fuel consumption Hydro vs Gears?

[chopped]

I was hearing my neighbor the other day running his machine. (kubota Hydro) I could hear the whine for hours. It made me consider how my geared tractor sounded. and then I considered the amount of rpms.And of course that made me think of the amount of fuel that is burned.
Anyways I assume that the higher rpm running results in more fuel. but its a trade of to haveing to select which gear you have to use.
Anyone else see it the same way?

 

[murphy1244]

I was hearing my neighbor the other day running his machine. (kubota Hydro) I could hear the whine for hours. It made me consider how my geared tractor sounded. and then I considered the amount of rpms.And of course that made me think of the amount of fuel that is burned.
Anyways I assume that the higher rpm running results in more fuel. but its a trade of to haveing to select which gear you have to use.
Anyone else see it the same way?

Way too much time on your hands. Just like Auto's the Manual will use less fuel than the Auto's.

 

[dave1949]

I don't know who would buy one of those fuel guzzling whiners. :laughing:

 

[SPYDERLK]

I was hearing my neighbor the other day running his machine. (kubota Hydro).

I assume that the higher rpm running results in more fuel. but its a trade of to haveing to select which gear you have to use.
Anyone else see it the same way?

No. The losses have little to do with RPM. In a gear tractor the power flows thru a soley mechanical path. In HST the power goes into pumping a fluid which then in turn converts back to mechanical. Losses in the fluid phase are the prime cause of lower comparative efficiency in a hydro.
larry

 

[Gary Fowler]

Like the old Cadillac salesman said to a prospective buyer, if you have to ask about fuel consumption, you cant afford it.
The small difference in power and fuel consumption is not much of an issue for CUT or for that matter any tractor owners. I have never heard of a person buying a tractor based on fuel consumption. There are lots of other things more important to consider.

 

[Gary Fowler]

No. The losses have little to do with RPM. In a gear tractor the power flows thru a soley mechanical path. In HST the power goes into pumping a fluid which then in turn converts back to mechanical. Losses in the fluid phase are the prime cause of lower comparative efficiency in a hydro.
larry

This is true in regard to the power loss, but individual operators can affect fuel consumption tremendously. Take for instance two people are doing a task that requires very little power and both are using the small model tractor(or even the same tractor at different times) one person runs his engine speed at or near max RPM but then runs with 1/2 hydro pedal so his is creeping along, versus the guy that runs much less RPM but travels the same speed by using full hydro-pedal. Same amount of work is done but much less fuel is burned.
I do know that you need enough rpm for efficient charge pressure, but my Kubota B26 works fine at anything above 1500 rpm and I rarely run it above 2000 rpm while my neighbor will jack his RPM up to 2000 or more if he is going to delicately move his tractor a few inches when hooking up an implement. Scares the bejesus out of me when I am helping him to hook up.

 

[jenkinsph]

I was hearing my neighbor the other day running his machine. (kubota Hydro) I could hear the whine for hours. It made me consider how my geared tractor sounded. and then I considered the amount of rpms.And of course that made me think of the amount of fuel that is burned.
Anyways I assume that the higher rpm running results in more fuel. but its a trade of to haveing to select which gear you have to use.
Anyone else see it the same way?

Hydro tranny will burn a little more fuel than a gear tractor but not enough to care about. There is more to it than simple gear selection vs. a hydro too as you have much better control of movement. To better understand the differences you need to try one out. As others point out operators make a big difference too. On small properties the difference in fuel consumption isn't important. If you were farming on a large scale and running long distances before turning around the gear tranny makes a lot more sense.

 

[WTS Tractor]

I just bought my 1st Hydrostatic. After using awhile I wouldn't care if it uses twice the fuel. So nice when operating.

 

[buickanddeere]

Heavy off road industrial equipment has used either hydrostatic or torque convertor drives for decades. The extra fuel is cheaper than the loss of production and shop expenses changing out a clutch.

 

[Rod in Forfar]

I was hearing my neighbor the other day running his machine. (kubota Hydro) I could hear the whine for hours. It made me consider how my geared tractor sounded. and then I considered the amount of rpms.And of course that made me think of the amount of fuel that is burned.
Anyways I assume that the higher rpm running results in more fuel. but its a trade of to haveing to select which gear you have to use.
Anyone else see it the same way?

Chopped:

You're reacting to the high noise level required to keep the HSD tractor running smoothly to do routine work, I imagine. I find the same situation with my B-series Kubota HSD: it's a lot more relaxing to tow things around the property with a comparably-sized geared tractor, operated at a leisurely pace. There's no way the whine of the Kubota's engine is as pleasant as the pocketta-pocketta-pocketta of a Mitsubishi twin cylinder KE75.

The B-7510 uses quite a bit more diesel than the Bolens G174 when mowing, but it gets a lot more done.

Rod

 

[IndyIan]

I do agree that the higher rpm for running the HST isn't as nice as running a gear tractor. But yesterday I had to unstack my pile of round bales as the wind finally killed my bale tarp. I put them all in a row instead. Anyways its fun to do, with the HST I can keep one hand on the steering, one on the loader and zip forward and back with my right foot, so I'm doing 3 things at once. I don't know if an HST tractor is twice as fast as a gear tractor for that kind of work but its fun to do and no clutch slipping.

 

[94BULLITT]

If everything is equal the hydro tractor will use more fuel because it is turning a pump to drive the tractor. The hydro tractor will be more efficient time wise doing something like loader work so even though it may use a little more fuel more work is being done.

 

[MessickFarmEqu]

someone with more diesel knowledge than myself can confirm this, but as I recall a diesels fuel consumption is more tied to the load on the engine than RPM. The difference many not be as great as you'd expect.

 

[94BULLITT]

someone with more diesel knowledge than myself can confirm this, but as I recall a diesels fuel consumption is more tied to the load on the engine than RPM. The difference many not be as great as you'd expect.

That is what I thought. I just did not want to say it and be wrong.

 

[arlen4720]

That is what I thought. I just did not want to say it and be wrong.

If you take a look at a few random nebraska tests, you will see that you are right.

The one for my 4720 shows an almost completely linear relationship with load and fuel, holding the RPM fairly constant. It does drink about .78 GPH though with a 2 HP load at 2600 rpm. HP hours/gal goes up considerably as load increases.