Tractor ride fuel economy
Printed From: Unofficial Allis
Category: Allis Chalmers
Forum Name: Farm Equipment
Forum Description: everything about Allis-Chalmers farm equipment
URL: https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=162475
Printed Date: 13 May 2025 at 6:32pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.10 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Tractor ride fuel economy
Posted By: DrAllis
Subject: Tractor ride fuel economy
Date Posted: 04 Jul 2019 at 7:23am
| I was recently on an 80 mile tractor ride and topped off my fuel tank at days end on the WD-45 gasser with 14.9 x 28 BKT rear tires and wide front end. My fuel mileage figured out to be right at 11 MPG. So, a full tank of gas should take me 160 miles or so @ 14 to 15 MPH. It's hard to figure the exact driving time, due to lunch break and three other pit stops. The actual pace also varies a little from 14 to 15 MPH depending on the lead dogs throttle setting. So, I figure the driving time somewhere from 5.3 to 5.7 hrs to travel the 80 mile ride. This then calculates to 1.22 to 1.32 GPH of fuel consumption. When Nebraska Test ran the WD-45 gas thru their test lab, they show at zero HP and the engine running wide open throttle ( 1700 RPM no load at all) the fuel burn rate is 1.4 GPH. This was with no power steering. My tractor weighs 3800 lbs with me in the seat and no fluid anywhere. So, the cost of pushing the 3800 lb tractor down the gently rolling road looks to be about zero of a GPH??.. because the engine itself @ 1700 RPM is 1.4 GPH ?? My measuring wasn't done with an eye dropper, but it's pretty close. A D-17 gas with power steering tested at 1.7 GPH and that would have been at 2,000 RPM no load high idle, whereas the D-17 diesel scored 1.4 GPH under the same test procedure. |
Replies:
Posted By: ac hunter
Date Posted: 04 Jul 2019 at 8:10am
| Interesting figuring there. That mpg is as good or better than most pickups not too many years ago. I used to have a 1972 Chev. 3/4 ton with a 350 that got a constant 12 mpg. I |
Posted By: Stan IL&TN
Date Posted: 04 Jul 2019 at 8:33am
|
Do you think it could be that in the Nebraska test they were testing tractors that are not broken in yet? They seem to get better as the engine gets loosened up some. Sort of like me when I get out of bed in the morning.😆 ------------- 1957 WD45 dad's first AC 1968 one-seventy 1956 F40 Ferguson |
Posted By: injpumpEd
Date Posted: 04 Jul 2019 at 10:00am
|
It seems to me the tractors sent to NE were well broken in, had already gone through testing at their own factory to make sure they sent a good one lol! ------------- 210 "too hot to farm" puller, part of the "insane pumpkin posse". Owner of Guenther Heritage Diesel, specializing in fuel injection systems on heritage era tractors. stock rebuilds to all out pullers! |
Posted By: AC7060IL
Date Posted: 04 Jul 2019 at 10:21am
| DrAllis, thanks for sharing ride mpg info about your wd45. Eighty mile trip - wow! At first, I thought that was a great distance. But then I figured mileage of a WD45 tractor & 12’ disk tilling a square 40 acre field. In theory, without turns, it would travel 28-30 miles to disk it. So, your 80 mile trip would be equivalent to disking about 100-110 acres, minus turning of course. |
Posted By: DrAllis
Date Posted: 04 Jul 2019 at 9:10pm
| There's one thing I forgot to mention. This engine has OEM pistons (and sleeves) from a D-17 engine. Instead of 6.5 to 1 compression ratio (120 psi), my engine is 7.25 to 1 compression ratio (145 psi). Same bore and stroke, just more compression. With that one change, the engine flywheel HP is increased from 50.6 to 55.6 @ 1400 RPM's full load. This HP info is taken from an old AC price list book in the "power units" section. So, the fuel efficiency is better with higher compression, to the tune of about 10% increase in HP. So maybe my engine would better the Nebraska Test numbers of 1.4 GPH wide open no load maybe down to 1.25 or 1.3 GPH with this one slight change ?? |
Posted By: Lonn
Date Posted: 05 Jul 2019 at 8:08am
|
You know, tractor drives are fun and all but I had enough seat time in the fields that the only reason I do go on drives at all is for the visiting before and afterward. 80 miles! I'd be out! But I might drive the car to the visiting site. ------------- -- --- .... .- -- -- .- -.. / .-- .- ... / .- / -- ..- .-. -.. . .-. .. -. --. / -.-. .... .. .-.. -.. / .-. .- .--. .. ... - Wink I am a Russian Bot |
Posted By: Ed (Ont)
Date Posted: 06 Jul 2019 at 8:46am
|
Sounds like a fun ride. I would enjoy that. My son drove my WD45 from home farm to my place - distance of 60 miles in 4 hr. 14.9 x 28 firestone tires. About 1/2 tank of fuel. Wish I had topped it up to check. Mine is stock comp I think. Motor was rebuilt years ago so maybe could have been changed. I’ll have to check with comp gauge one of these days. 😀 So if tank is full on these old girls you can go on long ride. 8 hr or more. |
Posted By: DrAllis
Date Posted: 06 Jul 2019 at 12:23pm
| Many of those old tractors got overhauled with 4 1/8" oversized pistons and I guarantee you they will use MORE GAS, even on a tractor ride. |
Posted By: soggybottomboy
Date Posted: 06 Jul 2019 at 10:58pm
| Hope those 80 miles were on hard surface roads only. Around here, the gravel roads are still so bumpy a guy would have to go straight to the chiropractor after just a few miles. |
Posted By: Gary Burnett
Date Posted: 07 Jul 2019 at 6:34am
|
I've found over the years that the fuel usage ratings in the Nebraska Tractor tests and every day usage of a tractor farming have don't come close to each other sometimes. One thing in the Nebraska Tractor tests the tractors were grossly over weighted most times and far beyond what most manufactures said as to how much added weight to use.
|
Posted By: Ed (Ont)
Date Posted: 07 Jul 2019 at 7:33pm
|
Timing on these tractors or on any motor is important. Back in the day not everyone had a timing light so a lot of these were set by ear. One of the first things I did to mine was to replace points and set carefully to spec and then timed with a light to the "F" mark on the flywheel. Tractor never ran so well!! Starts easily in any temp. Runs good at constant 170 degrees and good on fuel usage. :-) |
Posted By: m16ty
Date Posted: 08 Jul 2019 at 10:42pm
My WD45 has M&W 4.125" pistons, a ground cam, and big carb (ex-pulling tractor engine). I'm pretty sure it will give a 190xt gas tractor a run for it's money in fuel consumption. I've never ran the numbers, but you can't do much at all on 5 gallons of gas.
|
DrAllis wrote:Posted By: LionelinKY
Date Posted: 09 Jul 2019 at 12:14am
|
Say what you want but I believe that today's fuel is better than what was available back in the 50s too. ------------- "My name is Lionel and I'm an Allisoholic" |
Posted By: DougS
Date Posted: 09 Jul 2019 at 5:31am
|
The Nebraska economy tests were run while the tractor was doing work. I mean work where the tractor was delivering maximum horsepower. You can't compare that to the little work a tractor does while only powering itself. As for weight, they weighted the tractors so they could deliver maximum horsepower with minimum wheel slippage. This was done on asphalt, which bears little resemblance to traction on soil. This data may have been useful for comparing one tractor to another, but is less useful for predicting how a tractor would perform out in the field. |
Posted By: DrAllis
Date Posted: 09 Jul 2019 at 8:09am
| Nebraska Testing (for a WD45 anyway) was done on the PTO and varying loads and one of those loads was at 1.98 hp. At this load the engine consumed 1.403 GPH. Some other tractors are tested at ZERO HP. GOOGLE Nebraska Test #499 AC WD45 gas and read it for yourself. There are both PTO/belt pulley testing and drawbar testing. |
Posted By: DougS
Date Posted: 09 Jul 2019 at 10:32am
|
Usually there's a graph that goes along with the fuel/HP consumption. It shows as "HP hours per gallon." It shows the consumption at all loads. I've found it on almost every tractor on the tractordata(dot)com web pages for each tractor. |
Posted By: frnkeore
Date Posted: 09 Jul 2019 at 11:49am
Another thing to take into consideration, is the carb setting for the test in question. In this case (E) it's 94% of max HP.
------------- Frank 1959 D17 Series I #24001+, '59 D14 '55 & '59 Ford 850 & 861 Ferguson TO 35 Deluxe, Oliver 70 and 5 more. |
Posted By: frnkeore
Date Posted: 09 Jul 2019 at 11:59am
|
Another thing that matters is, RPM. The higher the RPM the more fuel that is ingested into the engine, unless the A/F ratio is changed, at that higher RPM, to accommodate a lighter load. ------------- Frank 1959 D17 Series I #24001+, '59 D14 '55 & '59 Ford 850 & 861 Ferguson TO 35 Deluxe, Oliver 70 and 5 more. |
Posted By: DrAllis
Date Posted: 09 Jul 2019 at 12:14pm
| Three columns...GPH...….HP hrs per Gal...…...Lbs per hp hr.. |
Posted By: DougS
Date Posted: 09 Jul 2019 at 1:09pm
|
Looking at Nebraska test #440 for a WD, it shows about 12 HP Hours/Gal at about 32 HP. It shows about 8.2 HP Hours/Gal when developing about 16 HP. The tractor is obviously more efficient when used near maximum horsepower. It shows fuel consumption of about 1.9 GPH at 16 HP and 2.8 GPH at 32 HP. To further complicate things you have to figure that you seldom use a tractor at maximum HP all day long. The best you can do when comparing two tractors is look at the HP Hour/Gal at the horsepower you would usually work the tractor at. |
Posted By: AC7060IL
Date Posted: 11 Jul 2019 at 2:51pm
That’s correct. Using an asphalt pulling surface enabled the Nebraska Tractor Tests a better opportunity to embrace a more consistent medium when comparing hp to usable traction. No, it probably won’t resemble any fieldwork soils. It’s only a comparison medium. Field Soil conditions can widely vary by their classification content, structure, moisture, compaction, etc... |