Gents,
Referencing the previous discussions, it seems like the consensus is to do an annual test of the fluid. In my case that's roughly 50-75 hours annually. Will I be able to see a trend in that short a time? The fluid was changed just before the "Revisited" discussion in '05, so the oil has about 150 hours on it now. I imagine I'll run it for the '07 season before sending in a sample. Say 200+ hours. What trends should I look for in the sample?
The 35 year old service spec for the OE Hy-Tran was no more than 1,000 hours between changes with a filter change, including the necessary 2-gallon change in the filter housing (about 10percent of cap.), at 250 hours. I had planned to cut that oil change interval in half and keep the same filter interval. After changing the old fluid, I'm pretty convinced it was years, if not decades, old and probably with more than 1,000 hours on it. The trans oil filter had a 1980s date on it!
I ended up using the Tractor Supply brand oil, the Traveller "Premium" 10W-20 THF that is "Recommended" for my application. In terms of price, it was in the low $20s range, which is about 2/3s of OE Hy-Tran and about half of the top dollar syns. Perhaps not so oddly, I noticed a gradual improvment in TA operation (it sometimes skipped a beat).
Bottom line, remember this tractor has 8200 hours on it.
Referencing the previous discussions, it seems like the consensus is to do an annual test of the fluid. In my case that's roughly 50-75 hours annually. Will I be able to see a trend in that short a time? The fluid was changed just before the "Revisited" discussion in '05, so the oil has about 150 hours on it now. I imagine I'll run it for the '07 season before sending in a sample. Say 200+ hours. What trends should I look for in the sample?
The 35 year old service spec for the OE Hy-Tran was no more than 1,000 hours between changes with a filter change, including the necessary 2-gallon change in the filter housing (about 10percent of cap.), at 250 hours. I had planned to cut that oil change interval in half and keep the same filter interval. After changing the old fluid, I'm pretty convinced it was years, if not decades, old and probably with more than 1,000 hours on it. The trans oil filter had a 1980s date on it!
I ended up using the Tractor Supply brand oil, the Traveller "Premium" 10W-20 THF that is "Recommended" for my application. In terms of price, it was in the low $20s range, which is about 2/3s of OE Hy-Tran and about half of the top dollar syns. Perhaps not so oddly, I noticed a gradual improvment in TA operation (it sometimes skipped a beat).
Bottom line, remember this tractor has 8200 hours on it.