Mislabeled, fraudulent marketing and failing to warn not to mix their product with John Deere hygard hydraulic oil plugged up the oil passages in the transmission. Moreover, it ruined the 1750 6 row planter vacuum metered pump with less than 300 acres on it. After the sudden and catastrophic failure, I began to question why would an oem parts/fluid annually maintained tractor and transmission fail out of the blue. The answer was Wal-Mart and Highline Warren Super Tech Tractor and Transmission Universal fluid - it was the only thing I did differently this planting season. I needed an emergency supply after 2 planter hoses unexpectedly burst. Never have I used anything other than hygard in the 2500 hours of use until this isolated situation. I looked for a reliable and safe substitute and Walmart showed a John Deere tech pouring the product into a large John Deere row crop tractor, implying it was recommended by JD. The label stated it was applications calling for several manufacturers standards including JD20c. Walmart and highline Warren lost a 10M class action suit over this same oil label where they advertised it as 303 ingredient (sperm whale oil) when in fact that ingredient was outlawed in the 1970s. This wasn’t the first time they were called out for the same deception and government investigators found the oil to have amongst other subpar ingredients, used transformer oil mixed in it. Really? Would any of you willingly put used transformer oil in your $150,000 row crop tractor? I had no reason to know any different bc I always used hygard but this time I didn’t have any on hand and it was a Sunday morning. Both corporations were aware of this mislabeling and failure to warn deception but have done nothing to correct it in such a way to deter my purchase had it warned to not mix oils, let alone lacking an ISO rating. They lied about a product of theirs and many of us farmers have been damaged by their greed. We as consumers rely on labeling to decide on purchases such as this and consumer protection laws are in place for this very reason. I do not possess a petroleum engineering degree and this it was more important to disclose the oils limitations. It advertised equality to John Deere by the labeling and it failed to do what the label explicitly said it would do - protect my $150,000 tractor. It didn’t. Factually, it did just the opposite and caused a complete shutdown of our field operations to this day. That was 3 months ago. 3 days of intermittent use was all it took to render my only row crop inoperable during the crop protection season. A claim was filed with solid evidence along with many legal precedents demanding repair costs, business interruptions and irreparable crop damages compensation for their product liability just last week. The tractor reman IVT replacement cost is over $50,000 alone given the need to split the tractor. That machine’s maintenance record exceeds John Deere schedule and had no transmission or hydraulic issues whatsoever prior to that day I topped off the sump with 10 gallons of their fluid.
I’m posting this not for advise but rather wanting to know how many others out there have large corporations lying to them, if not the ones aforestated here. Consumers are protected against fraudulent products and we have no clue who is stealing from us farmers and other hard working Americans alike. Attached are pictures of the label as well as what happens when super tech is mixed with hygard. If you or someone you know has suffered losses after using this product, please do not sit on your hands and assume you have no rights to make these companies be held culpable for their product liabilities.
