John Deere Plus-50 II for Hydraulics??

[kyis]

Changing fluid in JD 332 skid steer 2006. The owners manual lists the same oil for the engiine and Hydraulics as John Deere Plus-50, which has been superceded to Plus-50 II.

For the life of me I can't find where this oil is used for hydraulics.
Though they tell me they have been putting in 40wt engine oil in??
I know the plus 50 is synthetic but really?
Manual says you could use TORQ GARD OR API CH-4 OR CG-4 also.

 

[Edward. S]

Plus 50-II is engine oil FYI.

 

[jenkinsph]

Don't know how cold it is in your locale but the Plus 50 II is available with a 0 w40 rating which would be great for winter weather. Lots of hydraulic system use engine oil so not a leap there. I would check with the dealer to be safe. As expensive as the oil change is going to be I think I would change the hydraulic filter first, without the fluid change and run it for a day or week. I would also check for water in the system too.

After you have had a chance to run it and see if your problem goes away I would then install a new filter again and new fluid. I think I would cut open the replacement filters to see how much trash and filings are there, might be other problems but hope not.

 

[kuboman]

Engine oil is fine for hydraulics but one thing to consider is that hydraulic oil is designed for a certain amount of water contamination where engine oil is not. If I was running long steady hours I would not think twice about using engine oil but for intermittent use and possible water infiltration from sitting outside or just condensation I would stick with hydraulic oil.

 

[kyis]

Thanks! Great Info, especially about sitting, which this unit does.
So should I use UDT or JD Hy-Gard?
And can that be put in after motor oil, they mix I guess?

 

[kuboman]

Thanks! Great Info, especially about sitting, which this unit does.
So should I use UDT or JD Hy-Gard?
And can that be put in after motor oil, they mix I guess?

I just re-read your original post. I am wondering why JD says to use engine oil in the hydraulics. Skid steers may have different requirements than a normal tractor. Without further advise from JD maybe you should stick with the manual. Makes it simple for maintenance. Maybe that's what JD was after.
Sorry for the conflicting suggestions, I should have read more carefully.

 

[ctlguy]

Nothing new here, eng oil has been used in all 300 series skids, before that self propelled sprayers went to engine oil as well but in thier case it is a 10w30 oil.

 

[kuboman]

Nothing new here, eng oil has been used in all 300 series skids, before that self propelled sprayers went to engine oil as well but in thier case it is a 10w30 oil.

Seems like a good idea but does JD state the reason for engine oil instead of hyd-oil

 

[ctlguy]

Seems like a good idea but does JD state the reason for engine oil instead of hyd-oil

Don't know myself what the reasoning is, could be as basic as consolodating your oil supply, to something more technical like emulsification rates? I don't really know. I think where this would matter the most is what are the other equipment items and the att being used, are they being swapped between machines? Are the att a rotary design where gradually we are moving one oil from one machine to another? In this case I would use what is approved for both and keep them the same. ex. ct322 using engine oil and a mini x using some fancy unique oil we probably don't want to mix those and we probably don't want engine oil in the mini x nor the super high dollar mini oil in our skid steer. So can we replace both with a different premium oil like texaco rando, or mobile dte 25. Anyways, my two cents worth I am not a hydraulic expert but do know that this has been discussed since atleast the 1960's when other skid steer mfg's started using engine oil for hyd oil.

 

[Edward. S]

Thanks! Great Info, especially about sitting, which this unit does.
So should I use UDT or JD Hy-Gard?
And can that be put in after motor oil, they mix I guess?

I use JD Hy-Gard. Not sure about the mixing. Oil is better than No Oil. I always go by that though.