Life expectancy of the Kubota 3 cyl engine
- Thread starter Captain
- Start date
Hey Captain. Just so happens, I ask a guy ,whom's opinion I respect very much ,the same question. He knows me well and shoots straight. . He is an expert tractor mechanic and works only on tractors. In fact , he was the main guy at JD till he got his own very successful repair business. Anyway, he told me 10,000m hrs with a quality maintance program before any major overhaul.. He is only talking about the general engine and not the RTV specifically. I was concerned about my heavy use and being able to save up to buy another. so any way that is what he told me. I try to change the oil and filter about every 100 hrs which can get expensive up front for my frequent use. I change the trans every 400 hrs and I use all Kubota filters. Is that a Miller bobcat welder or a bobcat as in skid steer.? p.s.. I have almost zero blow by-- still. If this is a skid steer, There are other things to look at........... Bordercollie</p>
I have a Kubota 900 series engine providing power for our property (two houses) when the solar and/or wind are not sufficient to keep the battery bank charged. I have over 5000 hours on it and it looks and runs like new. I have heard of folks getting 30,000 hours(!) on the engine before needing to overhaul. I change the oil and filter in my genset every 150 hours. Mind you, it never starts cold, living in a heated generator shed.</p>
iwould think that if the motor was well maintained that you could easily get 30k hours out of it. do you have a flowing creek or river around you? if so you could get 2 or 3 high output alternators and make a few paddlewheels then run them to your battery bank.we did this on a shrimping barge and it worked pretty good when the water was moving. you could even mounta old fan blades to the alternatorand you will probaly get the same affect from the wind when it's blowing that is but i would give the water a try too but then again you do live on the north pole and everything is probably frozen.</p>
now bringing the wlder thing into it that welder will be running at almost full throttle when it is runningso things will wear out alot faster than a regular deisel engine. but the best thing about the welder is it's cheap and easy to rebuild down here the rental companies won't sell their used welders they just redo the engines and send them back out into the field you might wanna contact miller and ask whats the cost to rebuild the engine and get all the parts just incase. i know when i was useing them on the job we would run them 24/7 until the job was finished.them little bobcats are tough we would shut them down for an hour for lunch and then for about an hour at crew change but other than that they was up and running. i seen some of them units with the covers and some of the little trailers almost rusted away but the unit ran like new. at just 10 hours a day it would be way less than a year and you could put 1400 hours on a welder real easy.</p>
[quote user="tommy 20/69"]</p>
iwould think that if the motor was well maintained that you could easily get 30k hours out of it. do you have a flowing creek or river around you? if so you could get 2 or 3 high output alternators and make a few paddlewheels then run them to your battery bank.we did this on a shrimping barge and it worked pretty good when the water was moving. you could even mounta old fan blades to the alternatorand you will probaly get the same affect from the wind when it's blowing that is but i would give the water a try too but then again you do live on the north pole and everything is probably frozen.</p>
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Good idea with the alternators, but the water here is very hard in the winter!
I am maximizing the potential of sun and wind as power sources, but between October and February we depend on the diesel genset to make up the difference--days are short and there is often not much wind--and the ice is 3-4 feet thick on the river.</p>
iwould think that if the motor was well maintained that you could easily get 30k hours out of it. do you have a flowing creek or river around you? if so you could get 2 or 3 high output alternators and make a few paddlewheels then run them to your battery bank.we did this on a shrimping barge and it worked pretty good when the water was moving. you could even mounta old fan blades to the alternatorand you will probaly get the same affect from the wind when it's blowing that is but i would give the water a try too but then again you do live on the north pole and everything is probably frozen.</p>
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Good idea with the alternators, but the water here is very hard in the winter!
I am maximizing the potential of sun and wind as power sources, but between October and February we depend on the diesel genset to make up the difference--days are short and there is often not much wind--and the ice is 3-4 feet thick on the river.</p>[quote user="tommy 20/69"]</p>
man das some cold stuff. and what was the reason for you to live way out in the middle of knowwhere? did you growup there or did you get tired of the grid life and wanted freedom?</p>
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It does get cold, but the beauty and lifestyle more than makes up for needing to wear a few extra layers of clothing and burn a few more cords of wood. You can check out the tourist propaganda at: http://travelyukon.com/ My wife and I moved here in 2002, after living 7 years in Oxford, England. We 'met' the Yukon via our son, who had moved here after university. He fell in love with the territory after spending his summers here as a river adventure guide for local adventure tour operators. We came for a visit and fell in love too. So here we are. By birth I am a 5th generation Californian, but I have always loved the North. It's in my genes, I think. There is a small community in Alaska named after my great-great grandfather. At least that is the Reader's Digest version...</p>
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man das some cold stuff. and what was the reason for you to live way out in the middle of knowwhere? did you growup there or did you get tired of the grid life and wanted freedom?</p>
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It does get cold, but the beauty and lifestyle more than makes up for needing to wear a few extra layers of clothing and burn a few more cords of wood. You can check out the tourist propaganda at: http://travelyukon.com/ My wife and I moved here in 2002, after living 7 years in Oxford, England. We 'met' the Yukon via our son, who had moved here after university. He fell in love with the territory after spending his summers here as a river adventure guide for local adventure tour operators. We came for a visit and fell in love too. So here we are. By birth I am a 5th generation Californian, but I have always loved the North. It's in my genes, I think. There is a small community in Alaska named after my great-great grandfather. At least that is the Reader's Digest version...
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I have seen several rtvs with over 12,000 hours on them and little to no maintenance, the engine oil was changed every 1000 hours, trans at the same time and all the filters. That drivetrain is so indestructable it is truly amazing. Those machines still start right up drive good and use very little fuel. I would not even hesitate to expect 15,000 hours out of an rtv with good maintenance.</p>
Matt</p>
Matt</p>
Yep, I know... These machines belong to a railyard maintenance company, and get beaten beyond anything that I have ever seen. No, Im not kidding. 1000, that is one thousand hours and up to 1500 hours on engine oil changes. The oil barely runs out the drain plug hole when we change it, but these little engines just keep coming back for more. I always say, if I had a choice of 2 engines in the world, it would be a Kubota or a Cummins.</p>
Hi mstordahl, Nice to have you here. That is amazing info... I would never treat anything like that that I paid for --nor anybody else's stuff . Even though I am a tight wad, I don't mind buying oil and filters --it is a cheap preventative . My unit gets sweeter everyday cause it's paid for even including high hours for me at almost 3000. I do my best to take care of it internally so I will hopefully have it in top shape for a long while. Bordercollie.</p>
Hi Buck, I don't know a thing about the gasoline engine but will update my old post to say that when I sold the '05 900 in Aug of '11, she had over 4000 hrs and no blow by and used zero oil. The driveshaft is another matter on those things. bordercollie
