Borrowing equipment - different hyd oils

MHarryE · Apr 25, 2011

Surely others must swap equipment with neighbors & relatives. If it is equipment with hydraulic cylinders, oils will mix. In my case my cousin has JD & Ford, both of which use hydraulic fluid completely compatible with UDT in my Kubota. My nephew, however, has all International/Case/CNH and uses Hy-Tran. Lots of low cost fluids say they are Hy-Tran compatible but Hy-Tran is unusual in that it doesn't use any zinc for anti-wear. The Hy-Tran site says zinc causes plugging in their systems. Zinc is a superb anti-wear additive additive and is used by most everyone because it is inexpensive. Caterpillar, for example, insists on 900 ppm zinc and most dealer's oil sampling reports flag oil for changing if it drops below 900. At first my concern was that his equipment my contaminate my hydraulic fluid and having a HST with piston pumps and motors, fluid cleanliness and viscosity is super important. No my question is more of will the zinc in UDT contaminate his Hy-Tran equipped tractors (he has 7 of them). Does anybody have any experience with this type of deal?

J_J · Apr 25, 2011

You make a valid point here, and if your machine is under warranty, you probably don't want to take a chance.

Case says I can use 10W-30 motor oil, or ATF, in some of my Case products, and in others, they say to use Hy-Trans. You can ask 10 people and get 10 different answers. Most of us have no knowledge of which fluids that can absolutely not be used in our products. Most use recommendations from some authority, be it the manufacture, or a good knowledgeable friend, or the manual.

Sure you take a chance of using someones else fluid. It may be old and worn out, and have water in it, etc. If you want to keep your hyd system as pure as possible, then I would try and flush out the hyd attachment, using the same fluid as in your machine.

If you think about ATF, it has been used from the far north to the deep south, and seems to work as advertised. Some of the automatic transmission last for 10 to 30 years, and others fail in a short time, but it is probably not the fault of the hyd fluid.

Soundguy · Apr 25, 2011

you can always plug in the pressure line, and open the return and flush their implement with your oil, then top your oil off.. or in the case of sa cyls, crack fitings, compress cyl to expell oil.. then pressurize with your oil, then top off.. etc.

soundguy

fishinfool · Apr 26, 2011

I reluctantly loaned my woodsplitter to my white collered neighbor last week,
On return, he proudly announced that he topped it off with fuel, I thanked him, got home and noticed the fuel tank was almost empty ??!!

How do you get rid of 20 Gal. of contaminated hydraulic oil ??

Soundguy · Apr 26, 2011

give it to places that take waste oil.. IE.. most places that sell oil .. etc.

soundguy

RPW · Apr 27, 2011

Good question. I've thought about that also and the idea of plumbing the pressure side and flushing into a container the fluid from the implement IMO is the best course. After all if your equipment is damaged because of incompatible fluids then you are going to have to foot the bill. I've made the mistake and contaminated my fluid due to a stupid mistake on my part. I made arraignments with a local oil change shop to bring my tractor in on a Saturday before they opened and they let me use their bay to change fluid. That took care of the disposal problem also. Didn't cost me a dime because I provide my own fluid, filter and elbow grease.