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AW 46 Hydraulic Oil quality

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perryskorp

Member
Would like to do a comlete drain and refill on this ’91 Kobelco K909. 55 gal Dealer oil $1,500. Rural King $500. My go to place to get this figured out is the Project Farm channel on YouTube, he tests everything. Nothing on hydraulic oil though. Any danger putting cheapo oil in there? I doubt there’s any difference they way I’m gonna run this, mostly light land clearing and when the weather is good. Thoughts? And anyone got a better idea about getting the cheapest?
 
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Shimmy1

Senior Member
Caterpillar. Right now, Cat has a sale on oil. I got a 55 of TDTO 50 for less than $800 with tax.

If your machine calls for AW 46, the Caterpillar equivalent would be HYDO 10.
 
Nige

Nige

Senior Member
perryskorp said:
Any danger putting cheapo oil in there?
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IMO high quality lubricants & filters are the cheapest insurance policy you can buy for any machine. Just ask yourself what it would cost if something expensive in the hydraulic system grenaded as a result of using cheap oil. You could easily be looking at upwards of $10k.
Shimmy1 said:
If your machine calls for AW 46, the Caterpillar equivalent would be HYDO 10.
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Strictly speaking that is correct - but if the dealer has an offer on TDTO SAE10W you could also use that. A hydraulic system does not require the additives for friction materials contained in the TDTO oil but neither will they do said system any harm.
 
Nige

Nige

Senior Member
IMHO the dictum should be to never buy any product where the words “farm”, “tractor”, or “universal” appear in the name of the product or of the company selling it…….
 
cfherrman

cfherrman

Senior Member
On cheap hydraulic fluids see if it says only for obsolete systems older than 1986 ot something to that sort.

I use cheap hydraulic fluid all the time but in simple gear pumps that the technology hasn't changed since the 50's
 
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Welder Dave

Senior Member
See what specs. the oil actually meets and who makes it. Some oils will say recommended for or something along those lines. Look for oil that says meets these specs. Cat TO4, JD20C, JD20D and Allison C4 are a few I can think of.
 
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IceHole

Senior Member
Shimmy1 said:
Caterpillar. Right now, Cat has a sale on oil. I got a 55 of TDTO 50 for less than $800 with tax.

If your machine calls for AW 46, the Caterpillar equivalent would be HYDO 10.
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Aw46 would be 20wt. Not super familiar with CAT branded oil. We sell TorqForce and PowerDrive for TO4 spec oil. Mostly 0w20, 10, and 5w30. Occasionally 30 for finals.
50 is super rare... like sell maybe 4 drums a year, vs 25k+ gallons of the other 3.
Granted it's focused on winter temps of -60* more than the 2 weeks of summer that it's maybe 60-70*.
Was -5* yesterday. Currently 12* and snowing.

That drum price in first post seems really high.
We sell Rando HDZ or p66 Powerflow NZ HE for about that... and there's easily $400 added in shipping.
Not even sure on cheap oils. P66 Megaflow is like $700ish a drum and that's the lowest quality we sell. (Not a bad oil either, just low on VIIs. The other two are considered multigrade, MF is straight grade)
 
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perryskorp

Member
Think I’ll call Warren Oil and see what they say. Mag1, Traveller etc. AW 46 all produced by Warren and sold for about $500/55 gal. drum. Listen, I’ll gladly pay my dealer $1,500 for 55 gallons if it’s truly required. But I’m not going to buy the same crap made by the same manufacturer just under a different label for 3x the price if I can help it. Hydraulic is a little different because of the lack of comparative standards and proprietary additive packages, but there should be a way to figure this out.
 
Georgia Iron

Georgia Iron

Senior Member
May dad uses havoline oil in his truck 10w30. It is the basic oil sold at Walmart
He has 750k miles on the motor. I use the same in my tak and case skid steer oil systems.

On my 953 gear pump and dump truck gear pump they get pretty much any oil I can get my hands on. The hydrostatic drive gets the cat spec or power drive
 
Coaldust

Coaldust

Senior Member
perryskorp said:
Think I’ll call Warren Oil and see what they say. Mag1, Traveller etc. AW 46 all produced by Warren and sold for about $500/55 gal. drum. Listen, I’ll gladly pay my dealer $1,500 for 55 gallons if it’s truly required. But I’m not going to buy the same crap made by the same manufacturer just under a different label for 3x the price if I can help it. Hydraulic is a little different because of the lack of comparative standards and proprietary additive packages, but there should be a way to figure this out.
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When you get Warren on the phone, ask them how their 10.8 million settlement is going. The settlement for selling off-spec hydraulic oil.
 
Coaldust

Coaldust

Senior Member
Makes sense. One could certainly think that, but they have an on-going history of litigation for these shenanigans.
 
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perryskorp

Member
Appreciate the info. I looked into the 303 debacle a little bit. Would be an easy call if it weren’t for a $1,000 difference. If I can’t get any better info I will probably bite the bullet and buy from the dealer. Thanks!
 
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