Just let it Idle

[Magicman]

My "across the street" neighbor had a guy on a big Kubota bushhogging her back yard this morning.  Leaves, limbs, etc.  When I got home at about 11:45, there sat the Kubota idling while the worker went to lunch.  It is still sitting there idling.   

It is obvious that the worker neither owns it nor is paying for the fuel.   :-\

[hardtailjohn]

If it was -40 I could almost see that...... but??? (and he'll probably wonder why it uses oil......)

[brendonv]

Maybe he charges by the hour.  Ive hear that before.  I turn stuff off all the time, i dont need to brag about how many hours are on my machines.

[isawlogs]

 Maybe, just maybe there is something wrong with the starter and he needs to keep it running to be able to do some work in the afternoon.
  Go ask him why it is idling, then we will all have the answer instead of speculating on the reason s why one leaves a machine running.  ;)

[Magicman]

They were gone when I got home, but he did not have any trouble starting it to unload this morning.

[21incher]

I know with my little Kubota if you run it hard for a couple of hours you are supposed to let it idle for a couple of minutes before shutting it down to cool it down a little. If you don't the temp gauge will max out after shutting down. I think it is because the radiator is in the center of the machine and the engine is backwards.

[gspren]

  If the boss checks the hour meter he won't see how long a lunch break his worker took. If that's the neighbor I'm thinking of I hope they don't cheat her.

[Dave Shepard]

Unless it's a digital hourmeter, the hours are based on the actual revolutions the engine turned. You would have to run it at rated speed for one hour to get one hour on the clock. If it was just idling, it would probably take two and a half hours to get an hour on the clock. If it was really hot, then I could see it idling for a quick lunch break. My Kubota is fussy about having a really clean radiator.

[JohnM]

That's a long lunch. digin1

[Magicman]

I was at home for over an hour.

[coxy]

maybe he has lot of money or gets free fuel :D :D :D :D

[Brucer]

Unless it's a digital hourmeter, the hours are based on the actual revolutions the engine turned.  ...

It used to be that way, not so much any more. My old '52 D7 had one of those direct drive hour meters, connected to the camshaft. The 1973 Cat 910 loader I rent has an electric meter that is switched on as soon as the engine produces oil pressure.

[moosehunter]

My last two saw jobs the forester had his Kioti tractor at for support work. His starter was bad. He only shut it off for lunch and at the end of the day. I do not think he has it fixed yet. It would drive me nuts not having a starter.

[Dave Shepard]

Unless it's a digital hourmeter, the hours are based on the actual revolutions the engine turned.  ...

It used to be that way, not so much any more. My old '52 D7 had one of those direct drive hour meters, connected to the camshaft. The 1973 Cat 910 loader I rent has an electric meter that is switched on as soon as the engine produces oil pressure.

All but the most recent Kubota tractors use a tach driven off the engine with a built in hour meter. Only the new digital ones count actual hours, the old ones still add up rpm hours.

[red oaks lumber]

i'm an idler actually i keep it at 1500 rpm's  my feeling its harder on them to be starting and stopping alot , the little extra fuel you burn wont even come close to the price of a new starter. or the dirtier oil which reduces motor life.
i think working them at a low labored rpm is really hard on the motor also, which i'm not guilty of motors are meant to be ran at 2000 rmp

[Tom L]

my only issue with idling a machine for a long time is that there is no one sitting at the controls to shut it off if a belt breaks and it starts to overheat.
an overheated engine is one expense I do not want to deal with.

I just had to get on a guy about an hour ago. he left one of my forklifts idling when he went for his 15 min break.
more than enough time to ruin the whole machine if something went wrong.

but then again he doesn't own it so who cares

[red oaks lumber]

doing routine maintance would spot a cracked or worn belt. 

[goose63]

Last month started my little tractor let run 10 minutes to warm up went out was steaming like crazy water pump out was not leaking water when started it those things will happen fast

[easymoney]

i do not care to leave an engine idling for any length of time partly because i do not want to waste fuel. it seems that folks like to leave a diesel idling for various reasons.
if the engine is running i want to see the wheels rolling.

[warren46]

When logging in Northern Minnesota my dad had a 1948 Cat D8 used to make roads and clear snow.  They started it in November and shut it down in April unless it was a late spring.  If they shut it down they would need to let it sit until it warmed up.  That of course was before there was any concern about climate change. 

[isawlogs]

 I am not a fan of idling a machine, but here sometimes in the glacial effect months, one needs to get the thing warmed up some to be able to get it moving. That though, is not letting it sit idling for lunch break, I would not be to happy about that my self.

[Gary_C]

There is a very good reason to let any engine idle for a short time after running at heavy loads and especially for turbo charged engines. Exhaust gas temperatures at heavy loads can push the limits of what the exhaust valves and turbo rotors can stand and the temperature in the exhaust system will rise when you shut off the airflow and trap the combustion gasses in the exhaust system.

So when you turn off an engine that is working hard, you stop both the cooling air flow and the cooling water flow. With diesel engines, if you have an exhaust gas temperature monitor that does not shut off when the engine is turned off, you can see the temperature in the exhaust rise from about 11-1200 deg F to 14-1600+ deg F. Those temperatures will cook your valves and turbo. Since exhaust temperatures are dependent on engine load and boost pressure, it's not as much of a problem on non turbo engines.

In California, they now have anti idling laws that allow you about 5 minutes of idling time (cool down) and then you have to shut your engine down.

[OntarioAl]

Gary
I think you have an extra zero in your temperature ranges.
California ah yes CARB strikes again but in this case not necessarily a bad idea.
Al

[Escavader]

The starter cost of some of these machines far outweighs any fuel you use letting it idle,but not for an hour I can see 5 minutes10  etc. In the winter we let some machines idle  long times for fear of extreme cold and not being able to restart

[barbender]

We do a lot of idling up here in the winter, it falls into the "necessary evil" category. When it's warm out, I shut things down, if for no other reason than I like the quiet. As others said, don't immediately shut down a hard worked engine. Some old diesels (220 Cummins, IH diesel in TD crawlers) were notorious for blowing head gaskets if they weren't sufficiently warmed up, and cooled down. We had a truck with a 220 that my Dad would let idle for an hour in the morning and an hour at night, otherwise it was constant head gaskets.