I haven't found much clear information on this: My Takeuchi excavators and track loaders call for 90w gear oil in the travel motors. Yet no one seems to carry that. 80w-90 is commonly available here however. Yet the auto parts store guys said if it calls for straight 90w then I shouldn't use a range oil. So should I order 90w or is 80w-90 just as good? When it comes to final drives is it worth paying 2x as much for synthetic? Or does it not really matter in that application? Reading here it seems the finals get dirty and moisture contamination before the oil breaks down so it may not matter. But it's a 10k part so... What are people using? Tractor supply has Traveler 80w-90 and the local auto store has Mobil 1 synthetic at 3x the price. No one has 90w. Anyone have opinions?
Run the 80w-90. That's what we run in our rental fleet and have been getting good oil samples back
I always recommend CAT TDTO 50, it's equivalent in viscosity to the 90wt, and in my opinion much better for the planetary drives. I have a customer running Rexroth planets in a really big rubber tracked carrier, around 30 ton gross weight. They're running 85-140 synthetic and seem quite happy with it. YMMV.
Excavator finals are quite possibly the most abused drive there is. I like to stick with manufacturer's recommended fluids in my stuff. It can't hold very much, maybe a few quarts in each? I'd have them order you a 5 gallon pail and it'll probably last you several years. Good quality oil, filters, and grease are the cheapest parts you'll ever buy.
On machines as small as the ones the OP has it's false economy in my book to go with synthetic for its long-term stability properties when the machines are working up to the knees in sh*t all day long. Use a good-quality mineral oil and change it as per the manufacturer's recommendations or even more frequently if the oil condition when you drain it gives you cause for concern, or if you are oil sampling and the results indicate contamination. With final drives the #1 enemy is contamination, not the oil losing its lubricating properties. The only difference between 80W-90 and 90 gear oil is that 80W-90 has been tested to and is guaranteed to flow at a lower temperature than a straight 90 oil when it is cold. If you want to stick with and Extreme Pressure (EP) gear oil I would use 80W-90 without a second thought so long as the it was marked on the label as meeting the API GL-5 standard. TBH if the machines were mine I would be running an SAE50 TO-4 oil in them. Don't get confused with the numbers, in terms of viscosity they are identical, it's just that the viscosity is measured using two different scales.
I haven't seen anyone carrying straight 90 for a long time. I've never seen a problem using multi-grade oils in a final drive that calls for straight gear oil. The key is the manufacturers' spec which I would guess that this manufacturer might provide a supplement that shows multi-grades will work. As far as putting a TO 50 oil in the final I wouldn't recommend it without someone else hanging their dollars against a replacement final if something does happen to go south. Final drives are probably the toughest component on a excavator now days. Change the oil when called for and they will last the life of the machine. As far as oil sampling goes I never recommend it anymore for excavator final drives. Nearly every sample report I've seen in the last twenty years shows high iron content and then goes on to say normal. Change the oil and 250 hours later it will show high iron content again. The other side of the coin is that they are not really rebuildable when something goes wrong anyway. All that metal turning at high speed tends to ball everything up in a hurry when they break. Usually not much left and a total replacement becomes necessary.
John, I can only speak from my personal experience but every excavator I've ever worked on got TO-4 50 in the final drives & swing boxes whatever the manufacturer's recommendation was. The included Hitachi EX3600 & 5500 and other big mining shovels and I can honestly say that the oil analysis always looked far better with the TO-4 than with EP oil, and gears were in perfect condition when the units were disassembled at PCR time. When asked why they didn't recommend TO-4 oil most manufacturers' response was "we haven't tested it", to which we replied "fine, we'll test it for you if you like, and even if you don't we're going to use it anyway"..... I have to ask why it is that Cat recommend TO-4 oil in all their excavator final & swing drives why in general other manufacturers don't......let's face it the internal components all final drives function in exactly the same way.
So the only 90 EP oil I can order is GL-4 and therefore safer for yellow metals. Does anyone know if Takeuchi finals contain yellow metals or should I go with a GL-5?
GL-4 oils are more recommended for spiral bevels and hypoid drives - differentials basically. If you insist on using EP oil (I'd still use a TO-4 if it was mine) then ideally You need a GL-5, but an 80W-90 GL-5 would be fine. See here..... https://www.lubrizol.com/DrivelineAdditives/AutomotiveGearOil/GL5.html
Well I took your advice and used at 80w90 GL-5 and found literature today that a 90w GL-4 is what Takeuchi reccomends in all their finals. Anyone know if there are yellow metals in there or any reason I should drain the GL-5 out and replace it with GL-4?
Your are talkin about takeuchi so your are refering small machines, forget the expensive sinthectic oil. Mini-excavators, use very little oil quantity and with heating, and low working hours you got a lousy oil. We change it more often that the factory recomended and we never have final drive problems
this is a bit old but i have my Takeuchi manual open here in front of me For final drives Takeuchi recommends 90W Below that it says Gl-4 or GL-5 would be fine. I will be running 80W-90 in mine
My perfectly working 10k hour finals in my oldest TL150 say that 75w90 of any brand changed every 500hrs is sufficient. BTW, I use 15w40 in my Caterpillar finals, every 2000 hrs, and never a gearbox issue, other than fractured duocone seals (from freeze/ thaw damage).
what weight oil should I put in my 953c final drive
I have to ask why you would post a question relating to a track loader in a thread in the excavator section.? It doesn’t make a lot of sense. Post a Serial Number and I can take a look at the manual for your particular machine. Off the top of my head I would say SAE 50 TO-4 but I would need to confirm that. Said manual you really need to get hold of for the future. They are not expensive, only about $50, and contain a load of useful information.
GL5 is fine. It's only an issue if you run it WELLLL beyond it's change interval.
I changed the final oil in my bew to me Hitachi 40, pretty sure it was factory fill. Machine has ~5000hrs. Looked more like asphalt sealer than gear oil.