L245DT Hydraulic/Transmission Fluid

[Anonymous Poster]

Reading the L245 owners manual, it recommends SAE 80 oil for the transmission. Not being a Kubota wizard(or any kind of tractor wizard for that matter). Since there is no mention of hydraulic fluid in the manual, this leads me to believe that the transmission fluid is also being used as hydraulic fluid. This seems to be a heavy oil for a hydraulic system.

Is this correct?

Does it causes any problem?

Thanks
Frank

 

[Bird]

I don't know the answer to your question, but I don't know of any tractor that uses that heavy weight oil for hydraulic oil (doesn't mean such does not exist). And since the DT is a manual transmission, I would expect it to use the SAE 80 oil in the transmission and have a separate hydraulic system. At least that's the case with some of my neighbor's geared tractors of other brands.

Bird

 

[W5FL]

I remember a thread on this subject before and it was determined that the transmission where the fluid was used for hydraulics was filled with SAE 80/90W and had to be refilled with UDT to work properly. Some tractors did indeed have two resovoirs of different fluids, but I have never seen one. I will guarantee that SAE90W is NOT hydraulic fluid.

 

[TomWAiken]

I had an L245DT and have to tell you it was built a lot better that the new ones. The transmission and hydraulic is one in the same. I don't remember using something as heavy as 80. Call your local Kubota dealer and ask.

 

[tbarber55]

I have a Kubota 345DT and use NH 134, thats what the dealer put in.
The mechanic said don't waste your money on Kubota oil.
Tom

 

[W5FL]

Wonder how much difference there is in the two hydraulic fluid cost per 5 gallon can. I thought the Kubota oil was a little less expensive here than several other fluids that I had looked at. Tractor supply oil and other oils were less expensive. Kubota oil is made by Valvoline and UDT is reasonably priced. Super UDT is not, but don't think that the NH oil is equivalent to Super UDT either.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I have an L245DT, I seem to remember having the question of SAE 80. As I recall a dealer informed me that if it has hydraulics it should be UDT instead (although there is no mention of this in the manual)

By the way, anyone with this or similar models have Hydraulic pump problems??
Is it typical or normal to need a replacement at 700 hrs??
Thanks PT

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I used to own an L245DT which I recently sold. It had just over 100 hours on it when I bought it and had the original oil in the trans/hyd system. It was really slow in the cold weather so I switched to a trans/hyd fluid and kept using it til I sold the tractor with 1200hours with no problems. The hydralic pump was still the original. One note here the L245 has no oil filter on the hydralic system so following oil change scheduals is important and the suction screen in the transmission located near the left brake housing must be cleaned at each change.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Well this past weekend I checked the transmission fluid. It did come out the check screw hole so it is a little low. I used a clean rod and stuck it in the fill hole on the top, removed it to a clean white rag and the fluid was redish color. So I don't believe that it is SAE 80 oil, it must be some kind of hydraulic oil. By the way, this L245DT has a factory loader and 3 pth, I forgot to mention this in my original request for information.

There have been a few of references to "VDT", what is "VDT"?

I'm learning and want to thank everyone for their replies..

Frank

 

[geneP]

UDT is the designation for the Kubota brand hydraulic/transmission fluid. Super UDT is a more modern version of the same fluid and is thought to be a synthetic blend developed for the hydrastatic transmissions.

Since no one has offered up a definite answer, why not call a local dealer and ask the type fluid, quantity needed, is it in stock, and the price?