Grease; Please educate me

[dknarnd]

Can I buy ONE good grade of grease and use it to lubricate my vehicle chassis, tractor & equipment, and trailer hubs?

Looking for recommendations!

 

[DieselPower]

Simple answer, yes. What you need is a good multi purpose grease. The most common multi purpose greases are either Lithium or Calcium 12-Hydroxysterate thickened greases.

Most lubricants manufacturers also offer a "Moly" grease. Usually this is the same as their other greases with the addition of 3-5% (by volume) Molybdenum Disulfide powder. Moly is specified by manufacturers like Caterpillar in most of their excavating equipment. The benefit of a Moly fortified grease is it's ability to continue to provide lubrication in what is called boundry conditions. Since Moly forms a solid film lubrication on the metal surfaces there is still something there to seperate the lubricated parts if all of the grease get's squeezed out under extreme loads.

Thing's to look for in a good high quality grease are a high Timken OK load rating around 80-100 lb., a measure of it's extreme preasure properties. A grease with good cohesive and adhesive properties. Meaning it stay's where it shold and does not sling off thereby helping it to cling to metal, help seal out dirt by forming it's own seal and reduce grease consumption. High water resistance and ability to maintain extreme preasure resistance in the presance of water.

One thing to be careful when picking your grease is to be sure it can be used for disc brake wheel bearing's. Not all greases have a high enough dropping point (the temp the grease melts) to be use as a wheel bearing grease.

Personally I would suggest either TRC Paragon 3000 or Lithplex grease, either of them in NGLI #2 grade. If you want a Moly fortified grease I would suggest Moly Lithplex.

 

[nosliw]

the one grease i use for everything is Lucas 'Red + Tacky'

as a matter of fact i JUST got done hitting the zerks on my truck and i'm getting the keyboard of my laptop filthy typing on it.

 

[DieselPower]

The Red 'N' Tacky grease by Lucas is ok. It doesn't display great extreme preasure properties though. Timken OK load only 60 lb, 4 ball wear test scar diameter is .80mm. It has a oxidation stability rating of 10 psi loss which is on the high side. It shows visable leakage on the D-942 wheel bearing test and also has a high oil seperation rating of 10% mass meaning it bleeds oil.

 

[nosliw]

can i run the used grease in my fuel?

so the lucas stuff is ok for the tractor, cool.

i also picked up about 4 tubes of multi-purpose stuff from lowes wheni bought my gun (tubes were ~$2 a piece) so i dont imagine they are too good.

if i use the lucas stuff is there a definate relube interval i should follow? assuming conditions aren't extreme either way.

 

[dknarnd]

Interesting post concerning the grease although I suspect there must be other manufacturers out there that provide grease with similar properties and are available off the shelf.

 

[DieselPower]

nosliw - The Lucas would be fine for standard scheduled grease intervals. Don't know how it would burn in your engine though.

dknarnd - You may find it hard to find a grease that can compare to Paragon 3000. It won the product of the year award from Plant Engineering magazine in 1999 because of it's high rating's and ability to maintain its extreme preasure rating in the presance of 20% water.

 

[milkman]

The Red 'N' Tacky grease by Lucas is ok. It shows visable leakage on the D-942 wheel bearing test and also has a high oil seperation rating of 10% mass meaning it bleeds oil.

Would the TRC Paragon 3000 possibly be the solution to the messy bleeding grease gun problem? Is the Paragon 3000 sold like the Amsoil, through distributors only or do they have retail sales, I've not seen or heard of it before, but I'd sure like to find some.

 

[dqdave1]

Dieselpower; For my backhoe and FEL zerks; would you recommend the Moly Lithplex?

 

[dknarnd]

Would the TRC Paragon 3000 possibly be the solution to the messy bleeding grease gun problem? Is the Paragon 3000 sold like the Amsoil, through distributors only or do they have retail sales, I've not seen or heard of it before, but I'd sure like to find some.

I thought I was the only one with the grease guns leaking liquid....now it sounds like it is bogus grease. Always figured if it was leaking liquid in my gun that it would do the same in my equipment because the equipment sits alongside the gun; not a good thing.

I would be interested in a few tubes of this Paragon 3000 myself but my concern is what will it do when it meets up with whatever grease is already being used.

 

[DieselPower]

dgdave1 - Yes, a moly fortified grease is highly suggested in high impact/extreme preasure applications like bucket pins on backhoe's. One reason Caterpillar spec's it for their equipment. In boundry lubrication situations you at least have the solid film lubrication of the moly.

dknarnd - Nope, your not the only one. Lot's of people have leaky grease guns. That's oil seperation. Some greases tend to bleed grease more than others. Some have very high seperation rates while others show little to no seperation.

As far as compatability goes the Paragon 3000 is a Calcium 12-Hydroxysterate based grease. This base grease is compatible with everything but Polyurea and is borderline compatible with Calcium Complex. That's a nice bonus of the Calcium 12-Hydroxysterate base greases, their high degree of compatability.

 

[workinallthetime]

whats your thoughts on marine greese diesel?
id take apart my greese gun and see whats in it but thats just to messy,lol
seriously marine greese good or bad, I have a fel and bh on a bx.

"red and tacky" sounds like a good movie

 

[DieselPower]

Most greases that are marketed as "marine" grade grease are nothing more than a highly water resistant grease. Use caution when using marine grade grease on heavy equipment. Some of them do not have very good extreme preasure properties. It's alway's best to check the spec sheet. Timken OK load rating should be at least 60-70 lbs with 80+ lbs prefered for heavy equipment and implement lubrication. Marine greases are a specialty nitch type grease ment to service the marine industry. They are frequently used on boat trailer wheel bearing's that require a very high resistance to water since the trailer is backed into the water and the wheels/hubs get submerged in the water.

 

[dknarnd]

DeiselPower - been checking out various grease specfications and the TRC offerings certainly would be nice to have. The only problem I see is the packaging method that it is offered. I would think that the average hosehold consumer would be well stocked with between a 6 and 12 tube carton.

Which brings me to another question. Is there a shelf life on grease? The TBN fourm has already offered a large thread on the shelf life of oils but what about grease?

 

[DieselPower]

Unlike oils that all have a similar shelf life grease shelf life varries greatly. Mainly due to the wide assortment of greases and their different oil seperation rates. A grease that resist oil bleeding under most conditions does not crack, harden or become thin.

The buckets and drums I have in the shop and in my mobile service trucks are not that old but the drum I have at the house has been there for probably close to 7 years or so now. It shows no visable signs of oil seperation or cracking. It's the Moly 880 Crown and Chassis grease (not suitable for wheel bearing's).

 

[Smithla]

Both are available in 50 tube cases for the following prices;

Paragaon 3000 Moly Lithplex
$356.00 $373.00


That stuff must be really good. Anybody know where I can buy smaller quantities? I don't think I willl live long enough to use 50 tubes?

Thanks, Les

 

[DieselPower]

50 tubes of grease is equivelant to 45 pounds of grease. TRC in addition to selling grease in 50 tube cases also sels it in 45 pound (6 gallon pails). The cost of the pail is considerably cheaper then the tube price. You can buy a pail of either and a bulk filler pump for your grease guns and it's still cheaper than the 50 tube/case. I very rarely sell grease in tubes.

----------------------50 Tube/case----------45 pound/6gallon pail
Paragon 3000----------$356.00---------------$235.80
Moly Lithplex----------$373.00---------------$289.35

 

[CJ4]

DieselPower,

What's your opinion on Mystic JT-6??? Everything i've read says it's excellent and has a dropping point of 550 degrees, a timken ok load in excess of 80 pounds and you can usually buy it for around $2 or so a tube. What can you tell me about it?

 

[DieselPower]

First I'm not a big fan of anything Citgo, it's the anti-American President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez aspect. Now with the politic's out of the way. Citgo Boycott Headquarters

There are two different JT-6 greases. Their Multipurpose and Hi-Temp greases. I take it that your talking about the Hi-Temp grease because the Multipurpose only has a Timken OK load rating of 55 while the Hi-Temp in NGLI #2 has a Timken OK load rating of 80. While it does have a 550 degree F. dropping point it's working temperature range is only -10 to 325 degrees F. It shows oil seperation of 1 (that would be the oil that runs out of your grease gun). They don't show worked penetration rating's over 60 so I get the feeling it thins out in the 10,000 and 100,000 worked stroke test.

Overall it's rating's don't look to bad for off the shelf grease when compared to other off the shelf store greases.

 

[zuiko]

What about the Mystik Synthetic Blend grease? I just picked up a couple tubes of that for $3 a piece. It wasn't much more than the regular stuff and I figured it might be good in cold weather situations. They claimed a pretty low bottom end on the working temp on the tubes... forget exactly what it said... something like -65 I think.