Fuel usage calculations vs. hourmeter type.

[number two]

Greetings!

Traditionally tractors have been equipped with tach/hourmeters cable driven from the engine.
They normally record one hour of time for one hour of use at PTO RPM.
At lesser speeds,it records proportionally fewer hours
i.e.-one hour of run time at one half PTO RPM's would record one-half hour of time.

More tractors are being equipped with electric/electronic hourmeters.
Think Hobbs meter.
These record one hour for every hour of key-on/run time.

How much difference would it make?
Is your analog tractor going to have better resale value,since it will record fewer hours?

I will keep a flak jacket handy!
Good Luck!

 

[mcfarmall]

No.

 

[DeepWoods]

I’ll be dead and gone before my tractor is sold. It won’t matter to me what my wife gets for it. And if she goes first, my heirs can fight over it if they want. But honestly, I hope I wear it out before I go. I have had it for 3 years, and got just short of 500 hours on it. Hope to get 5000 hours on her before I check out

 

[Biker1mike]

My tractor has a three digit hour meter. MAX 999 hours. It is 36 years old. Actual hours means nothing as it would be a guess at best.
General appearance and maint. log mean more than hours.

 

[GeoHorn]

Greetings!

Traditionally tractors have been equipped with tach/hourmeters cable driven from the engine.
They normally record one hour of time for one hour of use at PTO RPM.
At lesser speeds,it records proportionally fewer hours
i.e.-one hour of run time at one half PTO RPM's would record one-half hour of time.
…

Your point is made…but I don’t believe the ratio is as you stated. While the tach-hour display may not be 100% accurate…. I don’t believe half PTO records anywhere near display half-time operated. You can easily test this by awaiting until the digit rolls-over and immediately bring the engine to idle and time the next digit roll-over event. I’ve actually done this excersize and the error was in the 10% range…. so instead of 60 seconds it was 68 seconds for the next roll-over….and that is a FULL IDLE situation….so any other engine speed would display even less error. (Of course, that test presumed the tach was rated at PTO speed and not some other mid-range where our tractors actually spend most of their lives.…and it also presumes the tach is accurate.)

It’’s my belief that a properly maintained tractor cannot be judged to be worn-out at any particular amount of operating hours. Tractors which sit an inordinate amount of the calendars without regular operation will not last as many hours and those that receive regular use and proper maintenance. 15K hours between major engne work is not unheard of and many more in large commercial operations, and the type of operation will affect other systems (transmission, axles, clutch, electrical, hydraulics, etc) more than mere recorded engine-hours of operation.