What oil do you guys run in your final and swing drives? It gives me many options in the maintenance manual and not sure what to use. I live in Massachusetts so it gets fairly cold in the winter.
Serial Number please. Then I can look at the same manual you're looking at. The oil for both swing and final drives should be one that meets Caterpillar TO-4 specification. The only doubt is regarding what viscosity to select.
Serial number is 6YM01670
I guess the table above is what you're looking at. If it was mine I would put SAE50 TO-4 in it. If you're confident that the upper limit of summer temperatures is not going to be above 80F then you could consider SAE30 TO-4. SAE30 would give you improved low temperature performance down to -20C/-4F ambient. The last alternative is Cat TDTO-TMS oil. This is a multi-grade synthetic oil that did not exist when your 315 was manufactured, therefore it's not in your manual. It will give you ambient temperature coverage right the way from -20C to +40C (-4F to 104F). See attachment. Don't expect it to be cheap though. Other major oil companies may well also market a synthetic multi-grade TO-4.
I'm still fairly new to this so bear with me. So I can use any TO-4 SAE 50 labeled oil other than engine oil? What brand do you recommend?
There is a major difference between engine oil and TO-4. TO-4 oil is designed for power transmission (gearboxes, transmissions, planetary drives, etc) You can use any oil that is marked something like "meets Caterpillar TO-4 specification". I would recommend that you use an oil from one of the major oil companies, I don't like parts store brands. However at the end of the day it's your machine and you can buy what you want for it. A couple of examples of SAE 50 TO-4 oils would be Mobiltrans HD50, Shell Spirax S4 CX50, or Conoco Powerdrive 50. To find the equivalents from any other major oil company, simple Google using the expressions - SAE 50 TO-4 + "oil company name" I did it for Texaco and this is what it came up with - https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=SAE50+TO-4+++Texaco - the oil is Chevron DELO TorqForce. available in 10W, 30, 50, & 60 grades.
Thanks for the help it's much appreciated.
I know this isn't a listed oil, but, I run CJ4 15W40 motor oil in all my finals and swing boxes that call for SAE50. I've run a few out over 20k hours, and never an oil related swing or travel gearbox issue. It isn't listed, but, it works for me.