Cheap Hydro-Gear units

[oldcodger]

Because hydro-Gear decided to save a buck they made the units in my Big Dog C142 mower "sealed for life" with no drain plugs. Mower has about 400 hours on it. Today I removed the units and drained them thru the fill port and refilled them and reinstalled. Drain plugs would have made the job so much easier but I probably would not have been able to break the fill plugs loose with the units installed and they would have to be removed anyway. Manual specs 20W-50 motor oil for lube. I installed Castrol GTX 20w-50. After refilling and installing the mower wanted to creep and I had to adjust the linkage on both units. That was a troublesome operation.
I hate "sealed for life" devices.

 

[jeepman3071]

Big Dog mowers have a 7 year residential warranty (commercial is much less), so I'm guessing they know the hydros will last past the warranty with the original fluid, and that is all they care about. Seems like a home owner grade design to me, which is where the cost cutting comes in. They know most home owners will never service the hydros.

 

[jhs914]

Don't blame Hydro-Gear. They make what the mower manufacturers want at a certain price point so they can sell box store mowers to residential users. They make several higher grade units with drain plugs for better and more expensive mowers.

 

[#18FAN]

When I was in the market and purchasing a Zturn mower it was #1 on the list it had to have serviceable Hydro.

 

[Marcozi]

"Lifetime fluids" is a marketing ploy, and not a maintenance philosophy. Great job on your part, oldcodger!

 

[meep]

I’ve done the same…. Suck the fluid out the fill ports and refill with new. I’ve run mine pretty hard pulling an aerator around and also a laden utility trailer… no issues. Simple enough with a mityvac. Nice work.

 

[bchannell]

Did you purge the system after refilling. The best way is to raise the rear wheels off the ground and run it backward and forward a few time slowly from slow to fast. Then put it on the ground and drive it around doing the same thing, ie back and forth. usually gets all the air out without too much trouble.