Oil & Fuel Oil Weight for Winter??!?

[TroySD]

Its time for my 50hr service and in reading the manual it calls for 5W-30 for temps down to -20 F. I went in to the NH Dealer in town and they don't even carry it. They said all they sell and recommend is the 10W-40.

Anyone have any thoughts on that? Menards has Rotella in 5W-30 in gallon jugs.

It gets as cold as -30 here from time to time and a lot of time below zero.

Fire Away!

 

[Patches]

Its time for my 50hr service and in reading the manual it calls for 5W-30 for temps down to -20 F. I went in to the NH Dealer in town and they don't even carry it. They said all they sell and recommend is the 10W-40.

Anyone have any thoughts on that? Menards has Rotella in 5W-30 in gallon jugs.

It gets as cold as -30 here from time to time and a lot of time below zero.

Fire Away!

It gets quite cold here also, BUT, if it's -30, this guy ain't goin' out. That aside, I use Rotella 5w-40 synthetic year 'round. I have a lower hose heater that gets used constantly during the winter months, and the tractor is housed in an unheated garage so it starts reasonably well

 

[Jerry/MT]

Its time for my 50hr service and in reading the manual it calls for 5W-30 for temps down to -20 F. I went in to the NH Dealer in town and they don't even carry it. They said all they sell and recommend is the 10W-40.

Anyone have any thoughts on that? Menards has Rotella in 5W-30 in gallon jugs.

It gets as cold as -30 here from time to time and a lot of time below zero.

Fire Away!

I use 15W40 in all our diesel tractors and use a block heater when the temperatures get below ~40F. Our gas tractor uses 10W40 and has no block heater nd is starts easily.

In my opinion, the bigger problem in really cold weather is the transhydraulic fluid. It takes a while to get the warmed up. Some folks use those glue on heaters to keep the fluid somewhat warm so they can use the hydraulics right away.
I can't see changing to a lighter viscosity range oil when the extremely cold weather only lasts a few days at a time. If you were in the Artic (or Northern canadam Antartica,etc, or any place where you have long periods of very cold tempertures) it would make some sense to change over for the winter season,but that's not necessary where I live.

 

[Ford tractor]

Buy 5w40 synthetic diesel oil. Or just normal 5w30. I use 5w30 in the winter and 15w40 in the summer. I know the 5w30 isn't "diesel oil", but pffff it's only in there for 50-100 hours of service then it's drained in spring.

 

[bp fick]

Its time for my 50hr service and in reading the manual it calls for 5W-30 for temps down to -20 F. I went in to the NH Dealer in town and they don't even carry it. They said all they sell and recommend is the 10W-40.

Anyone have any thoughts on that? Menards has Rotella in 5W-30 in gallon jugs.

It gets as cold as -30 here from time to time and a lot of time below zero.

Fire Away!

5w-30?????

Rotella makes 15w-40, 10w-30 semi, and 5w-40 full synthetic, I believe that's it. You'll have to choose one of those. Any of them would do no harm. The 5w-40 synthetic would be hard to beat for winter protection. Mine has the 10w-30 semi syn Rotella in it and with a block heater, I've no concerns.

 

[Soundguy]

i am using 5w40 synthetic in my larger diesels.

I like it.

soundguy

 

[KML]

I use Rotella 5W-40 synthetic in everything for winter, including the tractor and 7.3 PSD. In the summer it's 15W-40 Rotella for the diesels. The lighter oil makes cold starts much easier.