

 

[hillbilly beef man]

My work truck has both a total and an idle hour meter on it. It has 5300 hrs and 100000 miles for an average of 18 mph if this gives you some idea. If you take away the idle hours I have averaged 30 mph.

 

[pricefarm]

My work truck has both a total and an idle hour meter on it. It has 5300 hrs and 100000 miles for an average of 18 mph if this gives you some idea. If you take away the idle hours I have averaged 30 mph.

Must be nice to have that new of a work truck mine has 215000 miles and the hour meter stopped at 9999 hours. It gets more idle time than anything some days it might not get 20 miles on it but run for 10 hours.

 

[hillbilly beef man]

My work truck has both a total and an idle hour meter on it. It has 5300 hrs and 100000 miles for an average of 18 mph if this gives you some idea. If you take away the idle hours I have averaged 30 mph.

Must be nice to have that new of a work truck mine has 215000 miles and the hour meter stopped at 9999 hours. It gets more idle time than anything some days it might not get 20 miles on it but run for 10 hours.

As long as it has a radio and a heater it does not matter to me how old the truck is. My company trades every 10 years so this one will have over 250k and 13,000 Hours if it holds out. The first 100k was just oil changes and brakes, so we will see how the next 150k goes.