Oil for hydraulic jack?

[Dave in NY]

The jack on my new engine hoist seems a bit slow,weak.I drained the oil,it was very thin,about like cooking oil.Any recomendations as to what oil to refill it with? I have regular hydraulic oil that I use in the woodsplitter,figued that might be OK.A friend suggested that blue stuff that the Meyers plow units use?

 

[Anonymous-0]

Hydraulic jack oil is approximately 10 wt. Why not just buy some hydraulic jack oil sold in automotive stores? If you use it in cold weather then you may want to buy some synthetic hydraulic jack oil.

 

[guido]

Hello Dave in NY.
Hydraulic jack oil is fine. the snow plow fluid is for cold weather use.As the other post said you can use any oil that is made for hydraulic use.Make sure that you have the ram all the way down before filling the jack, so you don't overfill the jack.

 

[old]

I use tranny fluid in all mine, but there is a special oil made just for the jacks and any good auto parts store will have it. Shoot even wal-mart has it or at least the one in town has it
Hobby farm

 

[guido]

Hello old.
Mobil makes a product called flowrex 200. Not sure about the spelling, but it is hydraulic oil and it looks like motor oil.
Machine shops would order it in 55 gallon drums.
It was available 5 gls containers as well, as I recall.
Guido.

 

[timcasbolt]

I'll bet power steering fluid would be about the same thing.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

As others have said, Hydraulic jack oil is found at NAPA and other parts places. Also, Auto Trans fluid would work well. If you are around aviation, Mil-H-5606 red hydraulic fluid is almost exclusively used in aircraft jacks due to its availability in aviation circles, and is compatible with other mineral oil based fluids. Another possibility is, my Dake hydraulic press uses Mobil DTE 24, hydraulic fluid, available in quarts at Grainger.

Charles

 

[Dave in NY]

Beeing as I already had a jug of universal hydraulic oil on hand I filled it with that.I see a remarkable difference already.Pumps up faster,holds a load longer.I see it still bleeds off a bit after a couple of hours.Before it would let the load right down on the floor in about 5 minuites.Not real handy in most situations.I don't know what they put in it for oil over in China, but it wasn't very good.I'll try it this way for now,can always change it out later if need be.

 

[RayP(MI)]

Auto transmission fluid tends to make seals swell, and may be just the ticket for an old tired jack!