hours meter

[KubotainNH]

Hello, I can't seem to stay off this site. I have a question about the hour meter on my B6100. What is the far right digit on it? Is that when the hours roll past 9999 or something else? It looks like a fat 1 or I and the left side says 1100.5. I'm just wondering if it 1100 hours or 11100 hours which seems to be way to much. The tractor runs like a top and is in very good shape for it's age. Thanks.

 

[Speedy7]

It's 1/10 of an hour, much like the 1/10 of a mile on your odometer.

 

[btolle]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( It's 1/10 of an hour, much like the 1/10 of a mile on your odometer. )</font>

Yup, if you watch it will change once every 6 minutes.

Bill Tolle

 

[Speedy7]

Actually, I looked more closely at the meter. There is one further slot to the right, AFTER the 1/10 position. It alternates between a I and blank indication. It seems to change about every 3 seconds, so I guess it's kinda like a 'working' indicator to let you know your hour meter is ticking away.

 

[KubotainNH]

Aha, that's the one I was talking about. I need to do some yard work tomorrow with the tractor and will watch it for a bit. Thanks.

 

[MarkOnTheRiver]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Yup, if you watch it will change once every 6 minutes.)</font>

That's what I initially thought as well until I noticed the clock ticked faster as the rpm's increased. So I timed a tick at 1000 rpm. It took about 16 minutes. Increased the rpm's to 2000 and it took just 8 minutes. Talked to the service manager and he said the behavior is normal.

So the hours are really closer to full throttle or PTO hours rather than actual timed runs.

 

[Speedy7]

That now makes sense. When I first started using my BX for mowing, I noticed the hour meter seemed to go by faster than I expected, as mowing is at full throttle. These last week, as I was using the loader to move soil and gravel at half throttle, it seem to go much slower.

So it seems the hour meter is somewhat tied to the RPM? Hmm, if that is the case, maybe I could use that hookup to jury-rig a tachometer. Tiny-tach is out of diesel tachs and I've been waiting for weeks!

 

[KubotainNH]

I wonder if it's more a voltage thing with the powerfull dynamo's we all have. Maybe works like a clock with a low battery.

 

[dqdave1]

many companies have begun to have the hour meters run a little slower when tractor is not running at "normal" specs. IE when idling computer slows hour meter as maintenance is determined by use (hours) since it is idling it thinks it is not working so it slow hour meter so you do not "over maintain" unit. Hour meter will run at "normal time " when engine RPM is at recommended RPM of engine; say 2600 RPM. All that said it is a way to save the operator some money on maintenance. Also I do not know it Kubota is using these hour meters but it sounds like they are.

 

[Speedy7]

Well, so much for the rpm theory. Received my shop manual today, and the hour meter is simply connected to the power on circuit of the key switch! So it must be purely time based.

The hour meter on the BX looks identical to the Hobbs 85010 model, so Kubota probably OEMs it from them, and that is purely time based too.