Full Synthetic Tractor Hydraulic Fluid

[SkyPup]

I've got enough to change out all four tractors for the next 1,600 hours of operation.

About 500 pounds of it! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[SkyPup]

The Amsoil 5W-30 Synthetic hydraulic fluid start-up and operational viscosities are primo for our GST, HST, FEL, and BH's. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[SkyPup]

The SAE Technical Paper Series from the International Trends and Developments in Power Fluid for Off-Highway Operation Applications, entitled "Development of High Performance Transmission/Hydraulic Fluid (KUBOTA SUPER-UDT) Establishing the Specification and New Test Method by Nobushige Ichikawa and Tsunejiryo Seno, Senior Lubrication Engineers, Kubota Tractor Corporation, contains the complete specs on the develoment of the Super-UDT hydraulic fluid for Kubota's new GST, HST, and hydraulic equipment and the Amsoil 5W-30 specs out right in the sweet spot! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[JimMorrissey]

So does that mean that the SUDT does not hit the sweet spot /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[_RaT_]

Thom, I don't know about the latest Amsoil configuration but the old Amsoil synthetic hydraulic oil (I bought 15 gallons) was rated under Super UDT in cold weather performance. In my climate I have used UDT, Amsoil synthetic hydraulic, Super UDT and now Chevron All weather full synthetic oil. I must admit the only real difference I could determine between my Kubota L48 and L3830 HST was the price per gallon. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif Even that was not huge. I would stick with Chevrons All weather simply for ease of obtaining it but my tractor will be sold in a couple of weeks if all goes as planned.

 

[SkyPup]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( So does that mean that the SUDT does not hit the sweet spot /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif )</font>

I tried to get it but the recent rise in cost made it just too much, especially the shipping surcharge they were going to tax on....I even tried four different sources and got the same answer at all, result was too expensive.

Hard to believe the freight shipping for Yellow Freight for 55 gallons weighing almost 500 lbs was only $70, the SUDT was going to cost over 4-5 times tha just for shippingt!!! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

The cool thing about this synthetic hydraulic fluid is it is multiviscosity, so it has the best of both worlds as it operates in the sweet spot both hot and cold. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[BGL990]

That's the very same stuff I've got my 990 filled with. The JD hygard low viscosity, although supposedly good for cold weather, was pretty stiff last winter. Sounded and felt like molasses was going through the hydraulic lines (I think the engineer that designed it for "cold" weather didn't live up here /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif ).

I expect (and hope) that the Amsoil synthetic will be a wee bit better!

 

[SkyPup]

Yikes! Alberta is real cold compared to just plain cool. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The lowest it ever gets here is around 20*F abd that's only for a few hours out of the day. Still, the synthetic multi-vis is great for gettting to work expediously.

 

[BGL990]

Let's see ... 20*F = -6*C

It's getting almost that cold at night right now around here. Come January or February that's almost T-shirt weather /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The weather I was referring to when the low-vis Hygard was a bit "stiff" was somewhere around -30*C (-22*F). I think any non-synthetic is a bit iffy at that temp, but hopefully the Amsoil won't even notice ...

 

[SkyPup]

I managed to rip the lower hose going to my backhoe bucket off last weekend and shot a couple of quarts of Kubota SUDT all over the place before I realized what was going on. Installed a new four foot 3/8" hose to the bucket cylinder last night. After I completed the installation, I took a look at the hydraulic fluid with 188 hours on the clock of the 2005 L-39 that has seen an awful lot of very hard work managing to get the hydraulic fluid very very warm at times. The SUDT looks as clean as new. I'll be chaning out the two hydro filters in another week or so on this rig, so it will be good for another 200 hrs prior to change out. But I'll be installing the Amsoil Syn 5W-3130 in three of my other tractors during the next couple of weeks, two are HST transmisison and one is GST. I'll let you know how it goes.

Good luck with the winter up there and the low temps, we are dealing with another Class V hurricane again down here this weekend..... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif