Replace hydraulic fluid based on time, not hours?

[Yander]

Doesn't hurt. 10 years is a bit of time for condensation to form. If it were mine I'd change it.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

My Kubota L3800 will be 10 years old this fall and will probably hit around 220 hours. The manual says the hydro fluid is supposed to be replaced at 400 hours, but that’s a long way down the road given my rate of usage. I’m thinking it might be a reasonable thing to go ahead and replace it at 10 years just as a preventative measure. The first fluid change would probably last the rest of my life anyway.

We have tractors made in the early 1980's. Never done a hydraulic fluid change. We have changed the filter a few times because it was dirty. We have 6 tractors. Commercial farm. They get used daily.

 

[Jrasband]

no use in changing it if it doesn't need it. I agree with 5030, send it to blackstone.

 

[Moody Enterprises]

Do you keep the tractor in a garage? or outside? It surely will not hurt anything (other than your wallet) to change it. If it was HST, I would worry more about the oil but since it's gear, I wouldn't worry much about it.

Have you checked your front axle oil level? Back in the day, they were usually very low on oil from the factory and unless you had a great dealer... it remained very low!

 

[5030]

It’s 7.5 gallons. That’s not what I consider a small volume.

Not much compared to my M9's. Each hold 15 gallons give or take and both are gear drives.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

It’s 7.5 gallons. That’s not what I consider a small volume.

Everything is relative.

My 359 Pete's Cat engine holds 10 gallons of oil (yes, it's technically a tractor), and the M6040 hold around 15 gallons of hydraulic fluid. Some of the other machinery hold quite a bit more.

 

[Chewwy]

I do neither. I'll pull a sample and send it to Blackstone Labs and have them tell me if it needs renewed. Your gear trans still has at least one filter because the transmission fluid is the hydraulic fluid as well.

The same logic could also be applied to all the OEMs hourly service recommendations for fluids. Test it and change it based on the test results. Would recommend changing the filter(s) though.

Of course now one has to consider how often does one test it vs following the manufacturers recommendation for replacement.

 

[Beaver Cove Deere]

It’s a hellofa lot cheaper to change it if something is going wrong.