Whats a good way to catch xmsn oil?

[brin]

I know this sounds dumb, and I am a "do-it-yourselfer", but I can't think of a clever way to catch that 7-8 gal of transmission oil without spilling it all over. I mean, trying to slide a 4-5 gal bucket out of the way to put another in its place seems pretty dicey. Must be a better way to do this, but I can't think of one. How have you guys done it?

I've only got 30 hrs on the Ck30 Hst, but will need to change it before end of mowing season and I'll want to dump it all, not just partially.

I went to wal mart and bought one of those plastic rubber maid type rectangular containers with a lid which will hold 20 gallons for about $10 ..it is really meant to store things under the bed and such..but I use it for hydraulic oil changes and it works great, the sides are only about 7 inches high so it fits under the tractor.

 

[Coyote machine]

I know about the possibility of a problem, but if my dealer is doing the work and it is under warranty, as it is in my case- I don't worry too much, especially since the dealer is writing me a receipt with what he did and noting the filter was being installed too.
Shavings are supposed to land on the plug which could still be pulled and replaced after removing the shavings if one buys an extra plug before pulling the original. Or you could drain all the fluid out, then if put into clean containers it could be put back in and whatever was lost could be replaced with new.
The point is the filter, which cost a bunch of $, is the first line of defense and the primary means of keeping contaminants out of the oil. The magnetic plug just catches what flows by it and is large enough to stick to the magnet. If one has stuff sticking to the magnet beyond what is there from factory fill to first filter change the have other problems most likely unrelated to just the fluid in the transmission. I'm not one to falsely economize on fluids to the detriment of my vehicles

 

[ulflyer]

Ere: I might be wrong, but I'm fairly sure my Ck30 has only one big plug. At least thats all I see under there right in the center of the rear casing. Wish it did have two plugs as that would make things simpler.

 

[Willl]

Save yourself the trouble and don't change it at all.

Curious as to what your Orange manual says about that.

 

[Gittyup]

Ere: I might be wrong, but I'm fairly sure my Ck30 has only one big plug. At least thats all I see under there right in the center of the rear casing. Wish it did have two plugs as that would make things simpler.

My geared CK25 has two plugs: one in front of casing and one toward the rear.

 

[ERE]

UL, each of the rear wheels has a separate gear case with a drain plug on each case. Since the oil level can't all be drained from the wheel gear box, I don't worry about overflowing the pan when I drain from one of the wheels first. I drain each wheel because the oil isn't pressure circulated, therefore any metal filing that originate from wheel gear wear collects in the wheel gear boxes and stays in them unless you flush it out the bottom occasionally. Those are slow moving gears with big contact area so I doubt that there is a lot of wear, but its easy cheap insurance that doesn't cost anything so I do it.

 

[trouble007]

i would agree another way i saw a while ago was get one of the plastic wheel barrows the ones that basically sit right on the ground cut it down so it will fit then put a spigot in the bottom and a hose and have it fill buckets from there. or use a pump to push it to a mass storage tank

 

[Sandlot]

UL, each of the rear wheels has a separate gear case with a drain plug on each case. Since the oil level can't all be drained from the wheel gear box, I don't worry about overflowing the pan when I drain from one of the wheels first. I drain each wheel because the oil isn't pressure circulated, therefore any metal filing that originate from wheel gear wear collects in the wheel gear boxes and stays in them unless you flush it out the bottom occasionally. Those are slow moving gears with big contact area so I doubt that there is a lot of wear, but its easy cheap insurance that doesn't cost anything so I do it.

ERE,
I brought this up in another post. I am just not sure if the larger tractors have those smaller drains on the rear axles. But if they do, they are way ahead using those to get the majority of the tranny fluid out, way more control of the flow. I have an empty five gallon bucket with a funnel set up in it and use two smaller drain pans to swap out and dump into the bucket. I will normally just pull one until it stops, then the other. Then I move to the big ones up front. Not very much is left to come out of these.

 

[IslandTractor]

Cheap way: Get a shovel and a 5 gallon bucket. Dig hole to bury bucket about a foot down. Drive tractor over bucket, remove transmission plug and drain.

I recall that my DK40se has more than 5 gallons (haven't checked). I actually have one of those wheeled low profile drain systems that cost me about $99 from Northern Tools a couple of years ago. Unfortunately they don't sell them anymore and when I've googled low profile oil collector I find only much more expensive but very similar devices. The nice thing about mine is that it holds at least 12 gallons so I can do engine oil and transmission at the same time if necessary.

 

[Highbeam]

Just replace the drain plug before the drain pan fills up. Put an empty pan back under and resume draining. I don't see the problem?

I change the oil per the book. It is not that expensive to do the job properly.