Pressure washer for tractor?

Is it a good idea to wash my new tractor with a pressure washer? Can it have any ill effects on seals, fittings, etc.?

Anyone have a lot of experience with this?

What's a good brand? I know G.P.M. Has to be important. My father-in-law let me borrow his to clean one of my last tractors, nice washer and got the job done, but took a loooong time- not enough flow.

When I find my new, nice garden hose nozzle I'll clean it with that first. But eventually I may get a pressure washer. We would also use it on house, vehicles, etc.

Thanks for your time in advance.

 

I have had this one for a few years:

Buy 2600 PSI 2.3 GPM Pressure Washer Online & Reviews

Certainly not industrial by any means but for the hour or 2 I use it a year it works very well. I use it on the tractor bucket and have used it on the whole tractor but from a distance. it has a Honda engine and was on sale for about $300 so that sealed the deal. Good luck on your hunt.

 

I've got a decent sized gas powered p/w, by the time you drag it out, get it running, hook up the hose's........ you decide to skip it and just grab the garden hose.
Although not as powerful, I'd start with a small electric unit that was easy to store (cant let them freeze) and being more convenient, it might get used more often ending up with no "big machine" needed for the year's of cleaning all at once. Your seals are protected enough and you won't damage them, you'd be peeling paint off the machine first. Having a hot water hose bibb available and some good "pre-soak" chemicals will substitute for lack of pressure & gpm in most situations.

 

We bought our PW for less than 300$ at Big Lots. Honda/ Karcher 2600psi about 7 years ago. It has washed some serious mud off our RZR sxs with ease. Dried coal mine mud is the worst and the small washers will get it clean.
But, of course, bigger is always better. Especially if you don't like the stickers .
And the 0 tip will peel bugs and clear coat off you vehicles

 

Yes you can do damage with a pressure washer. Seals in particular. You can end up driving dirt into them instead of off the machine. Found this out with my atv in sand pits. Ride in sand, wash it, and take it apart was the only way to get it all clean and ensure bearing life...particularly in the axle bearing carrier.

Believe it or not, use lower pressure near those situatuons. Get it wet. Let it sit and soak in. Pay attention to the direction you spray. Then try to blast off after soaking. If it won't come off, repeat.

4000psi will do more harm than good.

I have 2 big gas units and I end up taking my atv to the car wash to use their low pressure units. Not to mention I get to leave the mud there for them to clean up.

Tractors may be a different beast all together, so I may be way off track.

 

Yes. Some areas you have to be careful around (hydro connections, engine, gaskets). Can cause paint to come off prematurely too as your tractor is a lot more likely to get a small chip in the paint that can turn into a big spot with a pressure washer.

You're probably better off with a high pressure nozzle on a garden hose. If you get it real dirty just keep it wet by soaking it down over and over and the mud will come right off.

 

All good advice ^ ^ ^.
GPM is just as important (maybe even more so) as PSI. If you have ever had opportunity to use a fire hose, you know what I mean. Its amazing what you can do with LPHV.
As bocefus said above, when using a PW, you can drive water, soap, and dirt right into the seals/bearings. My advice is always to avoid those areas with direct pressure...if you can't do that, the next best thing is to just to not hit any "sealed" area with direct un-diffused pressure...as in no direct concentrated stream right on the sealed area. In other words, if you have an adjustable type nozzle, fan it out, save the pencil lead sized direct stream setting for stripping paint off of something.

 

I have an electric Karcher pressure washer. I think it’s under 2000 psi and maybe 1.5 gal/min flow rate. I used it for 3 years to wash my dirt bike down just about every other weekend until I sold the bike and it was just about perfect. I still use it on my ZTR every fall and for minor cleaning chores around the house so I think it’d be fine for up to a compact tractor. I was set on buying a Honda powered gas pressure washer until I got a super deal on the Karcher that I couldn't pass up. It's been going strong for 5 years now and its convinced me electric is good enough for my needs.

 

Always used a cat pressure washer here until it died last year. 25-30 years old worked great. Grandpa used it far more often than I did. A friend have me his gas powered one and you can knock the paint off with it. Just don't be blasting at electric components and follow the advice above & you'll be fine .

More importantly have you decided on which wax you'll be using?

 

I pressure wash everything!
Engine bays sleds quads house etc.

Use common sense with it like don't hold your hand over it and pull the trigger and you wont have any issues.

I have a harbor freight unit that's 7-8 years old now that I just gave its first oil change and it works great. I think I paid like 260 with a good coupon.
In comparison we got my dad a generac with a honduh and the only real difference(besides mine having a ton of use) is my spray hose dribbles at the connector by the hand on the wand!

 

Distance is the key with a pressure washer. Couple feet away you can rinse your hands close up can cause damage. What I do recommend however is greasing every electrical connection you can find with a ELECTRICAL grease. I use nyk 77 (I think). Disconnect and clean up the contact points FILL the connection and reconnect then wipe off what extrudes and place in the next prepped connector. Do this even on the light sockets.
My second tip is to go and buy a decent pump up garden sprayer or 2. Fill one with a good car washing detergent and the other with a gentle degreaser.
Third tip is a spray on while wet wax that you towel dry off works well.

 

Nothing is going to replace a proper hand washing. I use a pressure washer with a foam cannon and touchless car wash detergent for touch ups.

 

I have a Yamaha pressure washer with a CAT pump. It's a beast and is nice to use. The throttle is connected to sprayer trigger. So it's only full throttle when you pull the trigger, at idle otherwise. I'd stay away from the cheaper $300 range ones, they eat pumps fairly often. Northern Tool has a nice selection of pressure washers.

 

I have the same unit for about the price and bought about the same time. Decent little unit that gets the job done.
I once watched a guy with a pencil jet tip on a pressure washer try to remove what he though was a bug on his painted bumper. He started chasing it around when he thought it was smearing. Turns out it was a stone chip and he had just removed a 2" long trail of paint

What touchless car soap do you use?


I bought an extra handle for my pressure wash and removed the 3' wand and attached the fitting that hold the tip directly to the handle. Basically looks like this but without the 3" steel piece. Works great for getting into those hard to reach areas like wheel wells and bottom sides of things like mower decks. I end up using this handle more than the 3' wand even when washing the top side off my pickup.

 

I don't have a picture of mine but the flexible one is handy.

 

I use the purple degreaser from Simple Green on my atv/utv...does a great job.

 

Mud makes a great UV protectant!

Gary

 

I use Zep foaming detergent. It does pretty good if you can let it sit for 5 minutes or so but it is usually hot or windy and the soap will dry if I leave it that long.

 

Gallons per minute is indeed king for washdowns. High pressure good for cleaning concrete or a deck. Lots of good tips in this thread. I'll add that a good pump is the first and most important part of the equation. Tri-plex pumps are the best. Not a fan of axial. Belt drive is great as you can use the pulleys to make your rpms and let the engine run a little slower. I tell people to look for pumps with a separated unloader valve (thingy with adjustment knob). They are much less finicky and easier to replace/work on. Packing, tips, unloaders and valves are the only components that should ever wear out. Look for larger valve bodies on the pump (six big hex heads, 3 on top and three on side). The pump should be made of Brass. The ferrous metal pumps tend to build calcium and lime inside causing issues with check valves and soap injectors. Get a quality wand and hose. Hose should have metal reinforcement, like a hydraulic line, and not be made of plastic (the plastic hoses inevitably get melted on hot exhaust and are unreparable where a metal wire hose can be repaired as many times as you like.

KNOW YOUR TIP SIZE! These machines are engineered to have a certain sized hole in the Tip at the end of the wand. Too big and pressures will be low, too small and you will overload the unloader valve or packing. Tip colors only denote the degree spread of the tip. (red = 0°, yellow -my favorite is 15°, green is 20° and white is 30°. These go from a straight stream to a wide fan of spray. They do wear over time and a few thousands makes a difference.

I prefer Honda and Subaru engines for this application. Look for a drain plug for oil. (no, some don't have meaning you have to tip the engine/unit on its side to drain oil out the filler) That is a true sign of a cheaply built machine! Don't get caught up in "features" and gimmicks. 3-4 gallon a minute at 1800psi is great for most any chore, big or small.

Also a note about cold weather washing. If your equipment isn't stored in heat, the water could possibly freeze and damage seals. Also as stated above, try not to get the tip too close to seals or electronics.