Oil & Fuel Mixing transmission oil, is it ok?

[jakobvh]

I'm about to do a 50 hour service on my B3030 and have everything ready except the transmission oil.

I have about 12 liters of JD "HyGuard" and roughly the same if a bit less of UDT.

A trip to the dealer is a major inconvenience (3 hour drive) and since the service manual says it needs 15 liters of tranny oil, is it fine to fill it up with UDT and top off with HyGuard?

 

[gauthier]

I wouldn't,but....

 

[bp fick]

I had a bad experience doing something similar. 100% one or the other would be my choice. Who knows? Shame to find they cause foaming or some such when mixed. I know when mixing water colors that green and orange makes a pretty sick brown color. Does that count?

 

[funwithahoe]

Before i made the three hour trek i would need to think of a reason why it would matter and right now I can't. I know people get crazy about oil but really when have you ever heard of someone adding 10W 30 to 5W 20 and the engine went 20 minutes later. Quite frankly you could probably wait another 50-100 hours to do the service and you'd be fine as long as you clean the filter. My father was HUGE on changing oil ever 3000 miles (read your engine would explode if you didn't) but I am slowly trusting the oil change gauge on our Honda Accord which seems to be telling us the change about every 9000 miles (lots of highway miles). So far I have noticed that the rest of the machine wears out before the engine/transmission.

I know there is a lot of energy around maitenance on this site but I personally think the way you operate it is more important. Don't ask it to do more than it was designed and respect it! Dont' drive it like ya stole it and you'll be fine.

6 hours in the car and gas to get there is expensive - weigh that against how much extra life you will get out of the machine (maybe none/maybe a tiny amount). Are you going to keep it forever??

Of course last poster says he had a bad experience doing something similar - Maybe there is something I am missing??

 

[bp fick]

First, no one is going to lecture the OP about having the proper supplies stocked ahead of draining. We've all been "there", that is, caught off guard and just have to use what we have.

That's what I did. When I installed my new FEL, I needed to top off with a generic, TSC universal fluid.

All I can tell you is that it "reacted" somehow with the Kubota sudt remaining in the reservoir. I had unbelievable whine, foaming, and jerky performance that would not go away, even after a couple of days of use.

I ended up having to make that dreaded 2 hour drive, each way, myself and get new fluid, I chose Kubota sudt. Had to drive back and drain the entire hydro.

Immediately, all returned to normal in sound and function.

Realizing this is merely experiential or testimonial evidence. It happened.
The OP may experience none of this and I hope he doesn't. If he does, he'll be draining that system, I suspect, and starting over.

 

[jakobvh]

I just took over as manager of grounds at a large ex farm/guesthouse and my first order of business was to once over all the machines they have including an 8year old bx1800 and a 6 month old b3030, it took me a good day of hunting to find all the documentation for everything. Absolutely no system in place of keeping track of maintenance etc. Let alone what supplies they have. As a result the bx1800 has spent the past two weeks at the dealer having any number of problems fixed, and the b3030 is getting it's 50 hour service at 58 hours :-/

new machinery shed is already in the works, Once that's in place I'll have nice big drums of udt (dealer doesn't even know what sudt is, pretty sure us Aussies don't get none of that fancy stuff ) and engine oil and a nice stock pile of filters, belts and any other consumables. So I won't be caught of guard again!

Outcome of service: engine oil and filter done, only had one transmission filter, B3030 needs two, I'll order another and a 20lt (5gal) drum of UDT and get round to it when that arrives.

 

[bp fick]

Good man!!

The engine oil/filter change is a good thing. The hydro change can wait. That fluid isn't going to dissipate just because you wait until 75 hours or even 200 hours. Kubota has lengthened the service intervals on these machines. No worries.

Yes, the lighter viscosity udt, marketed here as sudt, is not likely available in OZ. Canada has only "premium" udt, whatever it is.
Change it out when you get all your supplies together. Best wishes on your new responsibilities.

 

[OrangeRidge]

All is not as it appears in Oz........
JD HyGard sold in OZ is blended in OZ by Fuchs Oils. It is 10w30.
The UDT Kubota is 20w and is also a Fuchs Oil , but is much
cheaper as a Fuchs product ( also sold at your Kubota Dealer ).
We don't have SUDT here , and the JD LowViscosity HyGard is
not here either.
I run JD 10w30 ( specs are on the 20L drum , but not the 5L
pack; go figure that one .......... ) because it's the closest we
can get to SUDT over here.
20L HyGard 10w30 is A$137 inc , whilst 5L is A$37.50
20L UDT(20w) is A137 inc ( NO coincidence there ! )
20L Fuchs 20w is A$97 .
DO NOT MIX the 20w original fill with 10w30 JD , buy JD !!!!!!!!!!!

 

[rScotty]

I'm about to do a 50 hour service on my B3030 and have everything ready except the transmission oil......... is it fine to fill it up with UDT and top off with HyGuard?

Apparently some transmission oils can be mixed. And I know of two Kubota dealers that absolutely maintain that Kubota has verified to them that it is OK to mix certain oils with Kubota's UDT. So why not give Kubota a call? Maybe they will tell you which ones are OK.

You don't have many hours on the existing oil. If it were my tractor I would definitely change the filter....but consider holding off on the oil change until later. I can't see necessity to change both at the same time other than convenience. Alternatively, if you look online there are several Kubota dealers that will ship oil to your door and save you the day-long drive.
good luck, rScotty

 

[jakobvh]

You don't have many hours on the existing oil. If it were my tractor I would definitely change the filter....but consider holding off on the oil change until later. I can't see necessity to change both at the same time other than convenience.
good luck, rScotty

I'm just going by the service manual, 50 hour service entails new engine oil and filter and new transmission oil and filter. I figure it's a 50k machine (roughly), may as well go by the book. That said, the machine doesn't get used very often, none of the operators are very confident on it, its very hilly terrain and they don't like the additional 'pucker factor', so I don't think it'll hurt to hold off the transmission service