Grease .. What's the difference

[Tomtint]

So I have a couple grease guns and I'm pretty pro active about keeping my equipment well lubed. Today I stopped into NAPA and picked up 4 tubes of extreme duty red grease. Never looked at the price but when it rang up, each tube was 10.00...is there really any significant difference between plain old bearing grease and the 10.00 tube ? Particularly if the fitting is well maintained ?

 

[MossRoad]

Try this link...
Grease Basics

I use high speed grease on my mower spindle bearings and I use regular old grease on my caster wheels. Was told to do so by the factory. Don't know why I couldn't just use high speed on the low speed stuff? Seems slippery enough! :laughing:

 

[5030]

Myself, I gage the quality of a grease by how hard it is to get off my hands....

 

[oosik]

5030 -
By that standard, the grease I use must be the ultimate.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I use the Mystik Red and Green tube. Don't really know the difference in them, just bought some of each. The red tube for sure passes the "cant get it off your hands or tools test". Both are about the same price at Atwoods, I think around $4 per tube.

 

[rhunt]

I think lithium based grease is probably the hardest to remove from your hands or clothing. It's color is black with a silver hue to it. My experience. Regards Bob

 

[tjkubota93]

I buy the red mystic and use it for everything. It's super sticky.

I use high temp grease for everything, so I don't have to worry about using the wrong one

 

[5030]

I have to say that I have a commercial account with Detroit Ball Bearing and I get many bearings there. The other day I was picking up some seals and the counterman said... we are giving sample tubes of grease to out regular customers, so I took one. I inquired as to the cost per tube and he told me $75 bucks a tube, It's sitting on the shelf in the shop, Im, scared to use it.....

 

[jeff9366]

Have you read the tractor and loader OPERATOR'S MANUALS for your L3700SU?

For my tractor the Kubota recommendation is "Multipurpose Grease".

For the loader Kubota recommendation is "High quality grease designating "extreme pressure" and containing Molybdenum disulfide. This grease may specify "Moly EP" on its label".

The former is $2.99 per tube at Tractor Supply. The latter is $3.99 per tube at Tractor Supply.

Being a sport, I use "Moly EP' for everything.

Cheap grease used regularly is better than expensive grease used irregularly.

Get yourself a Zerk coupler for your grease gun and grease the FEL every ten operating hours.

 

[C4Ranch]

I have to say that I have a commercial account with Detroit Ball Bearing and I get many bearings there. The other day I was picking up some seals and the counterman said... we are giving sample tubes of grease to out regular customers, so I took one. I inquired as to the cost per tube and he told me $75 bucks a tube, It's sitting on the shelf in the shop, Im, scared to use it.....

Holy cow!!!! I'd be skeerd too. Must be laced with gold.

 

[jaydee325]

This reminds me of a funny story we were just reminising about at work.

I work at a large electric generating station. We have forced draft cooling towers. Back in the day, the work process was generating regular PMs to grease the cooling tower fan motors. Problem was these orders were going out to mechanical maintenance, electrical maintenance and operations. Nobody knew what the other was doing. After a while we started having fan motor failures. Pretty expensive considering these are 250hp motors plus lost megawatt output due to cooling tower inefficiency with fans down.

Turns out the motors got so filled with grease that the air cooling passages got blocked causing overheating failures!:duh: So you can over grease.

 

[Ken Mac]

I like Lucas Red n Tacky, or something like that. Same as Cahaba Tractor, without knowing it was dealer's choice.

 

[xring100]

I think lithium based grease is probably the hardest to remove from your hands or clothing. It's color is black with a silver hue to it. My experience. Regards Bob

The amsoil synthetic racing lithium complex grease i use is white and fairly easy to wash off.

The 5% moly Synthetic Polymeric Off-Road Grease, NLGI #2 is a graphite color that sticks to everything it touches and will undoubtedly ruin any clothing it touches. I use this stuff for my loader pins

 

[CalG]

I use "water pump grease" on the greaser for the gland seal on the Fordson. That type of grease is not supposed to coat the radiator tubes .

I use quite a bit of "boat trailer wheel bearing grease" Water PROOF, for whatever that means. It is sticky!

 

[5030]

5030 -
By that standard, the grease I use must be the ultimate.

I look at it this way... The harder it is to get off your hands, the better it stays on implement parts subject to working in hay, which drags on everything implement and tractor wise, trying to tub it off...

The problem is of course, getting the excess, pushed out grease off of the parts so it's not hanging there, collecting dirt and hay chaff in my case. I used to use old cut up Tee shirts for rags until I started buying the blue rolls of disposable shop towels. Now, I use them in stead and toss 'em.

The old Tee shirt things works and I have an ancient Maytag wringer washer I keep in the shop for washing rags. As of late, with the addition of the toss towels, my washload has shrunk quite a bit.

 

[MHarryE]

Depends on the application. Cat recommends grease with 5% molybdenum disulfide for high pressure, slow moving joints like loaders, steering, etc. that covers most of the uses on my equipment although I use Mobil 1 synthetic in the high speed bearings on our PTO drives and our combine. Many years ago bearing companies specified She'll Alvina #3 grease in their sealed bearings. Those with relube feature likely were relube X with whatever the user had handy because you don't find that Shell grease easily. I Googled it and the grease is now Shell Gadus V3 220 used in most sealed bearings. Thickness is important for grease just like viscosity I s for oil. The S3 V220 means it's oil base is ISO 220. Shell's lube for pivot pins/bushings is Gadus S3 V460D which uses a more viscous oil base plus a molybdenum disulfide additive. Moly is the black stuff that is drawn to clothing like a magnet and is difficult to wash off.

 

[Harry Palmer]

:thumbsup:

 

[LD1]

I think lithium based grease is probably the hardest to remove from your hands or clothing. It's color is black with a silver hue to it. My experience. Regards Bob

ITs not the lithium base that makes the grease black and hard to get off. Thats the Moly

Depends on the application. Cat recommends grease with 5% molybdenum disulfide for high pressure, slow moving joints like loaders, steering, etc. that covers most of the uses on my equipment although I use Mobil 1 synthetic in the high speed bearings on our PTO drives and our combine.

Thats exactly what I use. Moly grease for pins, bushings, ball joints, etc. Synthetic for things like mower spindles, u-joints, or other high speed stuff.

 

[sixdogs]

There are some threads on John Deere grease on this site that are very informative and make it easy to figure out which grease to use. you'll have to search for it. Exotic may sound good but is generally unnecessary.