Idle or shut off?

[AlbertC]

I have a new holland 3930 and I have a 12 ft utility trailer that I pull around picking up limbs and trees that I am cutting down to put on the burn pile.

Depending on the type of brush I am picking up it can take as much as 20 minutes to load in one spot and 20 minutes to unload on the burn pile. I usually leave my tractor idling but have wondered if this is ok or should I just cut the tractor off. If I work all morning this could amount to several hours of idling while I am loading and unloading.

Which is better for the engine idling or shutting the tractor off?

Thanks

 

[4570Man]

I don't think idling hurts anything as long as there is no DPF. I would shut it off for 20 minutes. At the very least you are adding up hours on the machine and wasting fuel.

 

[TripleR]

There are several older threads similar to this and don't think there was a clear consensus, I do pretty much as 4570Man.

 

[davesl708]

A diesel idling is cooling the cylinders down and can cause fuel to condensate on the walls and flow to the oil. Takes a lot of idling to do this. Twenty minutes will not cause this. Most engine wear occurs during startup. Also, starters for diesels are not cheap. If you want the best, idle up to around 1000rpm. This will prevent the condensation but burn more fuel.

 

[ovrszd]

Back in the "day" if you drove past a truck stop in the middle of the night during Winter every truck there was idling. If the wind wasn't blowing there would be a huge black cloud of diesel smoke hanging in the air.

I think this is a personal decision with little or no measurable difference in longevity. With that said, I don't leave my tractor idling for 20 minutes. 5 minutes or less is probably my cutoff.

 

[nybirdman]

I would shut mine down for 20 minutes;I have seen farm tractors running water pumps set at idle for weeks on end.

 

[buickanddeere]

How long is the driving time between piles ?

 

[5030]

In the summer when I'm farming, my units run all day working or not (gotta keep that ac running). In the winter the utility tractor runs without shutdown (gotta keep the cab warm).

 

[bdog]

Back in the "day" if you drove past a truck stop in the middle of the night during Winter every truck there was idling. If the wind wasn't blowing there would be a huge black cloud of diesel smoke hanging in the air. .

I don't notice the smoke so much but the vast majority of trucks (those without APU's) still idle all night. I am not a full time truck driver but whenever I take my truck on a trip where I have to sleep in it I let it idle all night. I idle it up to around 1000 rpm. Got to have my heat and AC as well as power to the batteries for the inverter. A couple weeks back I was on the road for four days and never shut the truck off the whole time I was gone.

 

[brown40]

If it takes more than a couple minutes, just shut it down. Wet-stacking is a risk, but moreso: why waste the fuel and metal banging away at idle when you're going to be a bit? I don't think its the worst thing you could do, but what do you gain for leaving it running?

 

[Jim Timber]

If it takes more than a couple minutes, just shut it down. Wet-stacking is a risk, but moreso: why waste the fuel and metal banging away at idle when you're going to be a bit? I don't think its the worst thing you could do, but what do you gain for leaving it running?

If you're not driving it long enough to recharge the battery from the starting cycle, it could be a problem.

I'll leave mine idle, but I also have the hand throttle set at 1200rpm most of the time (per JD's spec for fast idle). If I was going to be a bit, I might shut it down or might leave it run - really depends on what I'm doing and how many times I'd started it vs how long it's run. I don't shut it down if the aux lights are on; gotta keep the alternator spinning.

Fuel consumption at idle is pretty low when there's no load. Even full power barely breaks 3 gallons an hour.

 

[RoyJackson]

It's always a judgement call, but I normally leaving mine idling around 1200-1500 RPM.

 

[npalen]

We had a 1936 RD6 Caterpillar on the Kansas farm when I was a kid back in the 50's. It was a three cylinder 45 HP which was somewhat unique among the tractors of the day but the pistons were huge. I doubt that it ran 1000 RPM at full throttle but it had tons of torque. The figure that sticks in my mind for fuel consumption was also three gallons per hour pulling 5 to 7 bottoms of 16" plow. It was slow for sure, nothing like the tractors of today.
I'm told that the tractor, when in its prime, was started at midnight Sunday evening and ran non-stop plowing day and night thru the week until Saturday midnight. The fuel was hauled in 5-gallon cans. I did get to run this tractor some as a teenager and it was awesome but getting a bit tired. It originally pulled a 5-16 plow with a 2-16 behind it on a special hitch.

https://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=mcafee&type=C211US679D20140213&p=caterpillar+RD6

 

[daugen]

this is very timely for me as I have two teenagers coming over in a few hours and they will be raking and picking up sticks for hours, filling up the cart behind my diesel JD X750. And I was thinking what to tell them about turning off the unit. My thought was "if you're here more than a few minutes, turn it off". And turn off the engine, just don't get out of the seat and let the kill switch do it. Besides, I only like to turn off engines at idle speed.

As long as the engine gets warm the first time out, the preheat function isn't needed, but starting and stopping a cold engine might not be best.
Sadly today with idiot lights and "green-red" gauges, I don't know the temp of the engine. But once the needle moves up to at least one quarter, should be good to go.

I got distracted two weeks ago and let my Gravely idle for over an hour. When I shut off the tractor and realized the Gravely was still idling away, I went over to shut it off and it was spitting and popping. All crudded up, backfiring, took about five minutes of full power to burn the crud off the plugs and then it ran fine.
Diesels don't seem to mind...

my understanding with wet stacking is unburned diesel washes the oil off the cylinder walls adding to wear. Caused by too low temps.
when price of diesel jumped in boating, many big boats slowed down too much, reports of wet stacking up and down the Intracoastal on big yachts running at low rpm
to save fuel. I was told minimum 160 degrees. Your results will surely vary.

Of course, if I leave the engine running, will I dawdle less?