This seems to come up a ton, and is asked all the time and never fully answered, and I have wondered myself a lot on which oils to use for tranny's..
I did a pile of googling and found some numbers for Deere Hy-Gard (both summer and winter, and note they actually expect you to change it for summer and winter!).. I pulled up average numbers for Type F and for a couple of "replacement" oils.
Keep in mind, almost _all_ manufactures say fluids can be mixed safely, including dino and synthetic oils, but in almost all cases, they suggest earlier then normal for your next change.
The numbers that are critical are the viscosity (protection at various tempuratures) and pour point, below which the oil becomes too thick to be pumped. Other numbers lead to longevity, cleaning, filterablity etc. Without clutch packs our biggest concerns is, it must be thick enough to protect gears and seal well, and thin enough to flow easily and quietly under pressure.
The following are 100 degree C, 40 degree C viscosities and then pour point (how cold can it be and still flow)
Hy-Gard Summer J20C
9.5/56/-40
Hy-Gard Winter J20D (lo-vis)
7/32/-55
Type F (average of 3 brands)
7/36/-45
AMSOIL synthetic 5/30 hydraulic
10/58/-47
Petro Canada Duratran synthetic
10/47/-52
AMSOIL Universal Synthetic Transmission oil
6.8/32/-63
As you can see, not many choices if you like J20D for its thinner viscosity, Type F is almost right there and the Amsoil universal is probably an excellent alternative.
If you have a machine with clutches or any other lining (brakes etc) that are wet, more reading would be required. For most of us in this section we only have pressure, gears and bearings (something common to every transmission on earth) so "chatter" etc isn't part of the problem.
In my case the Deere dealer is 1.5 hours from here so I don't use Hy-Gard, I blow an o-ring or break a line often enough to need a local supply so I have been using F, but want something "thinner" for winter use. Clearly, F turns out to still be a decent alternative with synthetics from Amsoil being a better choice. I expect that digging deeper would find that some of the newer synthetic auto fluids (ie Chrysler ATF +4) might be usable too, which is available in all auto parts stores.
Maybe interesting to some, useless to others but I found it more then interesting to actually see the numbers laid out.
Greg
I did a pile of googling and found some numbers for Deere Hy-Gard (both summer and winter, and note they actually expect you to change it for summer and winter!).. I pulled up average numbers for Type F and for a couple of "replacement" oils.
Keep in mind, almost _all_ manufactures say fluids can be mixed safely, including dino and synthetic oils, but in almost all cases, they suggest earlier then normal for your next change.
The numbers that are critical are the viscosity (protection at various tempuratures) and pour point, below which the oil becomes too thick to be pumped. Other numbers lead to longevity, cleaning, filterablity etc. Without clutch packs our biggest concerns is, it must be thick enough to protect gears and seal well, and thin enough to flow easily and quietly under pressure.
The following are 100 degree C, 40 degree C viscosities and then pour point (how cold can it be and still flow)
Hy-Gard Summer J20C
9.5/56/-40
Hy-Gard Winter J20D (lo-vis)
7/32/-55
Type F (average of 3 brands)
7/36/-45
AMSOIL synthetic 5/30 hydraulic
10/58/-47
Petro Canada Duratran synthetic
10/47/-52
AMSOIL Universal Synthetic Transmission oil
6.8/32/-63
As you can see, not many choices if you like J20D for its thinner viscosity, Type F is almost right there and the Amsoil universal is probably an excellent alternative.
If you have a machine with clutches or any other lining (brakes etc) that are wet, more reading would be required. For most of us in this section we only have pressure, gears and bearings (something common to every transmission on earth) so "chatter" etc isn't part of the problem.
In my case the Deere dealer is 1.5 hours from here so I don't use Hy-Gard, I blow an o-ring or break a line often enough to need a local supply so I have been using F, but want something "thinner" for winter use. Clearly, F turns out to still be a decent alternative with synthetics from Amsoil being a better choice. I expect that digging deeper would find that some of the newer synthetic auto fluids (ie Chrysler ATF +4) might be usable too, which is available in all auto parts stores.
Maybe interesting to some, useless to others but I found it more then interesting to actually see the numbers laid out.
Greg