puckgrinder85
Platinum Member
I thought the J20C was the low viscosity.
low viscosity hy-gard is an iso 32 lubricant. standard hy-gard and most other hydraulic oils are iso 46 or heavier. along with being suitable for hydraulic / hydrostatic applications, it is also suitable for gear transmissions. earlier this year i was trying to find mobil dte light which is the recommended oil for the gearbox in my lathe. it wasn't something i could find locally, so i checked to see what its properties were. turns out that it is an iso 32 hydraulic oil suitable for gear transmissions. i ended up using low-vis hy-gard in my lathe. i suspect that mobil dte light would be a suitable replacement for low-vis hy-gard, but it's harder to find and usually more expensive. when i bought the jd oil a month or so ago it was $18/gal, $85/pail.
It does make sence that an iso 32 hyd. oil SHOULD work in a hydrostatic drive system but, a 1023e has just a little more than just a hydrostatic drive system to operate with one oil.....
Large tracked and other hydrostactic driven machines that use iso 32 hyd. fluid in them often have large hydraulic driven motors that power a seperate final drive of some sort that is a totally seperate unit itself that takes a gear type oil in the final.
Depending on the year in IH 1480/1680 combine finals used "hy-tran" IH's tractor hyd fluid or 80w-90 gear oil. I know first hand that the finals that ran in the gear oil had considerable LESS gear/bearing wear as compaired to the finals that used the THF, with same amount of hours.
ISO 32 fluid may be fine for gear transmissions of a light duty or just a plain hydraulic system.... I would have serious reservations about using it as a tractor/hyd. fluid
An oils wieght rating iso 32, iso 46, iso 68, 5w-20 and such has little to do with the additives that make the oil what it is intended for.
Hi Lostcause,
I'll probably end up going the JD route, too. Dealer priced j20c at $94/bucket, j20d at $85. Tractor supply has mid vis j20c equivalent at $35/bucket. No j20d.
Was at NAPA over the weekend and their heavy duty transmission and hydraulic oil stated it met j20d specs. Cost about $65/five gallon bucket. Will update when the time comes.
El