Hyd. oil heater

[PILOON]

Just a thought;

All cars with automatic transmissions are filled with hydraulic oil.
Do we heat our transmissions?
AS a good owner/driver we sit and wait a few mins B4 driving off, don't we?

Honestly guys there is not a lot of differance between an automatic transmission and the hydraulics in our tractors, in fact our CUTs are much more rugged than our cars.

I think basic common sense should prevail.
Start the engine, idle for a while, excersize the hydraulics a bit and drive off.
The pump will circulate the oil and it'll soon be warm and fluid.

By common sense I define as don't load up the bucket as well as don't floor the throttle when cold. GIVE IT A BIT OF TIME.

 

[beenthere]

I was just ready to post when I read what PILOON had to say. He is right on in my book.

I haven't had any sluggishness even below 0 deg F. A bit of whine but that is understandable.

I start, raise the ballast on the 3 ph, raise the front plow and go. It all warms up as I am plowing snow or moving firewood. Whatever.

 

[Mechanos]

My first line of thought when making the original post had more to do with ease of starting. On an HST tractor with live hydraulics, the starter is not only turning the engine over, but is also turning the hydraulic pump as well. On some colder days, I've noticed that my starter won't even turn the engine over fast enough for it fire. And yes, my battery if fine.... brand new and fully charged.

Then it dawned on me that I'm using J20C spec hyd. oil and in the temperature range mentioned above, really should be using J20D. In this particular case, I can see where an oil heater would allow for easier starts in cold weather. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a J20D spec "aftermarket" hyd. oil. JD is smokin' crack selling their hyd. oil at $80+ for a 5 gallon pail. I've been paying about half of that for "aftermarket" J20C hyd. oil.

 

[RADIUM]

One simple suggestion and I tell everyone this synthetic synthetic synthetic transmission fluid and engine oil I don't care how cold it gets within reason of course it runs like water try a test for yourself put a bottle of synthetic outside and some standard transmission oil and watch the difference of flow characteristics simple enough, I know it costs more money how much is your tractor worth? I constantly hear people tell me they're having starting trouble, my tractor lives outside under the big blue sky sits for weeks at a time kicks right over when ever I need her, probably maintain fuel, 0-40W engine oil , and synthetic transmission fluid for cold climates. It's really kind of amazing to realize how may times dealers don't explain this to their customers or properly prepare the tractors for the environments they're heading towards just makes you wonder who selling this equipment take care

 

[AKfish]

I'm not clear about where the OP lives.. However, most of the tractor owner's that live in the lower 48 states would probably not really need a transmission heater excepting maybe a handful of days in a given year.

And as other's have pointed out - slow and easy running for the first 15 minutes or so - and you won't have a problem.

Nonetheless, those of us in Canada and farther north (of course, those in the northern tier states: laying out $58.00 for the heater wouldn't be a bad investment) - a transmission heater is mandatory - IMO. Our family farm is just north of 60 degrees latitude.

I had one in my gear-tractor JD 970 for the 4 years I owned it and my JD 110 has had one installed from the factory (about 3 years now).

I use my tractor in the winter - minus 10, minus 20. My cutoff is minus 30 and below. It gets too easy to break stuff when it's down in the minus 30 and below range. :thumbsup:

Trees, limbs and stumps burn really, really well when it's a bit frosty! As a matter of fact; I don't normally burn at all during the spring, summer or fall months. Too easy to become liable for a forest fire...

AKfish

 

[dwost]

One simple suggestion and I tell everyone this synthetic synthetic synthetic transmission fluid and engine oil I don't care how cold it gets within reason of course it runs like water try a test for yourself put a bottle of synthetic outside and some standard transmission oil and watch the difference of flow characteristics simple enough, I know it costs more money how much is your tractor worth? I constantly hear people tell me they're having starting trouble, my tractor lives outside under the big blue sky sits for weeks at a time kicks right over when ever I need her, probably maintain fuel, 0-40W engine oil , and synthetic transmission fluid for cold climates. It's really kind of amazing to realize how may times dealers don't explain this to their customers or properly prepare the tractors for the environments they're heading towards just makes you wonder who selling this equipment take care

Ditto this advice. If it's got an engine one should be running synthetic period.