How Many Hours Do You Spend on Your Tractor(s)?

[rockinbbar]

More of a poll, just out of curiosity, more than anything else...

How many hours do you operate your equipment?

A year or so back, I had an issue with a tractor and was talking to the dealer and service manager about it, and asked them if they had seen failures of that model tractor at 1000 hours like mine had... They looked at each other and said they didn't have anyone even close to a thousand hours on that model.

So, how many hours do you put on your tractor?

As a bonus question, location and cab or open station?

 

[paulsharvey]

About 50-60 hours per year is what I'm doing right now; but it's sporadic. It might be 12 hours a month for a bit, maybe more, and then just an hour per week at other times.

Open station, NE/NC FLa, and the heavier use is going to be May through Oct.

I figured I'd put 200 hours per year, but that just isn't the case.

I don't really just ride on it, or take it to check the mail, when it's running, it cause I'm doing something.

 

[paulsharvey]

On a more professional kinda approach; I think people use the 8- 24 hrs/week as a general number for a heavily used piece of heavy equipment; so 400-1200 per year for a money making machine isn't unusual.

Edit: that is more of a construction equipment kinda situation; Ag, you might have a large tillage machine, that gets 16 hrs/day, but only 4 weeks per year; and then smaller machine for chore type work.

 

[EddieWalker]

I have several tractors, and it's not a lot of hours on any of them. My 2003 open station 37hp tractor was my first one that I bought, and I think it's still under a thousand hours after 21 years of owning it.

I got the Deere a couple years ago, and just use it to put round bales out, or dig post holes. It might get 40 hours a year on it. It's 65hp and open station.

My Massey has a cab, and it's super fancy compared to the others. Air seat, AC/Heat, and a Radio. I've spent most of a day in it, but rarely use it two days in a row, and doubt I've ever put more then 20 hours on it in a busy months. I'm just over 100 hours on it in two years.

My backhoe is what I use the most. It's my workhorse. I converted the front bucket to a Quick Attach, so I can put on pallet forks, a grapple, hay spear, or the one yard bucket. I bought it with 1,900 hours in 2003, and today it's just over 8,000 hours

 

[TerryR]

My 28 year old JD 870 has 1500 hours on it.

It's an open station, because I wasn't offered a choice when I bought it. But I've never considered a cab because of all the trees I mow under. And, being retired I can just avoid running it when it's too hot, and delay until it warms a bit when plowing snow.

 

[scootr]

My last tractor got an average of 50 hrs a month over 14 yrs of ranch work. Got a newer Kubota MX5200 last year and put about 250 hrs on it, some hours were hired out for mowing etc. Never had a cab so it sits during the hottest and coldest days.

 

[oldnslo]

When was on dairy farm had 3 tractors put over 500 hrs on each of them. Today around 100 hrs on Branson and 60 - 70 on X540. Hours are dependent on rain fall for mowing and snow fall in winter.

 

[Mtsoxfan]

I run 200 plus hours per year on property management, tree clearing, soil/material handling, brush hogging, snow removal etc. Open station, upper Vermont.
I'm retired, and our property was raw when we bought 4 years ago. I could see that number decreasing in a year or two...

 

[Jstpssng]

I bought mine in 2017 with 175 hours on, it now has around 1050. Annual use depends on what I am doing. I did the 800 hour service on it last fall, so this year has seen more use than other times.

I have a canopy, which is nice on sunny days. I have crunched that on trees often enough that I can't imagine having a full cab.

 

[oosik]

Usually 60 to 75 hours per year. However - because this area has become the - banana belt - it's now down to 20 to 30 per year.

We get up to six inches of snow with a storm - melts in a couple days.

 

[duffer]

Bought mine in mid 2016 right when I started building a house and 10 acres of land. During and right after construction I put a ton of hours on it. Probably 400 the first year. Another 300/yr the 2nd thru 5th, and now probably 150 yr since. Total right now, of 1950 & change in just under 8 years.

 

[5030]

Depends entirely on how much and many times I cut hay and plow the drives of snow. I'd say a couple hundred hours a year on each one. I use my cab tractor for snow removal (obviously) and the open station stays in the barn all winter. This year because of the not normal weather, I got only 2 cuts of hay (going to do the second cut) shortly. Nice thing is, it's all sold ahead of time and has been for over 5 years now. Some years 3 cuts, this year 2, all in net wrapped round bales and picked up in the field as well.

For me, the tractors are for work only and why I own larger units.

Both of mine are non emissions units as well, both turbocharged and charge air cooled and I have no desire to own a new emissions compliant tractor. Both get maintained regularly and neither has given me any issues of consequence (other than replacing the outboard seals on the open station FWA axle just recently). The OS unit has just over 6000 hours on it and the cab tractor just turned 5000 hours and I fully expect both of them to outlast me.

No payments here and no new tractors either. No mortgage payment either.

 

[Runner]

2007 JD 2520 here. Currently at about 760 hours, average 45 hours/year.

Use is varied and includes plowing snow (2 or 3 plowable storms per year), finish mowing (1.5 hrs/week from April through October), brush hogging pasture (9 hrs/year), chipping branches (variable from a couple of hours/year to almost 50 in the last year) and the rest is general duty, pallet forks, moving trailers, loader work, etc.

My machine doesn't get a lot of hours on it, but no way I could get by without it.

As of this year, the finish mowing has been transferred to my Cub Cadet ZTXS5 54 ZTR.

Location - Missouri, and open station. Could never get under all my trees with cab.

 

[dodge man]

Roughly 90 hours a year, western Illinois open station. I mow my 2 acre lawn with a mid mount and it’s been a little dry so less than normal.

 

[DIYOrangeDave]

No mowing and about 100 hours per year. Snow removing, gravel road and yard maintenance. Firewood and anything else heavy that needs lifting or moving. BX25D

 

[rScotty]

We no longer have horses, acreage, long roads, or mowing...we've downsized to just a few retirement acres in the rural rocky mtns along a trout stream. I build stone walls as a hobby and we maintain a couple of wooded acres.

The hours per year are deceptive. There is no way we could do without the FEL and backhoe. Being older, we constantly use both FEL and backhoe to do lifting and carrying chores we can no longer do by hand. But the total hours of run time are low.

Our open cab Kubota (1500 hrs) gets most of the work, which amounts to 50 to 100 hours a year.

Our larger tractor is an ex-construction cabbed JD 310 (6000+ hrs) which gets even less work. Basically only special chores like snow removal after blizzards. Or anytime a big heavy tractor is needed. That amounts to a few hours a year, but it's necessary.

rScotty

 

[BackRoad]

1200 hours in 4.5 years on my open station Kubota MX6000. Mostly land clearing, then mowing, driveway mntc, snow removal.

I added a lot of hours moving over 100 CY of dirt building up the grade for my house build.

 

[Thomas]

Years back lot of hours on the tractor,but now I have the land the way I want it lot less hours 100-125 year.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

There's are close to 1,400 hrs on the M6040 (cab) since '10, so about 60/year on average.

The open L3800 has almost 500 on it since '13, so close to 41 hrs/year.

Meanwhile, the open BX25D bought in '14 is still not at 150, for somewhat obvious reasons. And the hours would be much lower if that tiny backhoe could indeed do some actual work without taking forever.

But if it could, I wouldn't have bough the Kioti 2620, also open, that arrived a bit late for its intended purpose and consequently has about two hours on it after about six months. Those hours were mostly to get a feel for it than for actual work.

 

[Hoobie]

Average 175 hrs.