papavillars
Well-known member
what brand of hydro fluid do you use. I have always used Kubota utd in my Kubota . almost twice as expensive. wondering if I am throwing away money
chevytaHOE5674":3qmmo4qr said:I run a machine at my day job that has 2 hydraulic pumps that cost 30k a piece, after seeing how cheap oil can heat up and break down and tear up expensive parts I run either Mobil 1 or Shell oils that meet the spec I need in all my tractors no matter how old and worn they are. In almost all cases good oil is cheaper than a new pump/valve/clutch/etc.
So was the problem actually cheaper fluid, or was the problem whatever caused it to heat up? Or put another way, would a "better" fluid have done the same thing?chevytaHOE5674":3elr6bo8 said:A cheap bucket of oil is 23 dollars, a good bucket of shell/mobil/etc is 60 a bucket. Most tractors don't hold more than 20-30 gallons and you shouldn't need to be changing the oil that often.
Say you need 30 gallons of oil that's 6 buckets. Good oil is $37 more per pail, that's a difference of 222 bucks. Can you replace/rebuild a major component for that money?
Case in point the machine I run had a pump failure a few years back so they drained all the oil (150+ gallons) and then sent in a sample. What the lab said was that while the oil met AW-46 spec when it was heated to the high end of operating temperature (still within the oils spec) the oil would start to break down, this caused bubbles to form, which in an aluminum piston pump means extreme hot spots which caused the housing to destroy itself. So all the money we saved using cheaper oil over the previous years was blown when we bought a $30k pump, and spent $10K in parts in labor for them to drain and flush every last drop of contaminated oil out of the machine. No more cheap oil for me.
M.Magis":3hrgl8rk said:So was the problem actually cheaper fluid, or was the problem whatever caused it to heat up? Or put another way, would a "better" fluid have done the same thing?
red angus 2010":1w369udv said:I am going to disagree, we used to buy hytran for the case equipment and JD for the JD equipment last time it was around $85 - $95 for a 5 gal bucket. We have switched to hydraulic fluid from a farm store (listed as 303) at $25 - 30 and have had no problems. All of our equipment is out of warranty so no issues with voiding such. We change on a regular basis and also allow equipment to warm up in winter. I have never seen any issues of separation, different color, breakdown etc. I will say we do not have huge 250 hp tractors our largest is 145hp. If I had a $250,000 piece of equipment I could afford name brand that is not my lot in life but I also don't break out in a sweat if I see a banker, heck I don't even know what they look like.
Funny you should mention that. My wife had a pinto station wagon that she neglected to tell me the warning light on the dash was on and had been for about 6 months. One day when she started it it sounded a little rough/noisey. Checked the oil and nothing showed on the dipstick. Drained it and all there was was a burned hard blob on the drain plug. Put oil in it and she drove it for 2 more years.ddd75":14p9roqd said:i've also seen a car running.. "just fine" with oil so sludgy it wouldn't even pour out of the drain hole.