Grease; Please educate me

[dknarnd]

Can I buy ONE good grade of grease and use it to lubricate my vehicle chassis, tractor & equipment, and trailer hubs?

Looking for recommendations!

[DieselPower]

Simple answer, yes. What you need is a good multi purpose grease. The most common multi purpose greases are either Lithium or Calcium 12-Hydroxysterate thickened greases.

Most lubricants manufacturers also offer a "Moly" grease. Usually this is the same as their other greases with the addition of 3-5% (by volume) Molybdenum Disulfide powder. Moly is specified by manufacturers like Caterpillar in most of their excavating equipment. The benefit of a Moly fortified grease is it's ability to continue to provide lubrication in what is called boundry conditions. Since Moly forms a solid film lubrication on the metal surfaces there is still something there to seperate the lubricated parts if all of the grease get's squeezed out under extreme loads.

Thing's to look for in a good high quality grease are a high Timken OK load rating around 80-100 lb., a measure of it's extreme preasure properties. A grease with good cohesive and adhesive properties. Meaning it stay's where it shold and does not sling off thereby helping it to cling to metal, help seal out dirt by forming it's own seal and reduce grease consumption. High water resistance and ability to maintain extreme preasure resistance in the presance of water.

One thing to be careful when picking your grease is to be sure it can be used for disc brake wheel bearing's. Not all greases have a high enough dropping point (the temp the grease melts) to be use as a wheel bearing grease.

Personally I would suggest either TRC Paragon 3000 or Lithplex grease, either of them in NGLI #2 grade. If you want a Moly fortified grease I would suggest Moly Lithplex.

[nosliw]

the one grease i use for everything is Lucas 'Red + Tacky'

as a matter of fact i JUST got done hitting the zerks on my truck and i'm getting the keyboard of my laptop filthy typing on it.

[DieselPower]

The Red 'N' Tacky grease by Lucas is ok. It doesn't display great extreme preasure properties though. Timken OK load only 60 lb, 4 ball wear test scar diameter is .80mm. It has a oxidation stability rating of 10 psi loss which is on the high side. It shows visable leakage on the D-942 wheel bearing test and also has a high oil seperation rating of 10% mass meaning it bleeds oil.

[nosliw]

can i run the used grease in my fuel?

so the lucas stuff is ok for the tractor, cool.

i also picked up about 4 tubes of multi-purpose stuff from lowes wheni bought my gun (tubes were ~$2 a piece) so i dont imagine they are too good.

if i use the lucas stuff is there a definate relube interval i should follow? assuming conditions aren't extreme either way.

[dknarnd]

Interesting post concerning the grease although I suspect there must be other manufacturers out there that provide grease with similar properties and are available off the shelf.

[DieselPower]

nosliw - The Lucas would be fine for standard scheduled grease intervals. Don't know how it would burn in your engine though.

dknarnd - You may find it hard to find a grease that can compare to Paragon 3000. It won the product of the year award from Plant Engineering magazine in 1999 because of it's high rating's and ability to maintain its extreme preasure rating in the presance of 20% water.

[milkman]

Originally Posted by DieselPower

The Red 'N' Tacky grease by Lucas is ok. It shows visable leakage on the D-942 wheel bearing test and also has a high oil seperation rating of 10% mass meaning it bleeds oil.

Would the TRC Paragon 3000 possibly be the solution to the messy bleeding grease gun problem? Is the Paragon 3000 sold like the Amsoil, through distributors only or do they have retail sales, I've not seen or heard of it before, but I'd sure like to find some.

[dqdave1]

Dieselpower; For my backhoe and FEL zerks; would you recommend the Moly Lithplex?

[dknarnd]

Originally Posted by milkman

Would the TRC Paragon 3000 possibly be the solution to the messy bleeding grease gun problem? Is the Paragon 3000 sold like the Amsoil, through distributors only or do they have retail sales, I've not seen or heard of it before, but I'd sure like to find some.

I thought I was the only one with the grease guns leaking liquid....now it sounds like it is bogus grease. Always figured if it was leaking liquid in my gun that it would do the same in my equipment because the equipment sits alongside the gun; not a good thing.

I would be interested in a few tubes of this Paragon 3000 myself but my concern is what will it do when it meets up with whatever grease is already being used.