I plan on replacing the hydraulic fluid in my skid loader, and at the time it was made... spec was 15w-30 standard motor oil iirc. I believe that is what is in it, from what I can tell. Should I change over to a modern hydro oil? Or should I just continue using what is in there... I planned on buying an oil transfer pump, and pumping into buckets to save for bar and chain oil. Thanks in advance...
I can't advise you on what to put in, but do make sure it's compatible with the seals in your system. I'd hate to see you have to rebuild your system due to deteriorating/leaking seals.
15W50 Mobil 1 Synthetic is excellent in those systems. Ultra heat/breakdown resistant. How much does it hold?
Hmm...that might be a good option in my Hustler zero turn mower for the hydro drive...they call for standard dino based 10w-30 (or 40...can't remember at the moment) but I want to switch to synthetic next time...
Whatever the factory recommended is what I'd use and not synthetics unless factory specified them, and you've been using synthetics since it was new. Reason being... synthetics have a propensity to leak through high-hours/high/mileage vehicles because their molecules are smaller and more uniform than regular oil. This enables them to get into places easier than regular oil, unfortunately sometimes they are so good at getting into small spaces, they leak past seals. Happened to me with my Dodge/Cummins truck. Previous owner put Amsoil in the rear-end and bragged about it when I bought the truck, with 56,000 on the Odo. A week later I was under the truck and noticed the pinion seal was leaking. I drained the Amsoil refilled with 80W90 and haven't had a leak there since.
I would call New Holland because every system is designed slightly different. My buddy has an old Ford and he runs ATF, Dextron/mercon for fluid in his "and" the factory calls for that...
When ExMark came out with their lawn equipment in the early 90's we were floored that hydro systems could run on 1qt of oil per side with no coolers etc. All other machines had large capacity systems with coolers to keep the oil from breaking down. The Mobil 1 ran 1 season on a change & those hydros run hot. We could get 2000ish hours out of pumps & motors very consistently. Sold me on that oil in hydrostatic applications. If it calls for 10W30 I'd do the Mobil1 in that viscosity.
My old Toro ZT had el-cheapo HydroGear brand hydro drive transaxles...the left side crapped the bed at 7YO (turns out you can't pull a lawn roller with these cheap drives ) when I went to the dealer for parts, turned out I knew the one mechanic, he said to switch over to Mobil 15W-50 full synthetic...I changed over the oil in both sides...the right side was still going strong when I sold it at 14 YO...the left side puked a seal when the axle carrier bearing went out...it got repaired and sent down the road to a new owner with a less "intense" yard. The replacement ZT mower is a Hustler Mini Z with a nice HD hydro system...White brand should last me forever for homeowner duty...especially if it gets switched over to synthetic oil...less than 500 hrs on it so not too worried about leaks
Agreed, but oil specs on these change. Just want to make sure I'm not missing the boat by running conventional.
One of the NH dealers (big dealer) listed another oil to use, an actual hydro oil... but I think I'm going to stay with the original oil spec (most likely Mobil 1 though).
