How Many Hours is a Lot for a Tractor?

I have a friend who is looking to buy his first tractor. He asked me how many hours is too many.

My answer was that it depends on the history of the tractor. The hour meter on the dash, even if it works, doesn't tell you anything about how long it has been since -- well -- an engine rebuild, for example.

In my case, the hour meter is missing entirely from my older tractor. I don't recall ever bothering to look at the meter on my newer tractor. Both are over 50 years old and I've owned them for only a couple of years -- with no knowledge of their maintenance history -- so I consider the hours irrelevant.

I'm lucky if I get in 50 hours of seat time per year, so as long as I do an oil change, lube, ignition check, etc. every winter I figure I'm covered. If I ever did an overhaul or major maintenance, then I'd have a meaningful baseline to start from for tracking hours.

So, just as a ballpark and starting with a brand new tractor, how many hours do you think a gas tractor and a diesel tractor should operate before needing an engine rebuild? Or are there other fairly major things (transmission, hydraulics, etc.) that would tend to go out before the engine?

Thanks --

Mark W. in MI
 
the engine should easily go 5000 to 10000 hours.Clutches,trannys,hydralics-kinda depends on how the're used.My 706DT(310)has over 10000 hrs and still runs strong.It has had one TA and clutch job.No hydralic work yet.In fact,I will be useing it today.Steve
 
we have a ford 2000 that the hour meter rolled once and stopped at 2500ish and ive never seen it work in my 24 years around it. tractor was mainly used for loader work and has had countless clutches and brakes put in it but has never had the valve cover off or the oil pan off.

have a ford 5000 that has had 5 headgaskets, 2 engine rebuilds, 2 clutches, and one set of brakes.

the 2 engine rebuilds were done if the first 10 years of the tractors life.
 
I sold a JD 4430 two years ago with over 11000 hrs, all original, except for main/rod bearings at 8700. Have a 4240 and 4450 MFWD with either side of 9000 hrs each. Original engines. Virtually no oil consumption on any of them.
 
We"ve got a couple tractors on the farm with over 11,000 hours now and have never had any major repairs done to them. It"s all relative to how well the machine has been taken care of. We don"t abuse the machine and as soon as the hour meter rolls around to the next scheduled service, the tractor comes in for a complete service. We grease everything once every day too.

It depends a lot on who had the tractor and what kind of care it got. And there are some tractors that no matter how well they were taken care of or how many hours are on them, they are just a constant problem child.
 
depends on what tractor hes getting. most fords will last 6000-7000hrs no problem. at least mine have. the only one ive had tranmissinon problem with is my 7700 that has like 6300hrs with no engine probs yet.
 
You can name tractors and hours all you want.
The most important question I would look at is - How the tractor was used, how it was cared for and was it kept inside or out.
I have seen 20 year old tractors (kept in a shed when not in use) with high hours that I would buy over a 2 or 3 year one that has been run hard with little or no service and lived outside.
Just my opinion
 
At work, all of our stuff starts to look tough in a couple years.. It always sits outside. However, every 250 hours it gets it's servicing. Greasing depends on the operator, but I try to grease mine once a day.

We used to have a lot of stuff with 10k+ hours. The last 4960 Deere I was in showed 15000 and some change, but they used to repower em at 10k.. Now they replace them at 10k (most everything is leased now).

We have a 7120 Magnum, I believe it shows 8k or so now.. But for the last 7 years all it has done is run a pto pit pump.. Although it looks like death warmed over, I wouldn't be afraid to buy it to use..

Brad
 
It depends. I have an International 464 diesel that has 15,299 hours on the hour meter. Of course, the meter has been broken for as long as I can remember, so it probably has over 20,000. It burns a little oil - maybe a quart in 10 hours under normal load. It is a great tractor, and I personally wouldn't be afraid to buy it to use.

SF
 

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