I believe everyone should do this to know how hot your hyd oil is.

[MossRoad]

How about one of these? I have one. Very useful for a lot of things.

Amazon.com: Etekcity Lasergrip 774 (Not for Human) Non-Contact Digital Laser Infrared Thermometer Temperature Gun-58℉~ 716℉ (-5?℃ ~ 38?℃), Standard Size, Yellow & Black: Kitchen & Dining

Yep. Those tend to read a little different than a calibrated contact thermometer, but they are consistent and give you a good baseline. Very handy for other things as well. We use them to check air temps coming out of vents and will temps in rooms in buildings. :thumbsup:

 

[m5040]

I used a non-contact thermometer for a few months, but you actually have to keep it with you or in a toolbox, then take it out and use it. With the magnetic one, you just have to look at it. If it is easier, it will be done more.

 

[dragoneggs]

Keep in mind the distance to the surface you are measuring is important. If like mine, you need to be pretty close to get a good reading if there is much of a temperature gradient on the surface you are measuring. This is because the area measured is a function of the distance to your target.

 

[SpringHollow]

Quite a while ago, I tapped my tank cover for a long stem thermometer. I find it very handy. That is how I usually discover my fan has died or the connector came off.

Ken

 

[James23]

So I was in a hurry mowing the lawn this weekend and decided to see how hot it would get without a break (approx 1 acre of lawn, little over an hour of mowing). The magnet temp gauge mounted to the loader control value of my pt-180 just about registered 200 degrees. It came back down to ~180 within a minute or two of shutting the PTO valve off, but I'm really not happy to see that high of temps.

Clearly that is a problem. I even have a fan blowing across the internals of the engine. Guess I will be installing the oil cooler before the warranty is up .

What hydraulic temps do you guys that have a hydraulic oil cooler get?

Is there a write-up anywhere on adding the oil cooler? Mostly what lines to tap and what sizes they are ?

 

[MossRoad]

I've never checked mine in 19 years and I'm scared to. Why? Because it's ridiculously hot and I'd probably figure I should do something about it and mess up a good thing. So, I just run my cooling fan all the time and hope for the best.

 

[MossRoad]

I also keep the cooler fins clean with compressed air, soap and water if needed.

 

[m5040]

On my 1430 the hyd oil cooling fan comes on at 100 deg F. It is rare for the temp measured at the loader control valve to exceed 150 deg. I cut the job short if it gets to 160 deg. Depending on what job it is doing, I can tell that the wheel motor oil is very hot because it gets sluggish and needs a lot of treadle for the machine to climb over objects.
You may want to consider changing your hyd oil. Does it smell different? You have a great HD small machine, but have to work within its limitations or you will have a lot of problems.
To add an oil cooler, I put it in series with the return from the loader control valve. In theory it is very simple, you just take the line off that has the returning oil to the hyd tank and put a fan forced air cooler in-between. The only real difficult part is finding which line it is.

 

[ponytug]

Not trying to be contrarian, and just to offer an alternative view; but for what it is worth, the hydraulic cooler on my 1445 is plumbed on the return to tank portion of the PTO flow. This has the advantage of higher oil flow, and thus the opportunity to remove larger amounts of heat. It does mean little or no cooling for FEL operation. For my uses, that works well for me since I rarely have the throttle up much for FEL work, so there isn't a lot of heat being generated. YMMV.

All the best,

Peter

 

[MossRoad]

My PT425 FEL/AUX PTO circuit is always pumping no matter what. So is my MAIN PTO circuit. Neither ever shut off. The MAIN PTO flows 8GPM. I think the FEL/AUX pumps something like 4 or 4.5GPM, but I can't recall exactly. I don't know where my cooler circuit is plumbed. I'll have to look some time.