Hydraulic oil disposal

[centex]

I was just reading my operator's manual and noticed that the transmission holds 8.8 gal of oil to be drained and replaced at 50 hours. I have never had to deal with hydraulic oil before and wonder what one is supposed to do with that much used oil. It seems that with all the environmental laws there would be lots of recycling centers around to take the oil but they are really few and far between in this part of the country. The few auto parts stores left accept very limited quantities of used motor oils if they also have repair shops. But disposal of almost 9 gallons of hydraulic oil seems to me to a big problem. What do you guys do with your used hydraulic oil? I guess I could take the tractor back to the dealer and let them do the work but I have found service shops in general to do very shoddy work and I hate to pay premium prices for unsatisfactory or worse work. For example I bought my tractor off the lot as a close out on the old JD 4x00 models. After getting the tractor home and using it I found that even though the dealership had put 15 hours on the tractor and clearly used the FEL hard they had never greased the FEL. One zerk fitting was missing and in fact the factory had not tapped the hole where it went. There was noticeable wear on the pin from this location and although I did not inspect the other pins I am sure there is also undue wear on them too. The backhoe was ordered and installed just before I took delivery but I found that they misssed two grease points on it an that they did not replace the hydraulic fluid that was lost when they installed the unit on the tractor. I have no desire to pay big bucks for this kind of incompetence.

Don

 

[PitbullMidwest]

Check with your dealership to see if they will except it. You might also try calling Safety Kleen or RainBo to see if they offer Do-It-Yourself drop off.

Most shops won't take it because they need to control what is added to their waste stream. If a DIYer added something to their waste stream (a strong solvent/oil mix for example) and caused the total halogens to exceed 1000 ppm it would be classified as a hazardous waste and they would be the ones paying the additional disposal costs.

 

[gerard]

In NY if you sell motor oil you are legally obligated to take back used (though you can limit it to two gal per time). I don't know if the same thing applies to hydro oil. Another option may be to find a business that employs one of the waste oil furnaces. They seem to be catching on a lot and I THINK they can burn hydro too (Just talked to a dealer and was told they can burn any multi vis oil or up to a straight 50weight oil so they seem to be pretty forgiving of viscosities.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Used Oil Disposal:
Don,

Thats correct as stated, all retail shops take used oil (by law in Nebraska) since they sell it in quantity to the public... I have 6 autos (3 children driving) and I change the oil on all the vehicles plus my tractor....my hydraulic/transmission reservoir is 5.3 gallons...... Since I buy my auto oil at these shops generally either (Advance, Auto Zone and O'Reilly's) they are more than willing to accept my used oil, they also generally recognize me as I am there several times a month...

As mentioned they generally have a limit of 20 quarts per visit. As long as you are not abusing their disposal system, they will accommdate you... The do not care if it is used motor oil or hydraulic oil as the oil goes to either recyclers for refining or for waste oil burners... They watch out for people that might be changing oil as a business and just dumping large amounts of oil on them just to avoid the cost of their own remediation/disposal.. Advance Auto for example has me in their computer system and log me in when I return oil... Again, I mix it up between the 3 stores so do not run into any problem.....

I have a few 2 1/2 and 5 gallon former heavy plastic hydraulic oil containers which I reuse.. They are more than willing to dump the oil and then return the container which I use over and over... I also keep my 1 gallon empty windshield washer fluid bottles, remember the number of cars I have, or somtimes I buy oil in the 1 gallon containers... I then fill these up with the used oil and the next time I go to get something I take those in and say "you can just toss the container"... then I do not have to bring them back...they put them in their disposal dumper...

All and all, a little bit of a hassle, takes some planning and remembering to periodically return the oil, but it is good for the environment and an oil change generally costs me $8.00 or less, depending on what oil and car I am changing at the time.... It happens to be a hobby also, tinkering with cars that is........

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Don

One more thing I forgot to mention... The 50 hours on Hydraulic Oil sounds abit frequent... Certainly the engine Oil should be changed by 50 Hours... I change mine at 30 Hours.... But the Hydraulic should go 100 hours or more... Check your manual, I would be interested in what it says on frequency of changing... I realize you will be using the backhoe, so maybe that is considered severe service and the 50 hours applies? You might want to do a search on this catagory and on the operation catagory to check also on this subject....

 

[centex]

Thanks to everyone for the input. I remember seeing waste oil shop heaters in the past but never needed one. I have been looking for one now but have not been able to find one. Does anyone know of a source?

Serge, this is the initial 50 service on a new tractor with HST. I am sure the servie intervals are longer as you suggest after the initial service.

Don

 

[JJT]

Try Google - I had 55000 hits on waste oil furnace, 300k hits on waste oil heat. They are popular in the northeast, especially in garages with unlimited supply of waste oil. My tractor dealer and my car mechanic are both happy to take any oil, motor/hydr I drop off, it's free heat!

 

[JJT]

Re: Waste Oil furnace, build your own

check out this link - $35 for the plans and ~$250 in materials. When my reddy heater dies, I'm going the waste oil route.

http://www.cyberport.net/russ/benjamin/

 

[centex]

Re: Waste Oil furnace, build your own

Thanks for the link. This seems like the way to go.

 

[neilw]

centex

Try your county dump or road maintenance shop. I live in Somervell Co., Tx. (Glen Rose) and the Co. dump and Maintenance barn accept used oil.