About

Maintenance schedules for heavy machinery, marine vessels, and agricultural equipment rely heavily on Engine Hours (Moto Hours) rather than odometer distance. A tractor plowing a field moves slowly but works the engine hard, accumulating hours faster relative to distance than a truck on a highway. This tool bridges the gap for fleet managers and owners who track movement in kilometers but need to estimate service intervals in hours. By factoring in the average operating speed, you can determine the equivalent engine runtime for a specific trip or job.

Accuracy in this conversion depends entirely on the Average Speed. While a car might average 60 km/h, an excavator might average 3 km/h while tracking. Miscalculating this leads to missed oil changes or premature servicing. This calculator provides specific presets for various machinery types to minimize estimation errors.

Formulas

The relationship between distance, speed, and time is fundamental. To find the engine hours, we divide the distance traveled by the average operational speed.

t = dv

Where:

t = Time (Engine Hours)
d = Distance (Kilometers)
v = Average Speed (km/h)

For accurate maintenance logs, the decimal portion of the hour is often converted to minutes:

Minutes = (t − floor(t)) × 60

Reference Data

Machinery Type	Condition	Avg Speed (km/h)	100 km in Hours
Farm Tractor	Field Work (Plowing)	7 - 10	10h 00m - 14h 15m
Farm Tractor	Road Transport	25 - 40	2h 30m - 4h 00m
Combine Harvester	Harvesting	4 - 6	16h 40m - 25h 00m
Excavator (Tracked)	Relocation	3 - 5	20h 00m - 33h 20m
Bulldozer	Pushing/Grading	3 - 6	16h 40m - 33h 20m
Heavy Truck	Highway	70 - 90	1h 06m - 1h 25m
Heavy Truck	Off-road/Mining	15 - 25	4h 00m - 6h 40m
Motorboat	Trolling	5 - 8	12h 30m - 20h 00m
Motorboat	Cruising	30 - 45	2h 13m - 3h 20m
Forklift	Warehouse	5 - 10	10h 00m - 20h 00m

Frequently Asked Questions

Vehicles like tractors, boats, and excavators often operate at high engine RPMs while moving very slowly or staying stationary (idling/PTO work). Measuring kilometers would underestimate engine wear. Engine hours provide a true reflection of mechanical stress and oil degradation.

It is an approximation. The accuracy depends entirely on the input for "Average Speed". If a tractor spends 50% of its time idling, the calculated hours based solely on travel distance will be lower than actual engine hours. Always add a buffer for idling time.

For heavy tillage or plowing, the average speed is typically between 7 and 10 km/h. For lighter work like spraying or spreading, speeds can range from 10 to 15 km/h.

Yes. Electric heavy machinery also tracks "operating hours" to schedule maintenance for hydraulic systems, cooling pumps, and battery health checks, regardless of the propulsion method.