Seems like it's the season for guys doing service, so I thought I'd share my experience. The tractor is 2 years old and finally hit 50 hours, so time for fluid and filter changes. The manual says engine oil and filter, plus filters on the HST and the hydraulics, I decided to change all the hydro fluid too with UDT2.
The engine oil was straight forward, though I parked the tractor in my garage withe a slightly sloped floor and I parked it the wrong way, so the drain bolts were uphill. It didn't seem like much but I accidentally overfilled my crankcase by about 1/2 L, which was a pain to remove after I'd already filled it.
On the Hydraulic side, again, pretty straight forward except that 6.2 gallons is a lot of fluid to manage. I started with the drain bolt closest to the motor which drained less than 5 gallons (thankfully since my storage can was only 5 gallons), then the rear drain dropped about another 1 gallon. I almost missed the 2 drains on the final drive flanges, which each had 1/3-1/2 gallon each. On the fill up, the hydros took exactly 6.2 gallons. I had my son watch the site glass as I refilled and it went from nothing to spot on between 6 and 6.2, so be careful when filling that as it's hard to see if you fill clear fluid past the top of the site glass.
Finally the filters, buy a strap wrench ahead of time. I forgot to buy one and had to improvise. I wound up putting a hose clamp around the outside of the 3 filters and hammering on the screw head of the clamp to loosen the seals so I could then spin them off by hand. One filter was WAY tighter than the rest, and took some work to loosen and tighter to spec (that one needed to be turned 1 full turn past lightly seated. Lastly, the magnetic hydraulic filter had a TON of metal stuck to it. Both shavings as well as specs. Not sure what that's all about, but glad I changed this one and didn't let it go too long.
The result? The UDT2 seems to flow faster and more quietly in the system. My HST has always been whiney, but now it's less so, and the bucket when lowered with the stick in the free float position, drops quite a bit faster than it used to. I can't say why, but I appreciate the extra speed when working.
The engine oil was straight forward, though I parked the tractor in my garage withe a slightly sloped floor and I parked it the wrong way, so the drain bolts were uphill. It didn't seem like much but I accidentally overfilled my crankcase by about 1/2 L, which was a pain to remove after I'd already filled it.
On the Hydraulic side, again, pretty straight forward except that 6.2 gallons is a lot of fluid to manage. I started with the drain bolt closest to the motor which drained less than 5 gallons (thankfully since my storage can was only 5 gallons), then the rear drain dropped about another 1 gallon. I almost missed the 2 drains on the final drive flanges, which each had 1/3-1/2 gallon each. On the fill up, the hydros took exactly 6.2 gallons. I had my son watch the site glass as I refilled and it went from nothing to spot on between 6 and 6.2, so be careful when filling that as it's hard to see if you fill clear fluid past the top of the site glass.
Finally the filters, buy a strap wrench ahead of time. I forgot to buy one and had to improvise. I wound up putting a hose clamp around the outside of the 3 filters and hammering on the screw head of the clamp to loosen the seals so I could then spin them off by hand. One filter was WAY tighter than the rest, and took some work to loosen and tighter to spec (that one needed to be turned 1 full turn past lightly seated. Lastly, the magnetic hydraulic filter had a TON of metal stuck to it. Both shavings as well as specs. Not sure what that's all about, but glad I changed this one and didn't let it go too long.
The result? The UDT2 seems to flow faster and more quietly in the system. My HST has always been whiney, but now it's less so, and the bucket when lowered with the stick in the free float position, drops quite a bit faster than it used to. I can't say why, but I appreciate the extra speed when working.
