Need help in choosing oil. Please!

[Bobby Johnson]

Hi,

First of all, let me say the wealth of information on this site is amazing! I get dizzy when I browse through the threads and posts. There are individuals here who have more smarts and knowledge than I could ever dream of having.

I would like to tap into that knowledge if I may.

Our family has a Kubota L2900 tractor. The owner's manual calls for 10W-30 or 10W-40 oil with a CD rating. I was thinking about using a 15W-40 diesel oil. Is that a good thing to do?

Our local AutoZone has the following 15W-40 diesel oils, Chevron Delo 400, Mobil Delvac 1300, Valvoline Premium Blue, Shell Rotella Triple Protection, and Castrol Tection.

What would be the best oil for the Kubota? I would like for it to last as long as possible at the same time running as well as possible.

Thanks!

 

[vmcboss]

I owned a L3600 and now own a B2710. I used the L3600 in construction and landscaping and the B2710 is used mainly for lawn and light landscaping. I always use synthetic engine and hydraulic oil. You may want to look into Rotella synthetic 5W40, Schaefers 9000 5W40, Amsoil 5W30HDD or Castrol Exilion 5W30. The 15W40 oils you mentioned are also sufficient.

 

[D-Roc]

All of those oils you mentioned and the synthetic ones in vmcboss's post will do well. 15W40 has some a long way over the years. I know Rotella specifically has a very low pour point.

 

[Bobby Johnson]

Thank You for the replies.

vmcboss: I really want to use synthetic oil, in fact, in the past, we used Amsoil Series 3000 oil. Let me tell you, the L2900's engine just purred! Very good stuff! The problem is that our budget is very tight right now. AutoZone is selling all the diesel oils for $9.99 a gallon. Amsoil Series 3000 is roughly $30.00 a gallon right now. I know they have the cheaper 10W-30/SAE 30 diesel oil, but even that is a little spendy right now.

D-Roc: I know the 15W-40 oils have been improved over the last few years. I'm going to have to count on them to protect the L2900's at least until summer, when, hopefully, we will have more income. Winter is slow here at our farm.

Any recommendations on actually narrowing the above choices at AutoZone down to one? Or do they perform so similarly that the differences are negligible?

 

[marco246]

Take a look at Shell Rotella T Synthetic 5W-40. It's about $16 per gallon and is good year-round. If you decide on just one 15W-40, you'd be hard put to find one better than Chevron Delo 400.

 

[vmcboss]

Hello Bobby:

What activities are you doing with the tractor during this winter until spring? How often do you change the oil and filter?

If you are using it for limited duration in the winter, for example moving round bales or backblading the drive, then you really ought to use a synthetic.

I agree with marco246 on the Rotella 5W40 synthetic for year round use.

 

[Bobby Johnson]

We have been using the tractor for general purpose farm tasks. I know that is vague, but sometimes we might use it for anything. The front loader has become indispensable.

When we grind our chicken feed every couple of weeks, we will take the feed sacks, put them in the L2900's loader, and then drive to where we store the feed in the barn.

Just yesterday, we used the tractor to move our hay wagon out of the way of our barn door because one of our cows is going in to the meat processor.

Basically, we use the tractor for anything that would be fairly labour intensive to do by hand.

We follow the owner's manual recommendation of 100 hour intervals for the oil, but do NOT follow the manual when it says to change the oil filter every 200 hours. That just seems too long, so, we change the oil and filter at the same time.

In these cold temperatures of winter, we will start the tractor and let it warm up 10, 15, sometimes even 20 minutes, if we are not in a hurry, before we even use it.

So, we are trying to do what we can to prolong its life.

 

[vmcboss]

Bobby:

Based on your usage I'd recommend the Rotella synthetic 5W40. I'd also look into a block heater in the future, I generally limit my warm up to 5 minutes.

I also change filter and oil at 100 hours.