6 year old tractor with 175 hrs, should 300 hour hydraulic fluid change be done now?

[Storm56]

Cannot hurt. Does it really need it? Probably not.

I have a friend that has been farming since he was old enough to walk and he is 68 now. He still has tractors that were his fathers and still uses them. He never recalls changing the tranny/hydraulic fluids but maybe once in 20 years. Never had a fluid related failure. Just changes the filters every 500 hours or so.

Hard to argue with success. Me, I am still of the mindset that an occasional change never hurts.

 

[sweep]

There is substantial evidence that tractors that don't get oil changes of ANY kind - and are essentially "fix it only when it breaks" maintained last for many decades.

You only hear about those because they just happened to survive. Kinda like the 95 year old person who smoked every day, drank and was obese but you don't hear(or forget) about all the people that died prematurely in their 40's, 50's and 60's due to that lifestyle.

 

[slowzuki]

If you get it hot enough to drive moisture out, I can't imagine it needs changed. Most ag tractors next have it changed, only topped up and filter changes. No combustion going on. Now an HST is a bit different, they are very sensitive to contaminates even ones smaller than the filter will catch.