Hydro/Hydrostatic Transmission Oil

[bp fick]

I think we all have to bite the bullet and put in OEM on the first change. I cannot see doing that 2/3 years from now when the warranty is off. The tractor manufacturer does NOT refine oil or blend anything. Someone does it for them. Just find that someone. These OEM's sell tractors around the world. Can you imagine anyone in the boonies of Asia, Africa or S. America worrying about this? Nope. Their local oils dealer, some international oil company, supplies them, no doubt.

[dfkrug]

Originally Posted by jrtpro

I was told by someone that Bobcat uses ROTELLA motor oil, but I don't know who bottles the Hydro/Hydrostatic Transmission Oil.

I don't know what Bobcat puts in their skidsteers, and the fluid in my
CT manual only has a Bobcat part number. But the requirement for
tractors with wet brakes is a "tractor-hyd-fluid", not a straight hyd fluid,
and not a motor oil. SS's and excavators do not have wet brakes, so they
may allow other fluids. The clear fluid that comes in new Kiotis seems to
be a straight hyd fluid....my dealer years ago did not know.

The Kioti manual specifies several THFs. I have been using mostly
Chevron 1000 THF, but I have also used Kubota brand UTF, and I have
recently bought to 5-gal pails of a Union 76 THF. All three of these
fluids look and smell the same to me, and they note an equivalence to
Kubota UTF on their labels. The amazing thing is that the last few 5-gal
pails of UTF I bought was for about $10/gal from a large Kubota dealer.
That is very close to what I pay for the Chevron and Unocal equivalents.