Is anyone use an alternative to the cat gear oil 75 140 rating for the final drive? If so, what’s your experience and what do you recommend as a secondary solution?
Any SAE 75W140 oil should work, but it has to be synthetic. It's not obligatory to buy the Cat-branded oil. All the major oil companies produce one. Also despite what the manual says it should really be changed every time you change the engine oil, not every 500 operating hours. There is only a small quantity of oil in each final drive and it is highly-stressed, which is another reason why it needs to be a 75W140 & also synthetic. Specifically what model of machine is this for and what does your O&M Manual recommend.?
Cat 303.5cr
What oil Options are quoted in the manual.?
It said FD one does that make sense?
If it's written that way then FD-1 makes sense. It's a Cat final Drive oil spec. What's your machine Serial Number.? I'd like to check out the O&M Manual for it.
50 W
my 304C CR has a 250 hr OCI.. I always do it at 100 hours.. this time of the year the machine spends a lot of time with the tracks and finals under water and in yucky muck... my manual calls for a 80/90 gear oil as soon as the muck work is over the finals are serviced
For FPK-prefix 304C CR the O&M Manual actually offers a number of alternatives depending on ambient temperature ranges. Below is the selection.
correct... I should have indicated "for my application" the product I use is a shell spirax gear oil
The OP's manual must be different if it mentions FD-1, which is why I asked for the S/N so that I could look at my copy of the manual for his specific machine.