Hydraulic oil change

[kmaz]

Thought I’d change the oil after eighteen years. Putting aside all the debate on motor oil vs hydraulic fluid. I ended up somewhere in between. Traveller branded utf from tractor supply. It’s a 10w30 viscosity and cheap. About $140 for 10 gallons. Turned out super easy. Hardest part was thoroughly cleaning the tank. I could tell there was definitely some degree of water contamination. I was very surprised at the amount of loose welding schmutz (really tiny beads) I got out of there. Nothing catastrophic ever happened and maybe never would have but glad I got it out. The gasket scraped off the cover plate really easy and I made up another. All in all very glad I did it and would highly recommend to others as well.
Also …. Several years ago the robins engine crapped out and I replaced it with the Kohler. Always had heat issues and I felt the cover trapped heat in. I’ll be working on a tank and cooler cover with built in storage soon. More to come.
Kris

 

[joshlee]

Thanks for this awesome forum! That is interesting about the water contamination and rust. I would have never imagined that problem.

 

[ponytug]

Thanks for this awesome forum! That is interesting about the water contamination and rust. I would have never imagined that problem.

Yes, it is a big issue for hydraulic systems in general, and worth keeping an eye on. The top seal on the PT tank has been known to leak, so I would watch for oil weeps first, then check to see if the bolts have loosened. If they are loose, I'd tighten them and then see, if not, I'd pull the access port and redo the gasket, as @kmaz did, plus the tank draining and cleaning. The issue with a loose top is water and dirt intrusion.

FWIW: I've changed my hydraulic oil twice in 18 years. It gets darker from fine rubber particles from the hoses, and I notice the loss of viscosity on hill climbing as I have 30+ degree slopes. I have used the drain port both times by parking the tractor with the other side jacked up. I use a small pump to extract the oil mainly to control the flow and get it out of the tank at a reasonable rate. At the first change I did find a few small bits of weld spatter, but no water (it is quite dry here), and no gunk at the bottom of the tank, either visually or by a wipe.

All the best,

Peter

 

[joshlee]

Thanks for your comment. I talked to Terry down at Power Trac recently, and he said about whenever doing our 50 hour hydraulic filter change to put some of that oil in a glass mason jar to compare it to new oil. This gives us something to go off of as to how well the oil is doing. Just like you said about the oil getting dark because of the rubber, my oil is dark.

 

[ponytug]

Oil can also get dark from oxidation, and that is accelerated by heat, water in the oil, and rust.

I've changed my hydraulic oil to synthetic, and I'm currently running Mobil 1 10W40. The first oil change was to 10W50 oil in the hopes that the extra 5%(+/-) viscosity increase when hot might make a difference. To me, it made no difference when hot, and was much harder to start when cold.

Like using brake cleaner and caps on the hydraulic fittings, I figure that it is cheap insurance. Time will tell.

I've taken to cutting open my hydraulic oil filter after it comes out to check for debris, and I keep 6-7 high strength magnets on the filter, and that does trap some, but not as good as @SpringHollow's system.

All the best,

Peter

 

[marrt]

Thought I’d change the oil after eighteen years. Putting aside all the debate on motor oil vs hydraulic fluid. I ended up somewhere in between. Traveller branded utf from tractor supply. It’s a 10w30 viscosity and cheap. About $140 for 10 gallons. Turned out super easy. Hardest part was thoroughly cleaning the tank. I could tell there was definitely some degree of water contamination. I was very surprised at the amount of loose welding schmutz (really tiny beads) I got out of there. Nothing catastrophic ever happened and maybe never would have but glad I got it out. The gasket scraped off the cover plate really easy and I made up another. All in all very glad I did it and would highly recommend to others as well.
Also …. Several years ago the robins engine crapped out and I replaced it with the Kohler. Always had heat issues and I felt the cover trapped heat in. I’ll be working on a tank and cooler cover with built in storage soon. More to come.
Kris

This looks great. Can you share where you purchased the fuel tank and hydraulic cooler assembly?

 

[kmaz]

Amazon.com

Amazon.com

Thanks… gas tank is a little on the small side. It’s only 3 gallons. But for what I have planned for the sides(small metal ammo boxes) I needed to go small to keep everything within the tub dimensions. I probably should of upped the size of the tank from 8x14 to 10x14.
Hopefully the links work.
Kris