service on a Kubota 3430

[hunterS]

I have a 2003 Kubota 3430 with approx. 250 hours on it. For those of you who don't know this, it requires a change of the tranmission oil (udt super) and backhoe hydro oil (same type) every 200 hours. My question is, is this not a lot excessive? It is a closed system so contaimination is not a problem. I have known many of peices of equipment that went 1000's of hours on the same hydro oil and never a problem. It just seems to me that Kubota is trying to get rich off of me at buying 17 gallons of oil, 3 filters and grease. Now I am not being cheap and i certainly take care of all my equipment, but saving money (especially in NY-they hate sm. business) and being friendly to the environment is my concern.
So, in short, do I need to change these fluids that fequently?
Thank you, look forward to your inputs.

 

[BobCorazza]

Actually, I was searching the forum for hydraulic bypass filters to add to my L3410 because the recommended 400 hour fluid replacement is going to be expensive! I run my machine more than 200 hrs per year, which equates to $80 in filters and $80 in fluid per year ($160 for 10 gallons every 2 years). I am on an extended drain program for the engine now, and fail to see why a hydraulic system fluid can't be used _much_ longer with 1 micron or so filtration. At the moment I am using a synthetic Super UDT <font color="red"> spec equivalent </font> and double the change interval to 800.
Anyway, I wonder what has changed in the L34xx series to require halfing the service interval? Mine is a 2001 (?) and gets the filters at 200h and fluid at 400 (by the book).

 

[MikePA]

<font color="blue"> So, in short, do I need to change these fluids that fequently? </font>
IMHO, yes.

I have no idea how the manufacturers arrive at service intervals, however I don't imagine they pull them out of thin air.

<font color="blue"> It just seems to me that Kubota is trying to get rich off of me at buying 17 gallons of oil, 3 filters and grease. </font>
You do not have to buy these items, with the possible exception of the filters, from Kubota. I even think the filters are available from other sources. So, artificially lowering the service intervals seems like a poor way of generating revenue.

<font color="blue"> I have known many of peices of equipment that went 1000's of hours on the same hydro oil and never a problem. </font>
What were the service interval recommendations for these machines? Perhaps the owners did ignore the recommendations and went 1000s of hours. Do you think someone would brag that they ignored the maintenance intervals and destroyed their machine? /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif My point is, without knowing a lot more about these machines, it's difficult to form an opinion.

The net of it is, and again this is just my opinion, the service recommendations are there for a reason and they are not there to generate revenue for the manufacturer. Ignore or modify them at your own risk. When you look at what the maintenance supplies cost as compared to the cost of the machine or replacing the engine, it's a relatively small amount.

 

[_RaT_]

NO! Reread your manual, you don't change the hydraulic fluid at 200 hours. You change the hydraulic filter(s), the hydrostatic filter if it's HST drive and the hydraulic filter of which there is only one. It does not require Super UDT, it only suggests that you do, you are free to use the less costly UDT or even a product from another company that is OK'd for use in Kubota. What is backhoe hydro oil? Are you running a separate pump and tank from the tractor to operate the backhoe? If so, again, read the manual for the hoe as the tractor manual that came with the Kubota will not specify hoe servicing hours. If you are running off the tractor hydraulics, you are not using "hoe oil" you are using the oil from the tractor that runs all the hydraulic funtions whether it's the power steering, the hydrostatic drive (if you hve HST), loader, and any other implement be it the hoe, TnT, etc. If this is the case, you shold have changed all the oil and filter at 50 hours, the fluid only at 200 hours and fluid/filters at 400 hours. I use UDT as recommneded by my dealer since Super UDT's value is in very cold climates. Hope this is all accurate information and suggest you double check me but I'm pretty sure I'm right. I'm with a few hours of my 200 hour mark and must change the engine oil and filter as well as my hydraulic oil filter and my hydrostatic oil filter. The engine oil filter is $6.50 for the Kubota brand or $8.50 for the NAPA brand. Rat...

P.S. you will never get 17 gallons of oil into the tractor. The engine takes about 6 quarts, the hydraulic will take about 12 gallons and the front axle about a gallon or so as I recall. I think I bought 3- 5 gallon containers of UDT for my L3830 HST and still have half of one of the fives left over.