TAFE 351 fuel consumption
June 13, 2010
Without a bulk diesel tank at the farm I run down the highway to the local service station for tractor fuel. Out of curiosity I measured the TAFE’s consumption over a week of bush hogging around 20 acres of seedlings. Note at the end of the article I built in a correction for tach hours.
1995 Tafe 351DI fuel consumption observation
June 9-13, 2010
5′ medium-duty rotary mower, trimming long grass, medium density to light on moderate slopes
8.5 km paved road surface transit
hrs observed 424.5- 412.8 = 11.7
tank topped 28.31 litres
consumption rate 2.41965812 litres per hour at PTO speed
According to the charts I found on the Internet, it must be using between 16 and 18 hp to do its thing with the 710 lb. cutter, loader, loaded tires and all.
Here’s the lastest raw data. Again I was mowing medium to light hay and grass, though I ran the TAFE in high range, first gear today to see how the new mower would cut at a ground speed of about 6 mph. No problem. That’s not a misprint below: the thing seems to use $2.00 worth of diesel per indicated hour at June, 2010 diesel prices in Ontario.
| june 29/10 | 436.6 | hr | filled at | 436.3 | |
| 0.929 | 25.4 | litres | 11.8 | hours | |
| 2.152542373 | litres per hour at PTO speed | ||||
| Cost of fuel per hour | $2.00 | ||||
UPDATE: The manual states that the tach/hour meter measures at 1500 rpm. Pto delivers 604 at 2000 rpm, so that means it runs at 1788.07947 to deliver 540 pto rpm. So if you multiply the consumption rate by 1.19 you’ll get a more accurate figure, somewhere between 2.5 and 2.8 litres per hour. Still good, but not unbelievable.
july 18/10 449.3 449
30.88 12.7
2.431496063 litres per hour at PTO speed
Corrected, that’s 2.89 litres/hour for this interval.
| august 9/10 | 468.8 | 468.5 | ||
| 32.64 | 19.5 hours on this tankful | |||
| 1.673846154 | litres per hour, at 1500 rpm | |||
| loader work, highway runs, limited mowing with pto | ||||
| corrected consumption: | 1.991876923 | l/hr at mixed speeds | ||
| for PTO at 1870 rpm | ||||
| That’s an honest 2 litres per hour. | ||||
the Walnut Diary 
March 15, 2018 at 8:56 pm
When I parked the Taft 35 for the winter, the power steering worked just fine. Today, I took it out of the shop and noticed the power steering wasn’t working. This occurred after changing the oil and filters and filling the power steering box with automatic transmission fluid. Could it be the power steering pump? Please help!
March 15, 2018 at 9:51 pm
First look for a leak. Then check the ATF level in the power steering reservoir. On my 35 the loader frame is tight to the filling port and it is hard to see in there. The one time my power steering actually failed, it was the ball joint which connected the power steering arm to the right front suspension. It broke clear off at the thread. This is a bit disconcerting while towing a trailer down a hill. I ordered the comparable part for a Massey Harris 351 (same part for many models) but of course it had SAE threads instead of metric. So I jammed it onto the metric threads as far as I could and hooked it up temporarily. That was about seven winters ago.