# of hours

Doc

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Wow, that is a lot of hours.
Lets say it's on a work site. 5 days a week x 52 weeks a year = 260 work days a year.

260 x 6 years = 1560 days of work

If it worked all those days and now has 7817 hours it would average 5 hours a day of running time. Dang that's a lot. I'd guess it's more likely it was on one of those 12 hour day 7 day a week construction sites ....just my guess.

Like you, tha is the most hours I've ever seen. Heck I'm just now getting close to 800 hours on my 2006 900 RTV.
 

bordercollie

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I average 600 hrs per year on my RTV. I just turned over on 3000 with the 2011 . So far, no problems except for the ujoints last year. :) Regular maintenance is "appreciated" by any machine. My vinyl seat has ripped on the edge but that is minor . bordercollie
 

Alaskanassasin

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I'll bite... 29 hrs
There was a 900 at the dealer with 3000 hrs that the school system had traded in, rode pretty hard rusted from spreading salt, they wanted 5900 I laughed and he said they will get it!
 

bordercollie

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I sold my 2005 900 with 4,200 hrs for 5,200 to the 2nd looker, and had over 60 calls. It looked new and drove new with no blow by. That was in 2011. I paid 12 ,700 for this current 2011 900xt and it drives even better the older it gets . :) collie
 
I went and looked and unfortunately I didn't record the hours when I traded the 900 in. But they gave me 6 grand for it. The Kawasaki before that I sent to auction because it had over 9000 hours on it and it still brought $650 with 4 flat tires and missing parts.

2 years and 8 months on this X1100 and it has 710 hours on it. I think bordercollie wins.

I know when I had the cows I used it a lot more than with the sheep.
 

10-e-c-dirt

Active member
My X900 was delivered 3/28/2015,, I done the 600 Hr oil change today 12/26/16.
BTW I agree with Etwman a spanner wrench should be standard equipment on all RTV's
and I also have a beef with the parking brake lever placement and PB light.
 

Cdnfireman

New member
I've got an '06 900 with 5300 hours on the clock. Just rebuilt the rear axles and bearings, new front cv shafts, new one piece front driveshaft kit. I bought it used from a farmer about a year and a half ago for $3500. I did a full service on it when I bought it and figured I'd run it for a year to see how the engine and tranny were before I fixed the rest of the driveline.
It runs strong, zero blowby or oil use, starts runs and drives fine. I only use it about a hundred hours a year for general use so I'm thinking it will keep going for years to come
 

2015EcoD

New member
I'm at almost 200hrs and almost 150 miles on a 2016 x1140 purchased new on January 1st. I don't feel like I use it that much but every time I look at the hour meter I appreciate the RTV more. I can't imagine how many more hours I would have to work to accomplish the same chores without it.
 

ovrszd

Well-known member
The uses of Rtvs are soooo diverse. I pay little attention to the hours. I pay a lot of attention to the service the machine provides.

As someone pointed out earlier, large hours require a dedicated operator using the machine for all "chores" or a commercial application where multiple operators are involved.

I believe the RTV to be the perfect machine for those applications.
 

Alaskanassasin

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The uses of Rtvs are soooo diverse. I pay little attention to the hours. I pay a lot of attention to the service the machine provides.

As someone pointed out earlier, large hours require a dedicated operator using the machine for all "chores" or a commercial application where multiple operators are involved.

I believe the RTV to be the perfect machine for those applications.


I will second that. When I lived in Alaska the oil companies were selling f-350 4 door 4x4 trucks that they used on the north slope cheap! They would have very few miles on them but thousands of hours! They never shut them off because it was so cold the trucks wouldn't re start, they literally left them running day and night during very long winters.
 

Etwman

Member
My X900 was delivered 3/28/2015,, I done the 600 Hr oil change today 12/26/16.
BTW I agree with Etwman a spanner wrench should be standard equipment on all RTV's
and I also have a beef with the parking brake lever placement and PB light.

I second that. I have an 1100 and the new x1100c. That stupid parking brake lever and light in the x is stupid as anything. Do you know how many times i’ve taken off only to realize the brake is still on? They definitely didn’t think through this very good.
 

Alaskanassasin

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I took Richard’s advice, when I put the parking brake on I’ll pull it hard so there’s no driving off with it on
 

seedsower

New member
So whats the average life span of a 900 rtv?I know different owners mind and use theirs differently so no one answer covers all but is there a stage that they become expensive to keep going?
I was in a large kubota dealers recently and was surprised to hear that they wont retail an rtv with more than 2500 hours,they send them to auction.
Mine haS 4800 hours,engine seems good though the water is very brown even after flushing.I bought the machine recently having been told that the trasmission had been fully rebuilt not long ago.
However when i got it home it had no speed,we replaced the transmission pump which sorted it.
Whats the average life of a rebuilt hst?
Worked away for a few months then started acting up between forward and reverse which i think i have mostly sorted .
i have lost faith in the machine a bit and am wondering if i should change it for a lower houred one?
I dont mind odd bits of external repairs but dont want to end up spending a lot of money on a major repair on a machine thats 14 yeatrs old and not worth much
 

bordercollie

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I had 2 RTVs900s in a row starting in Feb of 2005. I put over 4200 seat hours on each and never had any trouble with the transmissions nor engines. I changed fluids and filters often and used oem but for the engine oil and then used the john deere oil here on our farm for that. I did replace the ujoints several times in the over 8400 hrs combined, then oiled and greased all moving items. (such as the differential levers behind the side panels. and also replaced the stop solenoid a few times. Greased shift levers pins - what !!no grease fittings there- nope .. shifted much easier afterwards too.
With good tires they are great machines but do last a long time with oem filters and the sudt2 in the transmission.

I'd flush that radiator with some radiator cleaner and it will likely run cooler and give less problems. I flushed the old clogged radiator on my 332 JD mower with a diesel engine and it did a great job. I let it run a bit, set a few days and all sort of deposits came out. It does run good now. I bought the stuff on amazon and can't remember the name but will look it up and post back . bordercollie
 
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bordercollie

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The radiator cleaner I used is called Thermocure on ama zon . It worked for me but your case may be different. collie
 
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California

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... in Alaska the oil companies were selling f-350 4 door 4x4 trucks that they used on the north slope cheap! They would have very few miles but thousands of hours! They never shut them off because it was so cold the trucks wouldn't re start
I bought a used federal Wagoneer that showed 75,000 miles in 18 months then was auctioned for $600. (But the dealer where I found it asked retail price :cautious: ). It was from the Navy base in Seattle. With that many miles it must have been a courier between bases or something.

The Wagoneer was mil-spec, a lower trim level (1414) than sold in the US. No A/C. No carpet just metal floor in back. Ford truck 4-speed. 302 V8. Full skidplates. A fun 'Jeep'.
 
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aurthuritis

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So whats the average life span of a 900 rtv?I know different owners mind and use theirs differently so no one answer covers all but is there a stage that they become expensive to keep going?
I was in a large kubota dealers recently and was surprised to hear that they wont retail an rtv with more than 2500 hours,they send them to auction.
Mine haS 4800 hours,engine seems good though the water is very brown even after flushing.I bought the machine recently having been told that the trasmission had been fully rebuilt not long ago.
However when i got it home it had no speed,we replaced the transmission pump which sorted it.
Whats the average life of a rebuilt hst?
Worked away for a few months then started acting up between forward and reverse which i think i have mostly sorted .
i have lost faith in the machine a bit and am wondering if i should change it for a lower houred one?
I dont mind odd bits of external repairs but dont want to end up spending a lot of money on a major repair on a machine thats 14 yeatrs old and not worth much
this too has always interested me and that is probably why i get so involved in this group discussions on repair. i personally have seen some 900's that had 10's of thousands of hours on them and were going strong working on a seismic crew. this was before i chose to buy an rtv myself and was highly the reason i did. i got to know the service crew pretty well on these units and they told me the staggering number of hours they put on them and how they are used and maintained. these machines were shipped in here by the semi load and when they left my area were on there way across the ocean again. most of them were on a 24 hour schedule never shut off. the engines and transmissions along with the rest of the machines were holding up remarkably well with hardly any major breakdowns. the rear axle u joints did have to be changed every so often. the maintenance crew kept drums of Kubota Fluid and cases of filters for the transmissions but used rotella in the engines. the regimen of transmission fluid changes was strictly adhered to. now jump forward in time on this forum and i see a huge number of low hour machines with bad HST. question??? what does this story tell you?
 

aurthuritis

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In the interest of keeping ours running for a lifetime, what HST fluid would you recommend?

personally i will only use Super UDT Kubota brand oil or as a second UDT Kubota brand HST oil and Kubota HST filters. the engine isn't as picky so i relax to a high quality engine oil and filter. also the service schedule is very important. the book just quotes service by hours only but ignores that some of these units can have years of short duration warm cold cycles before they get to the recommended hours. Kubota Super UDT can withstand more condensation than a similar oil that meets spec but in a different way"OPINION not fact". in a low hour use machine i think the oil should be changed yearly. in a machine that gets up to operating temp for lets say 10 hours continuously but on infrequent times and still doesn't meet the hours requirement not to exceed two years before service. i still prefer at least yearly HST service though in order to last many many years trouble free.
 
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