John Deere Plus-50 II for Hydraulics??

[kyis]

Changing fluid in JD 332 skid steer 2006. The owners manual lists the same oil for the engiine and Hydraulics as John Deere Plus-50, which has been superceded to Plus-50 II.

For the life of me I can't find where this oil is used for hydraulics.
Though they tell me they have been putting in 40wt engine oil in??
I know the plus 50 is synthetic but really?
Manual says you could use TORQ GARD OR API CH-4 OR CG-4 also.

 

[Edward. S]

Plus 50-II is engine oil FYI.

 

[jenkinsph]

Don't know how cold it is in your locale but the Plus 50 II is available with a 0 w40 rating which would be great for winter weather. Lots of hydraulic system use engine oil so not a leap there. I would check with the dealer to be safe. As expensive as the oil change is going to be I think I would change the hydraulic filter first, without the fluid change and run it for a day or week. I would also check for water in the system too.

After you have had a chance to run it and see if your problem goes away I would then install a new filter again and new fluid. I think I would cut open the replacement filters to see how much trash and filings are there, might be other problems but hope not.

 

[kuboman]

Engine oil is fine for hydraulics but one thing to consider is that hydraulic oil is designed for a certain amount of water contamination where engine oil is not. If I was running long steady hours I would not think twice about using engine oil but for intermittent use and possible water infiltration from sitting outside or just condensation I would stick with hydraulic oil.

 

[kyis]

Thanks! Great Info, especially about sitting, which this unit does.
So should I use UDT or JD Hy-Gard?
And can that be put in after motor oil, they mix I guess?

 

[kuboman]

Thanks! Great Info, especially about sitting, which this unit does.
So should I use UDT or JD Hy-Gard?
And can that be put in after motor oil, they mix I guess?

I just re-read your original post. I am wondering why JD says to use engine oil in the hydraulics. Skid steers may have different requirements than a normal tractor. Without further advise from JD maybe you should stick with the manual. Makes it simple for maintenance. Maybe that's what JD was after.
Sorry for the conflicting suggestions, I should have read more carefully.

 

[ctlguy]

Nothing new here, eng oil has been used in all 300 series skids, before that self propelled sprayers went to engine oil as well but in thier case it is a 10w30 oil.

 

[kuboman]

Nothing new here, eng oil has been used in all 300 series skids, before that self propelled sprayers went to engine oil as well but in thier case it is a 10w30 oil.

Seems like a good idea but does JD state the reason for engine oil instead of hyd-oil

 

[ctlguy]

Seems like a good idea but does JD state the reason for engine oil instead of hyd-oil

Don't know myself what the reasoning is, could be as basic as consolodating your oil supply, to something more technical like emulsification rates? I don't really know. I think where this would matter the most is what are the other equipment items and the att being used, are they being swapped between machines? Are the att a rotary design where gradually we are moving one oil from one machine to another? In this case I would use what is approved for both and keep them the same. ex. ct322 using engine oil and a mini x using some fancy unique oil we probably don't want to mix those and we probably don't want engine oil in the mini x nor the super high dollar mini oil in our skid steer. So can we replace both with a different premium oil like texaco rando, or mobile dte 25. Anyways, my two cents worth I am not a hydraulic expert but do know that this has been discussed since atleast the 1960's when other skid steer mfg's started using engine oil for hyd oil.

 

[Edward. S]

Thanks! Great Info, especially about sitting, which this unit does.
So should I use UDT or JD Hy-Gard?
And can that be put in after motor oil, they mix I guess?

I use JD Hy-Gard. Not sure about the mixing. Oil is better than No Oil. I always go by that though.

 

[jenkinsph]

Thanks! Great Info, especially about sitting, which this unit does.
So should I use UDT or JD Hy-Gard?
And can that be put in after motor oil, they mix I guess?

Some good points have been brought up, using other attachments such as a hydraulic auger, hammer or other shared hydraulic attachment might use a different oil. If you rent an attachment for instance it may have either fluid depending on the rental yard. I wouldn't change the type of oil that Deere recommends based on water contamination either as both the engine and hydraulics oil should have negligible amounts of water in them.

The manual specs out the Plus 50 engine oil or Torq Guard engine oil I suggest you consider using what Deere recommends and recognize that any attachments you use should be engine oil based.