50 hour service and condition of filters

[BiffNH]

I just did the required first 50 hour service on my X900 and decided to take the HST and Suction filters apart to see how "dirty" they are with metal fragments, etc.. Kubota suggests just changing the filters and not the hydraulic fluid at 50 hours, so I was interested to see if this is a good practice.
I am amazed at how "clean" the filters are! I found no metal fragments - even dragging a powerful magnet over the open filter element. The SUDT is as good as fresh fluid with no discoloration at all. Given how absolutely clean the filters are, and the clarity of the SUDT, I have to agree with Kubota and say that changing just the filters is necessary at 50 hours. The pictures below show the filters and the HST filter opened up to fully expose the full element. I was willing to change all the SUDT, but now I know that this would be a waste of resources, time and money. I did the same thing with my B7800 at its 50 hour service and I've not had any problems and now have 1600 hours on it.

 

[don bon jovi]

Thanks BiffNH,thats nice to know. I just had my 100 hr done on my2013 M9960 and thats what they did also just the filters on the hydro. They said it looked like honey! I wish l would have had them keep the filters so I could have disected them like you did.I know l will on my 1100 when l do it.I'm about half way to the 50 hr.Thanks again.

 

[OrangeBuggy]

Thanks BiffNH. I'm coming up on my 50hr. service and was going to change the SUDT also, now maybe I'll skip the fluid change. For the record they now have filter kits for the 2014 x's. I ordered 2 kits and my dealer carries the UDT2 in all sizes so I'll grab it when I pickup the filter kits. They added the kits to their stock order so I'll have no shipping charges. Amsoil well be going in the three banger.

 

[bordercollie]

Thanks for the pictures BiffNH. How did your magnetic plug look?
It is probably just me , but it seems like I notice a bit more tiredness to the transmission if my change is stretched extremely. That being said, I do stretch it since I am using the synthetic SUdt2. Same for the motor oil , I use the JD plus and it supposedly stretches the change on JD stuff . so I do that with my current RTV and also the old RTV that was in great shape at 4,200 hours.
Thanks again for the pictures ! collie

 

[BiffNH]

As I didn't change the fluid I didn't pull the magnetic plug. BUT - given how clean the filters are I believe that there is very little on the plug. I'll find out at the time when I am supposed to change the fluid. I definitely would have gone ahead and changed the fluid if I had found evidence of metal particles floating around!
Having 4,000+ hours on a machine is testament of your good maintenance. Great job!

 

[bordercollie]

Thanks BiffNH, I don't know what I was thinking asking that I will blame it on my cold. collie

 

[thunderdome]

Hope you get to feeling better bordercollie!!

 

[bordercollie]

Thanks Thunderdome.. This cold weather about threw me a curve ball but doing much better and "clattering" a lot less. Gotta feed the cows anyways when it is this cold.. thank goodness for the RTV and that "poorman's windshield" collie

 

[BiffNH]

I just did the 200 hour maintenance on my RTV-X900. I changed the filters at 50 hours as suggested, but did not change the hydraulic and transmission fluids, because it is not called for in the normal maintenance schedule. As I reported earlier the filter and the fluid in both the HST and Suction filters were amazingly clean and the filter fabric was clean as well.
Even though the maintenance schedule does not call for changing the transmission fluid until 400 hours, I decided that I would do both the Hydraulic and Transmission fluids this time. It is a bit expensive to replace with Super UDT2, but since I plow with this machine I went ahead and purchased two five gallon pails of Super UDT2.

The fluid in both reservoirs was quite clean and showed no discoloration due to over- heating and use. The magnetic plug (see photo) did have a thin coating of very fine grains on it. I tried to remove the suction strainer on the hydraulic tank but even with the pneumatic wrench I could not get it. I used a two foot 1/2" breaker bar and the darn thing would not budge - I was worried that I might snap a weld or bracket of the tank so I gave up. The fluid was clean so I am assuming the stainer is clean as well. On my B7800 tractor I've never found the same stainer to have any material on it.

I must say I have not noticed any difference in the operation of the transmission or hydraulics with the Super UDT2.

I've had my machine since late November of 2014 and now I have 230+ hours and 1043 miles on it. And it is all on our 110 acres and it is all work related! It is a workhorse.

 

[BiffNH]

I forgot to attach the photo. Here it is: