[techMOGogy]

What is a reasonable amout of hours on a 406?
I am thinking in relation to mileage
say 20,000 miles and 2,000 hours

1. is 2,000 hours a lot for a 406
2. is 2,000 hours a lot for 20,000 miles (ie would it indicate lots of engine time with little movement - like plowing etc)?

Mathmatically it is 10 miles for every hour of operation - seems low but what do I know!

Thanks,

 

[derporsche]

For what it's worth, my 406 has 7100 miles and 660 hours, which equates to 10.75 miles for every hour of operation......
As far as whether 2000 hours is lot for a 406, I'm thinking it's just about broke-in by then....

Best,

 

[ExtraOlives]

I read somewhere that Mercedes recommends a valve job on the OM352 at about 10,000 hours of operation so a 2,500 hour engine is only 1/4 of the way to a valve job. When I was researching the available 406s prior to buying mine it seemed that most of them averaged somewhere between 10 and 20 mph over their lifetime when making the hours/km(mph) comparison. This makes sense when you take into account the use that many of these see, slow driving and some usage operating implements when at idle or stopped.

 

[b101uk]

For comparison my u1600 (om366) has done 11060hours & 204500km (~127018miles)

Averages = 18.49km/hour (~11.48miles/hour)

FYI:
300hours = 10000km (~6211miles)

If you reach 10000km (~6211miles) before you reach 300hours then you service by distance (miles, km), if you reach 300hours before you reach 10000km (~6211miles) then you service by time (hours)

 

[hammogger]

My U1300 is from the other end of the spectrum, 51000 km, 1280 hours, for average of 40 kph. (Feb, 2008, it's lifetime mileage was 19,000 km so it has done 32,000 km in a year! LOL)

Bob

For comparison my u1600 (om366) has done 11060hours & 204500km (~127018miles)

Averages = 18.49km/hour (~11.48miles/hour)
,...chop...

 

[esde]

This was well hashed here recently, though I can't find it. I recall (correct if I'm wrong) that the 352 records engine hours related to rpm. I think 1 engine hour is 1 hour running at max rpm, so you see the meter is only telling you so much about your truck. 1000 hours on a truck with a 6 speed trans could be very different than 1000 hours on a truck with working or crawler gears running a heavy pto blower or whatnot. I guess consider what you know about the truck, and consider the milage and hours.

 

[BADCASE]

mileage relative to hours

My 406 was used as a backhoe and sweeper by San Bernardino County. When I bought it six years ago it had about three thousand hours on the meter with a total of 8,800 miles on the odometer after twenty six years. It now has 9,000 miles and another fifty hours. Badcase

 

[MogMountain]

As esde said this has been discussed in some detail recently. If I recall two threads, one on hours to miles ratio (i.e. was the mog used for road travel or implement work) as well as a separate thread on how the hour meter worked/what it meant.

As for whether 2,000 or 20,000 are a lot, the answer is a resounding no, but then the issue is how well was the Mog maintained. As far as the engine is concerned, I direct your attention to the operator's manual (not that the maintenance schedule has generally been followed on these machines during the intervening three to four decades) - which technically calls for checking the valve clearances every 400 (Case) to 600 hours (MB).

In the interest of full disclosure I have yet to check mine with approximately 1900 hours (and suspect the previous owner - my father - never bothered). But it is on my list..............

 

[Merz-Ben]

This is just my opinion, formulated through experiences with these machines, but the last thing I would worry about when buying a mog is the milage/hours. I've seen way too many people jump on low hour/mile mogs just to have a unit that is in way worse shape than a unit with 4 or 5 times the hours and miles. Don't get me wrong, things wear out, but if maintained you can have a very dependable mog with more than 10K hours, 300K km's on it. The last couple of winters I have run mogs with 9 or 10K hours on them, sometimes for 10 hours a day, in 4 or 5 day streaches plowing snow, and never had a failure that left me stranded. By the same token, I've been stranded several times in trucks that were left sitting for years that had super low miles, and no maintance. At any rate, look at the condition first, and if you can, do a compression test, jack the truck up and check for slop in the portals, pull the fill plugs and see if the diffs, portals, and transmission are full/empty/overfull, ect. THEN look at the hours/miles on the truck and make you decision. Maintance is key... IMO milage is not.

Cheers,
Ben

 

[MogMountain]

I'm going to echo, ecHO, ECHO what Ben just said. Several years ago I bought a pristine looking 250 hour/2000 mile 406 only to discover many unexpected problems due to lack of use maintenance - and I have yet to break open the transmission and find out what is wrong with it (is it the cause of the machine not having been used, or a symptom thereof?)!

Trip

 

[unclebilly]

My red 406 has under 800 hours and 2500 miles on it.

On the other end of the spectrum, my 2000 GMC has 460,000 kms on it and 13000 hours. My 2004 GMC has 280,000 kms on it and 11000 hours. Pickups get idled in the oil patch in the wintertime.