Oil & Fuel cold weather hydraulic problem

[Stanicet]

just purchased a used L3400 Kubota (2005), I resided in St-Anicet, Quebec, Canada, and having difficulty using the hydraulic system in cold weather when it is below (-10C), any suggestion.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Welcome and hello.
What kind of trouble? Just slow or nothing moves? Does it become normal after warm up? If you have water in your hydraulic fluid bad things happen in the cold. If the fluid looks to have a milky haze to it then I would suspect water. Give us more info. There is lots of help available here.

 

[leonz]

just purchased a used L3400 Kubota (2005), I resided in St-Anicet, Quebec, Canada, and having difficulty using the hydraulic system in cold weather when it is below (-10C), any suggestion.

The quick and the dead answer is a kerosene fired salamander heating the tractor from the side for an hour before you use it and your problems will no longer exist.

They work and work well and I have been using mine which is 110,000 BTU for this for 16 years for all my equipment.





Edit: The external hydraulics/cylinders valve will be very cold and will require a long period of operation to begin to bring them up to near operating temperature for your use.

In one of my examples I use the Kerosene fired salamander to heat up the hydraulic reservoir and engine of my firewood processor and it works wonders as it has a huge tank and large engine that are huge heat sinks and get very cold quickly- your tractor is no diferent.

The Kerosene fired salamander will solve your cold operating issues as they will be gone after an hour of heating the tractor up with the salamander.

 

[Transit]

just purchased a used L3400 Kubota (2005), I resided in St-Anicet, Quebec, Canada, and having difficulty using the hydraulic system in cold weather when it is below (-10C), any suggestion.

Kubota is very touchy about their oils, you may need lighter oil from Kubota and may need to block off some portion of the radiator to keep the engine temp up. Not all the heat is rejected by the radiator, at low temps the engine block will lose heat too.

 

[Gordon Gould]

I run my tractor at those temps all the time and never experience any trouble. Never have to run a heater. I often run at -5F or 0F. Things are a little slow for about 15 minutes but after that normal. One time at -20F everything stopped working about 10 seconds after start up. I shut it off and plugged in block heater for an other hour. Then every thing was OK.

 

[Bradlyk]

With my ford 3930 at start up I will have a slugish loader for the first 10 minutes then after that it goes good

 

[WayneB]

In sub-zero temperatures my hydraulics are often really slow. I find by letting it sit there for a period of time (10 - 15 minutes) things will warm up and the hydraulics will work okay. I have also put an external heater and force hot air onto the engine for a bit to get things warmed up.

Be careful and do not over work the FEL while the fluid is still cold as you can blew a seal.

 

[Stanicet]

thanks, just finsihed change the hydraulic oil and filter, and used a space heater to keep the outside lines warm

 

[Stanicet]

thank for the assistance, my first tractor knowledge is imited. So th colour of the Hydraulic oil was dirty white to grey in colour. So i have change the the hydraulic oil and filter, now seem to be working better. Quick question, do I need to get a Heater for the hydraulic line or system?

 

[Gordon Gould]

I would think that you would want a block heater if you don't have one. But that is mostly for starting. It may warm the hydraulic oil slightly. If it is below 10 or 15 degrees F I plug the block heater in about an hour before hand. If it is below 0 F I give it about two hours if I can. Every tractor and the way it is used is different. So you will have to experiment with yours, If I were you I would just start using it and make changes as problems arise. You should see a vast improvement with your new hydraulic fluid. It sounds like you had some water in the old stuff.