Doesn't eat much

[PaPaGus]

Is it just me or do these Kioti's great great fuel milage. Seems like I never put fuel in this thing.

 

[IslandTractor]

Small diesels are generally efficient. I don't think Kioti has any advantages over other diesels in that regard.

I go through about half a gallon an hour at 2300-2500 rpm doing general work with my CK20.

 

[ToadHill]

On my DK45 I use about .75 gal per hour at 2400 rpm's.

 

[malk315]

I'm going to need to track how my CK-20 is doing.

It seems to burn a lot of fuel doing mowing -- which I do @ full RPMs to get high blade velocity.

It's a mid-mount 60" deck (DMM-60). It takes about 1/2 hour to 45 mins to mow and I do so in low range and usually go at full speed except when going up inclines -- I need to back off the pedal as RPMs will start to drop and I don't want to induce a bogg. (I usually watch the tach and when it hits the 540 PTO rpm line just below 3000 or so I back off the pedal until it creeps past that line again).

I could be off, but I think I only cut 2 or 3 times and need to fill up again. It could be just me wanting to keep the tank topped off. This mowing season I'll track my performance and see how it does.

The machine is in for it's 50 hour service (w/ about 65 hours on it -- most of those from mowing). The hour meter does run faster than realtime at full rpms... kinda stinks for me as I'll be putting many more hours on than others since I mow at full RPMs and have to mow every week from April to september and still cut every 10 days til november usually.

I bought the machine in July last year new, so this july it will be a year old w/ probably 75+ hours on it w/ the mowing I'll do between now and then. I'll probably end up averaging 75-100 hours per year on my machine... not sure how that compares to others. I'll try to get a better estimate on fuel consumption as I'm curious how it compares to others.

 

[Gatorboy]

Is it just me or do these Kioti's great great fuel milage.

It's just you.

Not sure what the MPG is on a Kioti, but it's probably not that great. Your car or pickup truck I'm sure is much better -- so don't start driving your tractor to work and to run errands around town.

 

[IslandTractor]

Well, I wouldn't want to compare MPG of tractor vs a car on a highway but in general diesel engines are more efficient than gas engines with regard to the amount of work per gallon. Certainly diesel tractors use less fuel to mow than gas tractors and diesel cars generally get better mileage than gas powered vehicles.

 

[Highbeam]

I find that the tractor drinks a good amount of fuel, not really a problem if Kioti had sized the fuel tank accordingly. With the big CK's 7 gallon tank I must return to port and refuel part way through a work day if I am out mowing or doing some other power intensive use. In fact, when I trailer the tractor somewhere to mow a field or subsoil, I have to pack two 5-gallon cans of diesel in addition to the full fuel tank if I want to avoid bringing it home with a low onboard tank.

I always refuel after each use to prevent condensation in the tank and to minimize the chance of running dry.

I have been going through so much fuel that I began using a barrel of off-road diesel which has really cut the costs as well as wated time buying road diesel at service stations.

 

[jeffva]

I haven't really measured, but I seem to fill it more than I'd expect. I'm doing alot of loader work - have a grapple bucket, and man can you find stuff to do with that.

I will say that have a sweet ole ford 801 diesel - 45 hp, and I compare that to my dk55 now and again. The 801 is used mainly for bushhogging and I fill it about twice a year, and rarely pay attention to fuel. On the kioti, I've run out a few times and seem to always be putting in fuel. It is turbo charged and a few hp bigger, and of course it is really a sweet tractor, so I use quite often.

I'll fill it up and take a look at the hour meter. I'll let you know the hrs/gal in a few weeks...

 

[Steverino]

CK-30HST, TLB work on average I would guess .75 gal./Hr. When running the backhoe I keep the rpm around 1700 otherwise its on the red arrow.

 

[dn58]

I'm going to need to track how my CK-20 is doing.

It seems to burn a lot of fuel doing mowing -- which I do @ full RPMs to get high blade velocity.

It's a mid-mount 60" deck (DMM-60). It takes about 1/2 hour to 45 mins to mow and I do so in low range and usually go at full speed except when going up inclines -- I need to back off the pedal as RPMs will start to drop and I don't want to induce a bogg. (I usually watch the tach and when it hits the 540 PTO rpm line just below 3000 or so I back off the pedal until it creeps past that line again).

I could be off, but I think I only cut 2 or 3 times and need to fill up again. It could be just me wanting to keep the tank topped off. This mowing season I'll track my performance and see how it does.

The machine is in for it's 50 hour service (w/ about 65 hours on it -- most of those from mowing). The hour meter does run faster than realtime at full rpms... kinda stinks for me as I'll be putting many more hours on than others since I mow at full RPMs and have to mow every week from April to september and still cut every 10 days til november usually.

I bought the machine in July last year new, so this july it will be a year old w/ probably 75+ hours on it w/ the mowing I'll do between now and then. I'll probably end up averaging 75-100 hours per year on my machine... not sure how that compares to others. I'll try to get a better estimate on fuel consumption as I'm curious how it compares to others.

If you don't already, try taking the loader off when you mow. Much easier to turn and I found that I was able to cut in high range part of the time without bogging down when hitting heavy wet grass. I just needed to back off the peddle a bit and slow down. Seems to help the fuel consumption also

 

[Highbeam]

"If you don't already, try taking the loader off when you mow. Much easier to turn and I found that I was able to cut in high range part of the time without bogging down when hitting heavy wet grass. I just needed to back off the peddle a bit and slow down. Seems to help the fuel consumption also"

That's due to the aerodynamics! The loader weighs over 1000 lbs so it would help your gph. The trouble is that the loader protects the low slung tie rod from hidden obstacles. If you know the area is obstacle free and that your front end won't be too light without the FEL ballast then it might be worth the hassle of taking it off. It sure feels funny driving around without a loader.

I just noticed that my diesel barrel is nearly empty again. Dangit. Now I need to refill that bugger with fresh red fuel. I've got a three day weekend of work grading and I just know that a full tractor tank and 3 jerry cans will only just barely cut the mustard.

 

[malk315]

Good point -- I do mow w/ the loader and haven't taken it off yet. Good excuse to take it off and make comparisons.

My tires are loaded -- so I imagine the front may feel light w/o the loader, but I figure since it's a mid-mount deck instead of an RFM, that should help. The deck is 400 lbs according to specs. If the front feels too light, I'll figure out a way to ballast the front a bit or see what Kioti sells.

It is a bit much that I mow w/ a tractor w/ loaded tires, but I figure the compacting of the soil I'm doing is a good excuse to get the aerator. Kioti's own aerator is a competitive price and I won't be using it commercially, so I think it would be a good balance of heavy duty implement high use versus cheap implement use it once or twice a year.

I'll do some measurements of fuel consumption with and w/o loader. I sure would love to be able to keep the pedal all the way down when mowing uphill.

Part of the point of getting the Kioti over the wheel horse machine I had was the loader can be removed and installed by myself (no helper needed) and without tools. So now I'll take advantage.

I'll report my results.

 

[dn58]

I've pretty much got the loader down to on or off in 5 minutes or less. The area I mow is fairly smooth (as smooth as an old field can be), with no large rocks to run over. There's not much danger of hitting anything. I have a rear finish mower, and I do notice that the front end is a little "lively" when the mower is off the ground, but it's fine when it's down and cutting.

 

[IslandTractor]

I've never seen anyone on the Kioti forum discuss suitcase weights. Those might be handy if mowing without the FEL. Anyone got other solutions to add 100lbs or so to the brush guard to compensate?

 

[gladehound]

According to the Kioti site, my engine does the most work per gallon at about 2000-2200 rpm. So I rarely run above that. I recon that at 2800 rpm it would burn up about 50% more fuel in an hour based on the chart. When I can, I run a 1500 RPM to save fuel and enjoy the more mellow exhaust not at that rpm. I'm sure if I ran at rated speed all the time I'd use twice the fuel. As it is, the tank seems to last a while. I wouldn't be surprised if I am getting over 10 hours per 5.5 gal. tank. My 16hp gassoline zero turn uses more gas per hour for sure. But I run that wide open all the time.