Need some advice.

[Disco44]

I have an older Lowtow hydraulic caravan.The hydraulic mixture used is 1 part soluble oil 1 part anti freeze 8 parts water.I've just done the hydraulics up and need to refill.To buy soluble oil now the min amount is 20 litres. I was wondering if a coolant mixture which is both corrosion resistant and anti freeze could be used.The whole system uses 6 litres so 20 litres of oil is overkill and will never be used.
Thanks.

[Sprint]

what about asking to buy a litre of the stuff from an engineering workshop?

[Blknight.aus]

urm thats a recipe to kill the hydraulics.

if you're not using the hydraulics all that often you can use any oil you like do yourself a favor bleed out the crap and put in pretty much any cheap oil you can find. a single weight engine oil would be fine or you could use the cheapy black and gold oil from woolworths or coles.

[Disco44]

Thanks for both answers .I have thought about going to an engineering place and they would probably sell me enough but then what do I use for antifreeze? I do venture to freezing climes at times. As for using motor oil I tried hydraulic oil and it made pumping up the van very hard because of its viscosity much thicker then water. It was after using that all O rings broke and I had to replace them. Really has got me stuffed.Maybe I will just try coolant replacing the O rings is easy now for I know where to get them cheap. I attach a pic of my van in WA.No parachute effect with her as she is lower that my disco.
Cheers and thanks again.

[Bush65]

With water based hyd fluid, you need the soluble oil for it's lubrication and corrosion resistance.

Soluble oil and water is a very popular hydraulic fluid. Used extensively in underground coal mines for safety reasons. However lubricity isn't as good as mineral oil, nor is vapour pressure (which can lead to cavitation if not taken into account). I'm only guessing what your hydraulic system might be like in the van, but doubt there would be much problem with using soluble oil.

Engine oil is heavy for a hydraulic fluid. Something like power steering fluid would be better.

[Blknight.aus]

I just checked your profile...

if you were setup to recieve PM's I was going to pm you my addy....

swing on by, I'm happy to have a looksee and see what I've got or can get my hands on that might be suitable.

[Disco44]

I just checked your profile...

if you were setup to recieve PM's I was going to pm you my addy....

swing on by, I'm happy to have a looksee and see what I've got or can get my hands on that might be suitable.
Mate whats a PM how how do I set it up
Cheers

[steveG]

Mate whats a PM how how do I set it up
Cheers

PM stands for Private Message.
Go into User Control Panel (UserCP in the menu items at top of page).
Click on "Edit Options" and you will find options to enable PM's etc.

Steve