[kb0nly]

Anyone use one of these little Tiny-Tach units or one of its competitors products, they all look basically the same and are hooked up the same, a ground and inductive pickup to the plug wire, at the frigid temps we get up here in the northern states??

Was thinking of putting one on for the convenience of an hour meter to keep track of maintenance, but also would be nice to see the engine speed as well.

I was looking at TT's website and see they only rate them to 0 degrees Celsius which is 32 degrees Fahrenheit. To me thats an awful lot to ask for here in the winter time! Just wondering if others have pushed these to their limit.

I see Northern Tool sells a similar small dash mount Tach/Hour meter as well.

 

[Hipster]

I have the TT on my boat-love it.
I bet the LCD display would get REALLY slow at low temps.
Go for the hard wire unit.

 

[littletractorguy]

My TinyTach performed just fine at -35 C, strapped onto the dashboard of my 160... No problems.... Didn't notice whether it was significantly slower, 'cause my eyeballs were frozen.... It still works, after a winter snowblowing here... Now, I DO store my tractor in an insulated garage, mind you, so it wouldn't have been out in -35 for LONG... My garage hovers around -10 to -15 C during the cold parts of the winter....

 

[sadixon49]

I have one on my snowblower and it has never been hard to read. I bought it on Ebay for less than $20.

steve

 

[Aksarben96]

Have a tiny tach and mounted to the top of the console on my 140 , it has worked now for 18 months , the tractor does have a garage space so its outdoors exposure is limited and I think a little bit of waste heat from the engine on the 140 may warm the sheet metal just a little . The only down side I have found is if it sit's in direct sun the display sometimes blanked and I think TT only has a 5 yr life span then you need to replace it . My man reasone to get it was to keep track of operating time.

 

[kb0nly]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

A few things..

I didn't even know that TT made a hardwire version, that would be better, no battery life to worry about.

I saw some of those cheap ones on eBay, was thinking for the price, about $12 for the one steve posted a picture of if you search enough, that it was worth a shot.

Mine will sit in my cold garden shed, so whatever the outside temp is thats what it will basically see year round. So a hardwire would probably be better in the sense that the extreme temps wouldn't be taking their toll on the battery.

I don't know if the cheap ones come in hardwire versions... Will look!

I guess one could keep it warm with a small heater like i do for outdoor cameras, basically a ceramic resistor as the heating element, but that would only be on while running so while sitting in shed it would still be cold, but warming it up with the heater resistor would help while in operation. Maybe a sun shield for it in the summer months or mount it where its not as exposed?

Lots to think about!

 

[pfreiburger]

I had a Tiny Tac on my last tractor and liked it a lot, and I do not remember having a problem when it was cold (I blew snow with it for years). On my current GT2550 I am using a SENDEC and I like that one also - you can see a picture of it in the link below:

http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=111752&highlight=tachometer

I have had no problems in the coldest winter with the SENEC and it is somewhat easier to mount because it is quite a bit smaller.