What happened to my hour meter?!?!

ACKBill · Aug 20, 2006

I have been a little suspicous of the reading on my hour meter ever since I purchased my 3520. It seemed like John Deere's hours were about 10-15 minutes shorter than mine but I had pretty much decided to just live with it. Untill yesterday that is, My hour meter jumped from 50.1 to 51.4 hours right as I was watching it (I'm getting ready to do the 50 hour service so I've been watching it alot recently).

Now for the most part, the hour meter is really just a refence for the sevice interval but what about my warranties??? I think that I'm going to call my dealer tomorrow and see what he has to say.

Has anyone else had anything similar happen with their machines?

BILL

Gator6x4 · Aug 20, 2006

I have a John Deere Gator, or the wife does. I have also noticed the hour meter records hours at an accelerated rate.

CurlyDave · Aug 20, 2006

I have seen somewhere that the hour meter actually measures "nominal hours" which are hours corrected to some standard RPM. If that is the case they should have called it a revolution meter becasue it is really measuring the total revolutions your engine has made.

Jumping 1.3 hours is unacceptable in any event.

My warranty is 3000 hours or 5 calendar years. I have a suspicion I will hit 5 years long before I hit 3000 hours no matter whether the meter is fast or not. Accelerated service does not really bother me. It is cheap and I expect the machine to last well beyond the warranty.

OTOH, let us know what the dealer says.

joebobharley · Aug 21, 2006

ACKBill said:
I have been a little suspicous of the reading on my hour meter ever since I purchased my 3520. It seemed like John Deere's hours were about 10-15 minutes shorter than mine but I had pretty much decided to just live with it. Untill yesterday that is, My hour meter jumped from 50.1 to 51.4 hours right as I was watching it (I'm getting ready to do the 50 hour service so I've been watching it alot recently).

Now for the most part, the hour meter is really just a refence for the sevice interval but what about my warranties??? I think that I'm going to call my dealer tomorrow and see what he has to say.

Has anyone else had anything similar happen with their machines?

BILL

Wonder what the dealer is going to say?

Anyway, what some of the others have said is true. Most all manufacturers have what they call their nominal machine hour. For instance, the hour meter on my Ford 2910 is geared to 1800 rpm which BTW is the rated 540 PTO speed. At 1800 it records an hour about every 55 mins which I suspect is pretty accurate for a gear driven hourmeter. If you run slower than 1800 rpm then it takes longer to make the hour, faster than 1800 shorter to make the hour. That I can live with.

I have been shocked

to say the least at how fast my 4320 is collecting time. So far I have run it over 2000 rpm very little so my earlier experiences don't add up here. I haven't put a watch to it yet, but I suspect that I am getting charged a tenth of an hour every four minutes or so no matter how fast or slow I run the rpms. At this point, I am seriously considering installing a second aftermarket meter to see what is actually going on. If I am only getting 40 mins of real run time per JD's idea of an hour that's really bogus. Not only does it effect waranty periods, but also resale value. If the tractor needs service at 35 hours instead of 50, then say so. Don't over clock the clock.

Richard

4320 eHydro Cab 400XFEL

firemanpat2910 · Aug 21, 2006

My ford 2910 is the same as the previous posters. I had the cable break that runs the tach and the hour meter, So now once a year I spray some grease in the tube.

RjPilot · Aug 21, 2006

Please let us know what the dealer says...now I'll have to check the
meter on my 4310.

I thought it ran kinda fast but I was working the 4310 pretty hard.

KenneCan · Aug 21, 2006

When I purchased my 4 wheeler 5 years ago I wanted an hour meter to perform maintenance on a regular schedule. So I purchased an after market hour meter that also gives RPMs for about $60. Very easy to hookup, you just have a single wire that wraps around a sparkplug wire. This link at northern tool has one for $50 bucks.

http://www2.northerntool.com/product/524744_524744.htm

ACKBill · Aug 22, 2006

Just got off the phone with the dealer and he says that it sounds like either a bad meter or perhaps some water got in to it somehow (although I haven't noticed any fogging of the cover). He's starting the warranty paperwork as I write this. Now we just need to work out how to get it done as I live on an island and the ferry ticket isn't covered by the dealer unless something "spectacular" goes wrong. Anybody out there ever replaced one of theses hour meters before? Maybe I'll take this opportunity to wire in some switches and a 12v outlet or two.

BILL

ACKBill · Aug 22, 2006

Kennecan:

Thanks for the link but it's got a diesel engine.

Bill

ACKBill · Sep 5, 2006

I replaced the hour meter/instrument cluster last night after work and it was quite easy. Probably took less than an hour including taking pictures and cleaning up. I took the hood off although I probably didn't need to but it did make access to the nuts on the bolts that hold the dash assembly much easier. I'll post the pictures tonight, don't know if I can do it on this thread or if I'll have to start a new one.

BILL