Oil Change Intervals

On a car it's is pretty easy to know when to change simply by going by mileage. On my Kubota I'm not so sure.

How often do you change your oil? Do you use hours as the gauge (ie: every 50 or 100 hours) or do you just change it once a year?

Every spring or 50 hours which ever comes first.

The owners manual makes recommendations. I will stay in line with the mfg's suggested time intervals for all services to maintain warranty. If you do it that way, you will not have to try to remember when you last serviced and time for new service is due.

I just completed my 50 hours service on the Kubota L39. I actually had 54 hours on the engine oil and about 60 hours on the transmission/axle oil before changing. The Kubota dealer parts people gave me a single hydraulic filter and my machine requires 2 hydraulic filters. I had to wait an extra week on the hydraulic oil change to get the 2nd filter from the dealer. The dealer said 60 hours should not be a problem. Yes, I did buy and use the SUDT Kubota hydraulic oil as I believe it will give you more hours of service and will provide for a nice high cost year end vacation for the dealer.....

Overall use of the tractor is still the major factor to service. I will probably use the L39 at least 250 or more hours a year. My service will be based on the mfg's recommendations and actual usage of the machine.

I was good up to my 200 Hour super change (change everything). Now it's once a year oil, oil filter, fuel filter, and air filter. At least that's the plan. I'm already late though.

On those annual changes, if it is time to change the hydraulic oil or the front gear oil, or whetever then I'll do those.

I aim for every 50 hours, but often that's at an inconvenient time, so I dont mind letting it run on.
I just did a mega-service, well part of one, had to use the tractor before I had finished. Still got the air filter and some work on the engine to do. And I need to go through the gearbox and replace bearings.
I guess I need to mark the hours the tractor has now, so I know when to change the hydraulic fluid for the loader.

I'll have to double check but I think my manual recommends changing every 100 hours .... but that seemed to long. I do not put 100 hours on in a year, as all of my major work is completed. I'm in maintenance mode.
So, I change it once a year.

As for the Hydrolic fluid I'm waiting for the recommended hours before changing. It will have been 3 years since it was changed, but I've never heard of changing hydro fluid yearly or anything other than the dealer recommended # of hours.

Every 100 hours and I'm due in 20!

I'll be doing mine at 100 hrs since the last change . But, I tend to wonder if that might be a bit too long . Given that the hour meter tends to read hours at pto speed . So, at 100 hrs,I may well have a lot more time on My engine than that .
Am I just being overly concerned ?

engine
BX23 100 hours
CC gt2554 100 hours.

Tranny
300 hours BX23
500 hours CC gt2554

nixon said:

Given that the hour meter tends to read hours at pto speed .

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John,
I actually never thought of it that way. I thought the hour meter was a reading of how long the ignition switch was on, regardless of what rpm you were running at. I've no idea where the PTO speed comes into that since many times my PTO is not even running ....when I'm box blading or just using the loader.
How does the hour meter work?

Aren't the actual hours represented when you're operating at PTO RPM regardless if the PTO is engaged or not?

I know on my tractors and many John Deere's that the tachometer turns at any RPM and so does the hour meter....so even at idle the hour meter moves, but much slower.

Please correct me if I'm mistaken about other tractors.

Mark

I'm not sure as to the hour meter operation either. I have a ZTR that my son left the key on by mistake. The hour meter ran until the battery died. So ... I have an extra 60+ hours on the ZTR.

My boats are similar in that if the key is on the hour meter is running.

Are tractors set up differently so that the meter runs at different speeds depending on what the rpm is set to?

Would the hour meter run if the key was left on but the motor was not running?

There's 2 different types of hour meters.

There's those that are "normally" found on tractors that gauge the hours at PTO RPMs and those that run by the clock.

As mentioned, on many tractors, the hour meter runs slower at lower RPMs.

Many smaller pieces of equipment (ZTR's, UTV's and smaller tractors), the hours are based at clock time once the key is turned on.

My local Kubota dealer said the new Kubota hour meter read with the key on, while many older tractors/equipment hour meters were set to register at or near operating rpms. My snow cats seem to register hours much slower than my new Kubota. This info came to light when I had to delay my hydraulic oil change for lack of parts. The dealer said with the newer hour meters they tend to show more operating hours than older style hour meters on equipment and to not worry about the extra 10 hours of use on the break in hydraulic oil in the L39.

Doc said:

John,
I actually never thought of it that way. I thought the hour meter was a reading of how long the ignition switch was on, regardless of what rpm you were running at.

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Doc, What You are describing is a Hobbs type hour meter . It works on a clock work type mechanism .
A pretty good explanation is in Wilkipedia (sp).
The Type on my Kub. Is different . It only registers accurately at PTO speeds .
The further You vary from that the more the inaccuracy.
I'm thinking with the Hobbs type meter my Hours would be overstated . With My meter the hours are understated . Thats why I'm kind of concerned about the manuals maintenance schedule . I guess for my piece of mind , I'll cut My oil change intervals down to 50 Hrs. As to the HST change time .... Don't know if I want to cut that in half . I'm cheap

Thanks for the explanation guys. I have a Kubota 3010. I thought the hour meter was the Hobbs type that John described above.
However, if it is the PTO type, and I don't run my PTO 1/2 the time I'm using the tractor, is my hour meter running at all?

By the way, John I'm with you ....I would rather change it early just to be sure and for the peace of mind.

Doc said:

However, if it is the PTO type, and I don't run my PTO 1/2 the time I'm using the tractor, is my hour meter running at all?

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Doc , It reads hours at PTO speed (engine Rpm ) regardless of the pto being engaged ,or not . I'm not sure what the variance would be ,say from Idle to full PTO rpm . I doubt that it's linear (at least I hope so ) !!

Ahhh, Thanks! Like many, I run at the lowest RPM possible, so that the tractor doesn't bog down, and I can get the job done. Since I now have a ZTR it does the mowing duties, so the kubota is not run at 540 PTO speed much of the time. Now I know why my hours seemed low from what I was expecting.