Needing to change grease

[turfequiptech]

I work on a golf course we have a wide variety bearings and sliding surfaces, exposed to water dirt and dust. Budget cutbacks are going to force a change in grease even though we have had zero failures in two seasons.
I am looking at Valvoline Palladium to replace my moly grease
and Delo hvy duty EP or Rotella HVY duty ep for bearings.
I may use the Palladium in everything except my u-joints.
Any one using these greases and what is your feedback.
Anyone suggest an aluminum cmplex grease that I should check out?

Currently using Swepco 103 moly and 105 non moly

 

[Johnny]

None of those greases you mentioned will do as good a job as the two Swepco greases you are using now. You might save some money up front on the initial purchase, but you are going to spend more money in the long run, using more grease and replacing more parts.

Schaeffer's makes some excellent aluminum complex greases that would do the same thing as the Swepco, but you would be in the same situation. The initial cost would be up front.

to BITOG

 

[WagonBoss]

Palladium is GC-LB rated too. I use it in everything, including mower spindle bearings, which simplifies things. Schaeffer 221 would be a very good aluminum complex grease for everything. DELO greases have a very good reputation, its not easily available in my area though, YMMV. Frankly any of the greases you listed should work fine. Have you considered bulk loading rather than tubes as a cost measure?

 

[daman]

"Budget cutbacks are going to force a change in grease even though we have had zero failures in two seasons"

how expensive is the grease your using then??

any quality grease like Schaeffer's will do an outstanding job,we use #238 on the Farm and out performs many we've tried,reasonably price too $3ish a tube.

you want a aluminum/calcium complex thickener grease

 

[WagonBoss]

Holy Cow!. I was just reading the SWEPCO product brochures. Your comparing a barium complex to lithium complex grease. It will be hard to live on hamburger when your use to prime rib.

 

[Johnny]

If you like the Swepco greases that you are using and want to save some money, you might try their 121 Triplex grease. Excellent product and it is one grease that will do it all. Excellent resistance to water wash out and resistance to chemical fertilizers used on the golf course.


http://www.swepcousa.com/lubesite/grease.htm

 

[salesrep]

Any of the Schaeffers greases 229,221,274 will work great with Golf Courses.

 

[turfequiptech]

The reality is we are a golf course in the northeast going into winter, snow and golf don’t mix, we are down approximately sixty members, revenue from tournaments is down and we are being asked to propose a 33% budget reduction over last years budget. That budget was already cut. So I need to ask myself are there other lower priced greases that can do the job.

Last year (this fiscal) I spent 3800.00 in lubricants about 850.00 of that was grease of which I still have enough left to finish this season. I checked out the Mystik lubes, as they are spoken highly of and worked well in the machine we tried it on, but prefer not to use their products. I tried the 121 Triplex grease but would like moly on my PTO shafts and bucket pins.

The Palladium is readily available, and is half the price and passes all the regular demo tests with a higher heat rating. We are setting up a machine with it this week to try; I still have two months to try greases out hopefully I will not have to change at all.

 

[Johnny]

Times are getting tough everywhere. Good luck.

 

[daman]

IF using a quality grease like say Schaeffer's 238,etc, you will find you'll have to grease less often because this stuff stays put and keeps protection thus using less grease.

do a rep search i'm sure there's a dealer located by you.

 

[turfequiptech]

Is there a place I can buy a couple tubes of the Schaeffer 238 online?

 

[daman]

Originally Posted By: turfequiptech
Is there a place I can buy a couple tubes of the Schaeffer 238 online?

Yes, before i found my rep i couldn't get any help from members here so i found this site,very nice guy call him up and he'll set you up with one 1 tube or 100.


[non-sponsor link removed]

 

[turfequiptech]

found it ,, thanks

 

[daman]

Originally Posted By: turfequiptech
found it ,, thanks

try a few tubes of the 238 you'll be impressed.

 

[turfequiptech]

I decided to contact a Schaeffer rep to try out a tube or two. It doesn't seem there are any in my area.

 

[daman]

Oh ok,too bad...

 

[WagonBoss]

Try the retailer links with your zip code. They may be able to send you a couple tubes or maybe close enough to go to their place. I'm not familiar with your area.

One compatibility chart I was looking at did not show a barium complex as compatible with lithium. Something to keep in mind for your trials.

 

[turfequiptech]

Figured I would update,
Grease we tried in last couple weeks, Palladium, Cerulean, Mystik semi synthetic, Mystik JT-6 w/moly, Mystik general purpose, Valvoline Optimum Choice. The purpose of trying these was based on their availabilty to us and the minimum order was 1 tube. The Optimum Choice grease held up the best and we added it to two other machines Friday for a test next week. The other grease are not so good for us with Mystik Moly being the worst.
Next week sending out Swepco 121 as recommended and the Optimum Choice.
I contacted Schaeffer and I have several tubes of different grease coming on Monday or Tuesday.

 

[daman]

What does the Optimum Choice have for a thickener? what was better about it??


you can't really judge a grease without using for an extended amount of time then disassembling it and look at the bushing and pin wear. You can get some what of a good idea by how often you need to re-grease that joint.


Schaeffer's #238 and Amsoil's Off road grease(GPOR2CR-EA) IMO are two of thee most quality greases you can find.

 

[turfequiptech]

The Optimum Choice is a "Synthetic Blended Lithium Complex". It was better because it remained int he places we put it. When I regreased the cavities we put it into it came out a good consistency with only a couple of pumps make up grease.
We flushed out the old grease and packed the cavity with the grease then we assembled the bearing housing and greased until it appeared at the relief. We did this with all the greases. We ran the mower its normal duty regreased and went 3 duty cycles approx 9 hours. The Optimum stayed very well. the mystik jt-6 high heat second best.
There were 15 bearing housings that we tested on as well as 15 pins, with the Swepco 103 I greased those pins every three duty cycles. So I treated them the same in my tests again the Optimum choice held up the best.

I do not think a lithium complex is the best grease for us to use and aluminum is probably going to give us the best results. Anxious to get the Schaeffers and a Jet lube product Alco ep 73 be in this week also. And to see the results of the Swepco 121.

I agree that testing a grease in a week is not a great way to see the actual longterm results but it certainly helps to show what grease cannot do the job and are not worth pursuing.