Hydraulic Jack oil. Any subs?

[Greenfrog]

Two ton bottle Jack needs oil. Use the right kind or is
there a substitute to top it off with?

 

[hermit]

I have always used 10 wt. hydraulic oil. I don't know if this is correct or not, but that is what my Dad always used, so I do too.

 

[timcasbolt]

You could use ATF, but it's better to pick up a quart of hydraulic jack oil next time you're at the auto parts store.

 

[miangus]

And if you get it in the right bottle, it will have the correct nozzle to fill the jack without making a mess.

 

[Greenfrog]

Good point. Thx

 

[504]

HF sells a small bottle of it

 

[tractorguy2]

I get jack oil from NAPA.

 

[caterpillar guy]

I would use hytran equivalent oil since I have lots of it and not any jack oil. Both should work the same since both work a hydraulic cylinder just in a different means.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Motor oil, even detergent oil, is also fine. Cooking oil would work too. Pretty much any oil that flows well at room temperature.

 

[JMOR]

(quoted from post at 15:10:41 09/11/23) Motor oil, even detergent oil, is also fine. Cooking oil would work too. Pretty much any oil that flows well at room temperature.

&l* you could put water in it & have it work for awhile! Why substitute when the correct is available???????????? Who here actually knows what his seals will tolerate? We don't even know what jack he has.

 

[moresmoke]

Agree with most any 10 wt oil. Aw-32 hydraulic, tractor hydraulic transmission, ATF, or even engine oil will work just fine.

I have pallet jack that has had 5w20 synthetic in it for 20 some years. I use it in the dead of winter, and that was the lightest synthetic I had handy.

 

[Dave G9N]

(quoted from post at 14:13:18 09/11/23)

(quoted from post at 15:10:41 09/11/23) Motor oil, even detergent oil, is also fine. Cooking oil would work too. Pretty much any oil that flows well at room temperature.

&l* you could put water in it & have it work for awhile! Why substitute when the correct is available???????????? Who here actually knows what his seals will tolerate? We don't even know what jack he has.

arker O-Ring Handbook[/url] is a good place to start.

Good point about knowing what jack we're talking about. If it is worth worrying about, it is important. This link says what substitutes work and why it might not work as well as you might like It is too long to repeat here. It even lists some oils to avoid and why.

If my cheap 50 year old K-Mart jack needed oil and all I had was some Mazola, I might not bother to drive 2 miles to the hardware store if I was in a hurry. Mazola doesn't have any corrosion inhibitors, so it might rust up if I didn't flush it out for a year or so.

The first expensive 2 ton jack google found was a $342 Enerpac. If I had one of those, I would both care and find out what the seals are made of and which oil to put in it.

Last time I used seawater for hydraulics, the alloys and bearings were rather expensive, the tolerances were tight and the blasted vane material swelled in water so they had to be machined and stored wet. It was a 1 hp rotary vane pump that would self destruct in under 5 sec if it ran dry. At least the fluid was cheap. We had 330,000,000 cubic miles of it right under the boat for free. pg 38: 3 x 3 x 2 1/2" motor used one as a pump.


This post was edited by Dave G9N on 09/15/2023 at 05:54 pm.

 

[JMOR]

(quoted from post at 01:45:55 09/12/23)

(quoted from post at 14:13:18 09/11/23)

(quoted from post at 15:10:41 09/11/23) Motor oil, even detergent oil, is also fine. Cooking oil would work too. Pretty much any oil that flows well at room temperature.

&l* you could put water in it & have it work for awhile! Why substitute when the correct is available???????????? Who here actually knows what his seals will tolerate? We don't even know what jack he has.

ow Jesse, you know we don't know which grade of nitrile or chloroprene was used for the seals in our $14 two ton jacks. The boys in China can't tell you even if they do know because you can't even ask them. But yes, some oils can be bad for some rubbers, and rubbers are far more complicated than you would think. There are many types and more grades of each type. While one type can work over a wide range of temperature, it will take different grades of that type to cover the range. Parker O-Ring Handbook is a good place to start.

Good point about knowing what jack we're talking about. If it is worth worrying about, it is important. This link says what substitutes work and why it might not work as well as you might like It is too long to repeat here. It even lists some oils to avoid and why.

If my cheap 50 year old K-Mart jack needed oil and all I had was some Mazola, I might not bother to drive 2 miles to the hardware store if I was in a hurry. Mazola doesn't have any corrosion inhibitors, so it might rust up if I didn't flush it out for a year or so.

The first expensive 2 ton jack google found was a $342 Enerpac. If I had one of those, I would both care and find out what the seals are made of and which oil to put in it.

Last time I used seawater for hydraulics, the alloys and bearings were rather expensive, the tolerances were tight and the blasted vane material swelled in water so they had to be machined and stored wet. It was a 1 hp rotary vane pump that would self destruct in under 5 sec if it ran dry. At least the fluid was cheap. We had 330,000,000 cubic miles of it right under the boat for free.

drove a wrecker service truck once upon a time and towed a stolen Ford in on a police call and it did actually have water in the brake cylinder. I am not BS you.

 

[Frank(Mi.)]

I have an old jack that really leaked bad. About two years ago I put in some tractor hydraulic oil and also some Lucas stop leak. It hasn't leaked since.