What part of the truck doesn't burn?

It isn't a lack of "pressurized oil", it is a lack of ANY oil; hot oil drains back to the pan pretty quickly after shutdown.

If you load a tractor for a trip you're leaving on tomorrow there is little to no effective lubricant in the turbo; the turbo manufactures specifically say not to free spin a new turbo by hand when installing them even though verifying clearance on the housing before you button up the plumbing is mandatory; you must squirt some oil into the supply port and slowly rotate the impeller until you see oil in the discharge port, then you can give it a fling.
So spinning the turbo while dry is harmless on the highway for hours on end but the people who make turbo's don't even want you to spin it dry by hand?

As I have said before, practice whatever policies you want, if the physics won't convince you then I won't be losing any sleep over it.

By the way, most tractors have a flapper on the exhaust when they are built so unless it has been torn off and never replaced it's likely that most long distance moves will not require any steps to protect the turbo anyway; which is why the anecdotal "I never do this and I have never had an issue" is meaningless.

And if any bearing is scoured it doesn't blow apart the first time the engine starts, and if the delivery is to a sales yard it may be months before that tractor is sold and put to work; and then more time for the bearing to wear sufficiently enough for the impeller to contact the housing and eat itself.

How many tractor deliveries do you make and then follow the service history afterward? If you are like most of us the answer is none.

I know mobile mechanic's who change wheel seals completely wrong, when I say something they say "I always do it like this and I don't get any comebacks"; they just stare blankly when I say "do you think the guy who is now 4 states away is going to drive back here and make you do it again?

Circumstances can mask a lot of poor practices for a long time but that does not change physics or make the right way any less right.

 

I knew you would try and pick that apart.

There is a huge difference between a never-run, fresh-out-of-the-box turbo and one that has been run... once. It isn't dry.

There is no physics to it. A turbo windmilling while hauling equipment is a myth.

 

Good luck with that, especially to anyone who buys one of the tractors you hauled across the United States with an open top stack.

And it is not "windmilling", it is vacuum that turns the impeller.

 

One more thing in case any rookies are following this and wondering which way is the best practice.

Caterpillar did a study back in the 80's on engine wear when changing the oil, they wondered how much (if any) damage is done by installing the spin on oil filters dry and letting the running engine fill them; the result was so dramatic they started advising their customers and teaching their certified techs to fill the spin on by hand before installing it.

These are bearings that are still wet with oil but the 10 or 15 seconds of zero load idle time with zero oil pressure while the filter filled was enough to reveal evidence of bearing scar on their test engines.

 

None of the new tractors I see on the local Deere lot have a flapper on the exhaust. Why dont they tell farmers to plug the exhaust if the tractor is parked outside if a 60mph wind spins the turbo and wrecks the bearing?

 

or the thousands of crawlers, excavators, loaders, scrapers, packers, or trucks that sit parked for months or even years out in the elements with wind blowing across the stacks. no rain hats on any of them either. if turbo spin from vacuum created by wind over the stack was an issue there would be a shortage of turbochargers, or owners plugging stacks on equipment that sits parked. it's a non issue.

 

Most equipment (agriculture or construction) no longer comes with the flapper any more. Now the exhaust tip has been curved to keep most of the rain out

That simple bend saves the manufacturer $10 a tractor. After all business profitability is about not spending money

 

That,or the exhaust has been relocated to underneath the tractor,like a passenger car with a tailpipe.

 

Most tractors that are parked in the weather for extended periods of time do block off the exhaust if it is vertical.

Or let me guess, you think rain filling the cylinders with water is a "myth" as well?

 

What I've seen from my in-law's farm and all their neighbors is that they don't block off the exhaust. They do go and start up the tractor for an hour or two if there has been a heavy rain though. Or sometimes even a heavy snow, but that's rare.