Bobcat vs. Cat hydraulic oil

[500K_773]

This kind of following in line with my other post regarding Bobcat hydraulic/hydrostatic oil, but I wanted to keep it separate.
I was told that Bobcat and Cat hydraulic oils were incompatible. I was told that Cat uses a less viscous fluid because of it's pilot control valves. Is this true? What kind of problems could arise if the oils were mixed? They said you don't want to use hydraulic attachments which have been used on a Cat and vise versa because of the contamination risks. My friend has a Cat machine and I haven't let him borrow my Brushcat because of this reason. It would sure look bad if I was misinformed and he thought I was just being "stingy" with my Brushcat.

 

[StuZ]

Any idea who makes Cat's hyd. oil ?? I know a few years ago Ammoco's 1000 trans/hyd. oil was death to alot of hyd. pumps, or at least that was who J D blamed it on. Bobcat has done plenty of testing with other oils, even veg. oil, and they haven't released any bulletins on not using anything or anybody's oil If memory serves me right, Bobcats hyd oil is Exxon/Mobil 15

 

[JakeCat]

I just recently bought an old used 443 skid loader, and wanted to replace the hydraulic fluid. The local Bobcat dealer guy shuddered when I asked him about using a non-Bobcat hydraulic fluid, then admitted to me that as long as it met viscosity grade ISO 46, that would be compliant with Bobcat specs. Mobil DTE 25 is what I bought, and althought not the best price, Grainger had it in stock locally in 5 gal buckets. I would presume that Cat has a similar viscosity spec, and assuming they don't require special additives compatible with pump and valve seals that matching the viscosity and temp specs would be sufficient. I wouldn't intermix attachments with other machines either. That's like sharing a bottle of pop with someone else...never know what kinda backwash yer gonna get. Of course, my poor cat has no aux. hydraulics (yet) so I can't play with those toys yet. :-(

 

[500K_773]

I just recently bought an old used 443 skid loader, and wanted to replace the hydraulic fluid. The local Bobcat dealer guy shuddered when I asked him about using a non-Bobcat hydraulic fluid, then admitted to me that as long as it met viscosity grade ISO 46, that would be compliant with Bobcat specs. Mobil DTE 25 is what I bought, and althought not the best price, Grainger had it in stock locally in 5 gal buckets. I would presume that Cat has a similar viscosity spec, and assuming they don't require special additives compatible with pump and valve seals that matching the viscosity and temp specs would be sufficient. I wouldn't intermix attachments with other machines either. That's like sharing a bottle of pop with someone else...never know what kinda backwash yer gonna get. Of course, my poor cat has no aux. hydraulics (yet) so I can't play with those toys yet. :-(

Good to hear about the ISO 46 specification requirement. I would like to run a sythetic or lighter weight oil due to the cold weather here in Alaska, but don't want to lose high temperature performance in the summer. I don't want to change out the oil every 6 months either. In Prudhoe Bay (north slope of Alaska), we run AW 32 in all our hydraulic equipment because of the cold weather. I seems to work fine in the warmer weather too, but usually doesn't get more than 75-80 degrees F in the summertime.
If you rent expensive attachments, you don't really have the choice not to share attachments with other machines. I thought about contamination risks and countermeasures. It would be a pain to flush an attachment before using and could get expensive. Good excuse to buy more attachments

 

[500K_773]

Good to hear about the ISO 46 specification requirement. I would like to run a sythetic or lighter weight oil due to the cold weather here in Alaska, but don't want to lose high temperature performance in the summer. I don't want to change out the oil every 6 months either. In Prudhoe Bay (north slope of Alaska), we run AW 32 in all our hydraulic equipment because of the cold weather. I seems to work fine in the warmer weather too, but usually doesn't get more than 75-80 degrees F in the summertime.
If you rent expensive attachments, you don't really have the choice not to share attachments with other machines. I thought about contamination risks and countermeasures. It would be a pain to flush an attachment before using and could get expensive. Good excuse to buy more attachments

Shane (JustAwrench),
Do you have any comments on this? There is another thread concering the hydraulic oil change in a 743 which I thought about asking this oil question, but didn't want to hijack their thread.
Do you know a good alternative to Bobcat's Black Gold? I know Bobcat recommends this for their hydraulic systems, but it must be the same as some other commercially available brands. Is the ISO 46 spec correct?

 

[JustAwrench]

Shane (JustAwrench),
Do you have any comments on this? There is another thread concering the hydraulic oil change in a 743 which I thought about asking this oil question, but didn't want to hijack their thread.
Do you know a good alternative to Bobcat's Black Gold? I know Bobcat recommends this for their hydraulic systems, but it must be the same as some other commercially available brands. Is the ISO 46 spec correct?

Well....I'm not real smart on the tech specs of the oil-they tell us to use Black Gold and we do-it's a matter of walking over to parts and getting it. I take it you guys may have a hard time with availability. Bobcat, until recently, said one could use engine oil in a pinch but recently stated that only black gold met warranty reqirements. I have seen a lot of engine oil in hydraulics without problems, but they want to sell their oil. I gotta work tomorrow, so I'll get an answer and follow up by this time tomorrow.

 

[JustAwrench]

Well....I'm not real smart on the tech specs of the oil-they tell us to use Black Gold and we do-it's a matter of walking over to parts and getting it. I take it you guys may have a hard time with availability. Bobcat, until recently, said one could use engine oil in a pinch but recently stated that only black gold met warranty reqirements. I have seen a lot of engine oil in hydraulics without problems, but they want to sell their oil. I gotta work tomorrow, so I'll get an answer and follow up by this time tomorrow.

The latest inormation states, of course, that Black Gold is the recommended oil, but if unavailable, use standard hydraulic fluid VG 46 at -40 deg F to 80 deg F, and VG 100 40 deg F to 120 deg F. or synthetic over the whole range, and further recommends if that Black Gold be changed back in at the next service interval. They keep the formula and spec close to the vest.