hydraulic fluid opinions

[rooster-tail]

Different machines call for different hydraulic oils. What happens when you regularly swap auxillary equipment. Seems to me your hydraulic oil is being mixed with whatever was in the previous machine. Bobcat oil,10w30, aw46, aw32 etc. How important is it to use "ONLY" what your machine calls for?

 

[SkidRoe]

My opinion: as long as it is clean, and a similar base oil, it is not going to hurt your machine.

Farmer's have been sharing equipment between farms, and therefore tractors, for years - similar situation. I only remember one farmer kicking up a stink - he didn't want any JD oil getting in his IH's - I think is was more of a personality thing - lol!

 

[rooster-tail]

SkidRoe, that is exactly why this question came up. I own a Bobcat and am getting ready to borrow an auger from a farmer friend that runs different equipment. Some JD some Case and alot of custom pumps and equipment. Some companies rent quite a few attachments a year and don't know what the last guy was using.

That guy sounds like the farmers here in the diner on Saturday morning! Haha!

 

[dfb]

A few years back I rebuilt both wheel motors on my Bobcat 742b after repairing multiple leaks and replacing the hoses and once again had to refilll the reservoir. I had been using 32 weight hydraulic oil during the leak repair objective that took a few attempts to get all of them. I decided to go with the Bobcat oil after somebody explained that hydrostatic system need to have lubricity characteristics that hydraulic systems do not. Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel I felt using the Bobcat oil would take the guess work out of having the right stuff in there. If I were to be changing accesories that had different oils, my thought would be to change my oil if it were significantly diluted with other oils.