My life is little more than a cold cruel meaningless existence in which I am forced to endure daily. It is often fraught with peril and at times…sheer stupidity. The changing of one’s own hydraulic oil is of little exception.
It all starts with a dream. A dream of independence, self-reliance, and financial sensibility. Next comes the questions. “So…How much fluid do I need?” – About 2 ½ gallons I am told. “SOLD!” I exclaim as I grab my 2 gallons of oil and filter and rush home. Fear not, I have a spare ½ gallon in the garage at home. – waste not, want not.
I proceed to jack and block up my newly muddied orange beauty and remove the left rear tire. I crank up the garage tunes and ferret my fat @$$ under my pull mule and proceed to let fly with the oil.
I have 2 drain pans. 1 almost full from engine oil swap, and the other one is empty.
Necessity is the mother of invention. When one realizes that his drain pan is only worth about a gallon and half in a 2 1/2 gallon drain, he finds the will (and necessity) TO GET THAT PLUG BACK IN QUICK!
However... this presents a certain individual a bit of a challenge. What do I do with the oil currently in drain pan? I need to drain more, and don't have a place to put what I do have yet. The devil is in the details for sure and this was bit of an oversight if I am being honest.
So...do I dump all the oil on the weeds like granddad did? Please! What are we Savages? More of a sophisticated lot if I do say. Bio Hazards and such are held in high regard. It’s a no can do Lads. Besides, I have the other drain pain with the remainder of the engine oil it. – It still has room.
Oh so carefully, I skootch the full oil pan out of the way. – Must be delicate here.
Pan number 2 is in place and we let fly again. Until it fills up. Well this definitely forces my hand now. I need to fill 2 of the 3 engine oil bottles up.
I funnel, fill, and slip. Profusely cursing the oily mess, the wife’s folded white towel becomes the first casualty of this great endeavor. (Let’s just keep that between us.)
1 pan full, 1 pan with a little, I make the swap again. (How much oil is in this thing?)
Since I have 1 residual engine oil container that has good oil in it, and 2 full gallons of Hydraulic fluid, I need to find more container space to dump my oil so I quickly find an empty gallon container of laundry detergent.
And proceed to over fill it. – White towel still has a bit of life left in her so we are good.
With the drain pans mostly full I now proceed to add the hydraulic fluid back into tractor. I dump in the 2 gallons and it doesn’t even register on the dip stick. Time for that extra oil in the storage container. – Except it ain’t there. Seems its at our other property (where the tractor is going back to.)
To be perfectly honest, I don’t know exactly how this happened. But in the end with all the shuffling, I had 1- 5 gallon paint bucket, 1- Kubota gallon jug, 1- 1 ½ gallon drain pain, and 1 small container of tide detergent (that was slicker’n 2 ball juice) all full of used oil and going to the oil recycling facility at the local dump.
“Take the trash out of your house, and you will take the trash out of your life.” I was never so happy to see the oil go as well as get rid of the white towel evidence of my wrong doing.
BUT… I still have a lack of hydraulic fluid. Since the oils is at the other place, and the tractor needs to go there; I just load and go. In the shop I find the half full bottle (conveniently right where I left it) and proceed to fill the tractor up. I keep adding and keep adding, but still it does not register on the dip stick. I’m a bit perplexed as 2 ½ gallons are not even registering on dip stick?
I know what you’re thinking. AND Yes, the plugs/filters are fine, No leaks at all.
So… I go get another gallon of fluid. I add about ¾ of that gallon, and now we seem to be fine. When cold, the fluid measures just a little above the ½ way mark as dealer indicated.
Can’t wait to do it again!
It all starts with a dream. A dream of independence, self-reliance, and financial sensibility. Next comes the questions. “So…How much fluid do I need?” – About 2 ½ gallons I am told. “SOLD!” I exclaim as I grab my 2 gallons of oil and filter and rush home. Fear not, I have a spare ½ gallon in the garage at home. – waste not, want not.
I proceed to jack and block up my newly muddied orange beauty and remove the left rear tire. I crank up the garage tunes and ferret my fat @$$ under my pull mule and proceed to let fly with the oil.
I have 2 drain pans. 1 almost full from engine oil swap, and the other one is empty.
Necessity is the mother of invention. When one realizes that his drain pan is only worth about a gallon and half in a 2 1/2 gallon drain, he finds the will (and necessity) TO GET THAT PLUG BACK IN QUICK!
However... this presents a certain individual a bit of a challenge. What do I do with the oil currently in drain pan? I need to drain more, and don't have a place to put what I do have yet. The devil is in the details for sure and this was bit of an oversight if I am being honest.
So...do I dump all the oil on the weeds like granddad did? Please! What are we Savages? More of a sophisticated lot if I do say. Bio Hazards and such are held in high regard. It’s a no can do Lads. Besides, I have the other drain pain with the remainder of the engine oil it. – It still has room.
Oh so carefully, I skootch the full oil pan out of the way. – Must be delicate here.
Pan number 2 is in place and we let fly again. Until it fills up. Well this definitely forces my hand now. I need to fill 2 of the 3 engine oil bottles up.
I funnel, fill, and slip. Profusely cursing the oily mess, the wife’s folded white towel becomes the first casualty of this great endeavor. (Let’s just keep that between us.)
1 pan full, 1 pan with a little, I make the swap again. (How much oil is in this thing?)
Since I have 1 residual engine oil container that has good oil in it, and 2 full gallons of Hydraulic fluid, I need to find more container space to dump my oil so I quickly find an empty gallon container of laundry detergent.
And proceed to over fill it. – White towel still has a bit of life left in her so we are good.
With the drain pans mostly full I now proceed to add the hydraulic fluid back into tractor. I dump in the 2 gallons and it doesn’t even register on the dip stick. Time for that extra oil in the storage container. – Except it ain’t there. Seems its at our other property (where the tractor is going back to.)
To be perfectly honest, I don’t know exactly how this happened. But in the end with all the shuffling, I had 1- 5 gallon paint bucket, 1- Kubota gallon jug, 1- 1 ½ gallon drain pain, and 1 small container of tide detergent (that was slicker’n 2 ball juice) all full of used oil and going to the oil recycling facility at the local dump.
“Take the trash out of your house, and you will take the trash out of your life.” I was never so happy to see the oil go as well as get rid of the white towel evidence of my wrong doing.
BUT… I still have a lack of hydraulic fluid. Since the oils is at the other place, and the tractor needs to go there; I just load and go. In the shop I find the half full bottle (conveniently right where I left it) and proceed to fill the tractor up. I keep adding and keep adding, but still it does not register on the dip stick. I’m a bit perplexed as 2 ½ gallons are not even registering on dip stick?
I know what you’re thinking. AND Yes, the plugs/filters are fine, No leaks at all.
So… I go get another gallon of fluid. I add about ¾ of that gallon, and now we seem to be fine. When cold, the fluid measures just a little above the ½ way mark as dealer indicated.
Can’t wait to do it again!
