I am pretty much a one man show,my question is when I jump of the dozer to run the scraper or trackhoe.should I just do the 3 min idle down and shut off, or leave it running.what would be the length of time to leave it run if you will be right back in the seat. what is harder on machine setting running or starting all the time??
Naturally, there's a lot of ifs and buts; Best for the machine is to idle down a couple of minutes. But if you're sitting waiting on the machine for three minutes, that's a lot of wasted time over the course of a day. On the other hand, leaving the machine idling is using valuable fuel. From a mechanical point of view, on a modern machine, I would be comfortable with up to 30 minutes idling. If your machines are electrical shutoff, turbo timers would solve all your problems.
Some of the new highway trucks are coming with automatic shutdowns available. If they sit idling for a preset period of time.. they automatically shutdown. A fuel conservation measure. So save fuel, shut it off.
It really depends on how long it idles for. You have to think about the time you spend sitting on it waiting to shut it off and then the amount of extra wear on your starter and ring gear and charging system . An idling diesel burns very little fuel. I know a lot of guys who will let a machine run for an hour if they know they are coming back to use It again.
Another factor would be weather/temp.
Also it depends on how hard you run it before you shut it off. If you were finish grading or had to walk it somewhere at near no load for a minute or two, I would count that as almost idle time for purposes of shutdown.
I have to agree with Mr. Vogt. Rule of thumb a few years back was that half an hour idling was comparable to 1.5 hours of hard running. Contrary to what many people think, diesels don't wear when running. The wear in the cylinders is caused by chemical compounds formed when the engine is not up to operating temperature. Acids are formed which settle on the cylinder walls and attack the metal. Additives are in motor oils to counteract the process but a cold run will use up the additives quicker. My thoughts are that you should let things cool after a hard run before shutting down for about three or more minutes. If you are uncertain how long it will be for your next load, then shut down. The idling doesn't do your engine any good at all. I've angered people that left machines running through lunch. Had I had the horse power there are a couple I would have sent down the road. I've pulled lots of flywheels and starters and can say from experience that they don't wear out from use. It is usually an electrical system half working, dead batteries, bad cables and trying to start an engine that is already running.
A competitor and I run the same style of musical chairs too. There is days his hoe will fire up and shut off 70 times to save what? $20 in fuel? I leave my stuff run if im going to work it within a hour. The multiple warm up and cool cycles are harder on components IMO than burning a little extra fuel. A higher idle is better than a lower idle. Brings up oil pressure, keeps cylinders from cooling and fuel loading. I would rather have the machine still up to operating temp so when I need it its WFO right away instead of another warm up under high load. Every heat up and cool down is a expansion and contraction cycle between the head, block and liners. Think about it...
Agree with Doyle I do the same thing. I don't do a whole lot of dirt work but I do farm and when I am out combining when the truck is full I turn off the rotor and feeder bring it down to a high idle then go haul a load of grain to the bin or when planting or spraying it may take 45 min to and hour to refill and I leave Em run Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk