just letting tractor idle - probably a dumb question

[john reeder]

I took delivery of a new BX2380 last Tuesday, my first tractor. One thing I'm going to do with it when it gets dry enough is go around in the area at the rear of our property and stack lengths of tree trunks in the bucket and haul them back to our burn pile and dump them. When doing this there will obviously be stretches where the tractor just sits and idles while I refill the bucket at one end of each load. I'm thinking it is best to just let it do that rather than
kill it and restart it each trip; am I right? In a kind of similar situation we had a professional pressure washer here two weeks ago or so to pressure wash both the house and our driveway which is pretty long. He was here from about 9am to 6pm and he ran the pressure washer engine, a 3 cylinder Kubota diesel, all day except for the time he took for lunch.

 

[PILOON]

Let it idle, no harm and very minimal fuel consumption.

Ever notice highway haulers never shut down and those rigs go many 100,000's miles.

 

[HillStreet]

John,

I had a Kubota B2320 and now have a Kubota B2650 and both worked pretty hard. You can get 8 hours on a tank of diesel. What will you stack tree trunks with the bucket with, do you have forks or a grapple? Just curious about that because tree trunks are heavy.
About shutting off or leaving it running: I let mine run all day without shutting down, even during lunch time (half an hour or so). When I quit for the day I would idle down for 20 minutes or so. You have a nice tractor there, enjoy it.

 

[jbrumberg]

Let it idle.

 

[TheMadOne]

Won't hurt it. I often shut the L3301 off just because it's so loud, ruins the atmosphere. I do suggest a cart/trailer to consolidate trips.

 

[jeff9366]

I took delivery of BX2380 today with the qa la344 fel, qh05 quick hitch, bb1248 box blade, and five years of Kubota property insurance .

Make sure the Box Blade is mounted on your Three Point Hitch prior to lifting with the FEL.

Keep your FEL loads low during transport. Greater FEL height increases tractor instability.

 

[Fallon]

If your tractor has emissions equipment on it (only on 25hp or higher engines) the emissions equipment doesnt like idling as much. I'll leave my machine idling for 5 minutes or so in a heartbeat. But if it's going to be much more than that I'll think about shutting it down. I did about the same with my pre-emissions L3200 though.

 

[atsah]

I will idle for ten minutes at time when I'm putting firewood in the bucket, no harm is doing that with a tractor under 25hp..

 

[john reeder]

Thank you for the responses. The box blade will be on the rear. I will cut the wood in lengths suitable for stacking front to rear in the bucket and will not raise it high when hauling the wood. I may haul two or ?? longer pieces on the box blade too. These aren't big trees hurricanes Ike and Rita got all of them eleven & fourteen years ago (I'm in SE Texas).

 

[Fallon]

Thank you for the responses. The box blade will be on the rear. I will cut the wood in lengths suitable for stacking front to rear in the bucket and will not raise it high when hauling the wood. I may haul two or ?? longer pieces on the box blade too. These aren't big trees hurricanes Ike and Rita got all of them eleven & fourteen years ago (I'm in SE Texas).

It's pretty doubtful you'd overload the 3pt that way. Typical signs include the front wheels hovering several feet off the ground & your impliment still sitting on the ground.

You are MUCH more likely to overload the front. If that ever happens as soon as the rear of the tractor comes off the ground the tractor rolls over because front axle pivots on a pin & has no side to side stability.