TSC hydrallic oil

[customsawyer]

Does anyone know what came of the law suit against TSC for the problems their oil has caused?

[doc henderson]

My buddy Dallas got a big check from Orscheln farm and home, as their hydraulic oil did not meet the advertised specifications.  he spreads manure and maintains stuff well.  I think he got 2600 bucks or so.  

[moodnacreek]

They owe me for 15 gallons. Had something in it, stopped 3 spools from leaking on old machine.

[Don P]

Was this the yellow buckets of 303?

[doc henderson]

yes at orscheln

[doc henderson]

 

 

buckets still work well

[newoodguy78]

How were you supposed to go about filing a claim for this? Show receipts? 
When I started here there was a massive pile of those buckets.  Of course at the rate it was running through the equipment I don't know if it did any harm 
I've since plugged the leaks well most of them   :D

[doc henderson]

it is past for a refund.  I think if you had damage you could file.  that is for Orscheln

[newoodguy78]

Yeah it's water over the *DanG now. Saw the suit came up never had much interest in pursuing it with a clear conscience with the neglect I was dealing with. Fortunately at this point I'm changing oil for preventative maintenance rather than dumping it in just to run for the day. 

[customsawyer]

I only ran it in two machine. Don't have any desire to pursue a law suit. I just keep getting emails and such about it but haven't been able to find any actual information. One of the machines is acting like the torque converter might be starting to fail. It's only 18 years old and should be covered under warranty. . Getting air in the transmission oil and reverse is starting to slip a little. With the vast amount of experience on here I thought I would ask.  

[newoodguy78]

Is that on power shuttle type transmission I would assume?
Rebuilt one of them last year. Went into it thinking the reversing clutches were worn out. When it was opened up found out it was a couple of seals were bad allowing oil to bypass. 
I guess what I'm saying is if you open it up make sure you look deep enough to find all the problems. 
On that one the fiber clutches were about shot but just changing them wouldn't have solved the issues. 
Found a good place for parts that deals with most brands if that helps let me know I'll pass the info along. 

[Don P]

I doubt that was an issue for me, most machines around here are of the flow out filtration type. What was this oil doing?

[customsawyer]

It's the telescopic loader. On firm ground it does fine. When you start getting in some soft stuff like when I was loading the sawdust it will start acting up. It has the left hand fwd rev lever that you turn to shift from 1st all the way up to 4th gear. It might be as simple as a seal. Just don't know until you get into it. I'll have to coordinate things with my mechanic so I can rent a machine while he fixes it. I let him do what he does while I do what I do. 

[mike_belben]

the new poor mans oil is cam2 ag-20.  trust me when i say you wanna leave the bottom inch of the pail in the pail and use it for your drill press lube.  it is COMPLETELY  full of grit and trash.  


what i really need to build is an air pressurized, filtered oil filler/sucker to handle my machine poor lifestyle. 

[farmfromkansas]

i got a check for about 20 bucks from Orsheln, didn't even sign up.  Just bought a bucket of oil to run my log splitter.  Not about to put the cheap oil in my tractors, spent 21,700 on my old 4450 transmission a few years ago. Hear it is about 30,000 now for the same thing.  Mine is a 15 speed power shift.

[Ljohnsaw]

I doubt that was an issue for me, most machines around here are of the flow out filtration type. What was this oil doing?

By saying TSC, I'm assuming you mean Tractor Supply Company? 

I used some (15 gallons) in my SkyTrak.  I never heard about any lawsuits.  However, my machine does have some issues now.  I takes a bit to get it to move.  The rams all work well, just the transmission is not up to par.  When I got it, it would run (very, scary, fast) in 3rd.  Then that stopped working (but almost never used it).  Now 2nd is not doing real well.  But then the engine does have a head gasket issue as well...

What was the time frame of the bad oil?  Was it junk in it or some other corrosive issue?  Dissolving seals?

[Old Greenhorn]

This LINK may help.

[Don P]

Thanks, there it is;

303 THF Products were made with inappropriate ingredients including used transformer oil, used turbine oil, and line flush, and (3) that use of the Manufacturer Defendants' 303 THF Products in equipment causes damage to various parts of the equipment.

Plaintiffs contend that the repairs, parts, and specific equipment damage allegedly resulting from the use of Manufacturer Defendants' 303 THF Products may include, without limitation, repairs, parts and equipment purchases required to remedy damage to seals, pumps, filters, gears, clutch and brake systems, power take-off (PTO) systems and losses incurred as a result of equipment being damaged beyond reasonable repair as a result of damage and increased or excessive wear resulting from use of the 303 THF Products. Such alleged increased wear and damage may include, without limitation, scratching, corrosive wear, rippling, ridging, pitting, spalling and scoring of the gears and metal components, seal damage, spiral gear damage, metal abrasion, corrosion, surface wear, clutch wear and breakage, wet brake damage, pump failure, leakage, and damage from deposits, sludging and thickening. The Retailer Defendants and Manufacturer Defendants deny these allegations and any claims of wrongdoing or damage.

If someone is selling milk at a lower price, it still has to be milk.
I've used more than a few pails of it and have had a good many of those issues on old multi owner equipment. It would be impossible to prove.

Then again, it would be impossible to prove who threw the CEO of that company off the bridge if a thousand men had a hand on him all at once. If you sabotage a man's way of eating, I'm not sure it should even be a soft rope.

[rusticretreater]

The "oil" was a combination of all sorts of collected oil, different viscosities, different compositions, oil not made to withstand the brutality of life in heavy equipment.  It certainly was criminal to sell it for this use in search of profits.  Buyer beware and you get what you pay for.

Long ago I switched to running synthetics in just about everything.  My truck is 21 years old and at 150K, my car is 18 years old and at 240K.  Running low cost oil is penny wise, pound foolish.  Synth oil also lasts a lot longer.

As for real oil, a quality oil never wears out.  It was born through thousands of years of extreme heat and pressure.  The temps in an engine are child's play for it.  What causes problems is the detergents added to the oils to reduce sludge and foaming wear out reducing the quality.  This is why they suggest changing oils in regular maintenance cycles.  If the oil wears out, why do they recycle it?  You can extend the oil life by one third just by changing the filter.  This may or may not be cost effective depending on the amount of oil.

When I needed to change out the hydraulic oil on my Kubota after break in, I did the research on quality(not price) and house brands such as Traveller from TSC were at the bottom of my list.  After finding the quality oils, did I consider price.  I ended up buying Kubota: 5Gal Super UDT2 from Messicks and will do so again.

[YellowHammer]

I had not heard of this, but it doesn't surprise me that a budget supply house sells budget oil, but it does surprise me that they can do so in such a way that it doesn't meet minimum spec, at least.  Just another case of customer fraud in a world full of such examples.  I've used it myself once or twice when I need some "today" and couldn't wait for the dealer to open.  

This is a shame, obviously criminal, but in this day and age, they should pay people for the damage as well as a penalty fee so this never happens again.  

However, this is good information for the "oil wars" debate, unfortunately.  

[beenthere]

Apparently there is no entity or agency that tests the oils that claim to meet certain specs. So the cheap oils get labeled as meeting specs and it's up to their own honesty as to what they sell. TSC apparently included used transformer oil, among other waste oils hard to get rid of another way.

We lost a member back in the day that told about such spec dis-honesty happening in the oil business. He was an oil expert but also had a band saw. Killed loading a homeowners log onto his trailer, standing on the tongue running the winch pulling on the log. Log weight caused the tongue to lift the rear of his Suburban that resulted in the whole rig sliding down the street with him falling under the sliding combo. Tragic ending.

 

[KEC]

I bought a pair of cage clip pliers at TSC a few years back. Wasn't impressed as they looked cheap. When I tried to use them they would not close the clips so I took them back. I told a manager that they did not function fresh out of the package. They refunded my money but they continue to sell them. Seems like they should pull them from the shelves.

[moodnacreek]

The "oil" was a combination of all sorts of collected oil, different viscosities, different compositions, oil not made to withstand the brutality of life in heavy equipment.  It certainly was criminal to sell it for this use in search of profits.  Buyer beware and you get what you pay for.

Long ago I switched to running synthetics in just about everything.  My truck is 21 years old and at 150K, my car is 18 years old and at 240K.  Running low cost oil is penny wise, pound foolish.  Synth oil also lasts a lot longer.

As for real oil, a quality oil never wears out.  It was born through thousands of years of extreme heat and pressure.  The temps in an engine are child's play for it.  What causes problems is the detergents added to the oils to reduce sludge and foaming wear out reducing the quality.  This is why they suggest changing oils in regular maintenance cycles.  If the oil wears out, why do they recycle it?  You can extend the oil life by one third just by changing the filter.  This may or may not be cost effective depending on the amount of oil.

When I needed to change out the hydraulic oil on my Kubota after break in, I did the research on quality(not price) and house brands such as Traveller from TSC were at the bottom of my list.  After finding the quality oils, did I consider price.  I ended up buying Kubota: 5Gal Super UDT2 from Messicks and will do so again.

All very true but if you owned as much leaky junk as I do you are not going to pour synthetic in everything.

[barbender]

Sounds like they took what is usually sold for bar oil but the tackifier was to expensive so they just labeled it hydraulic🤦🏻‍♂️ 
  Oils don't "wear out" as much as the additives get depleted as they do their job. That and your filters can only pick up so much of the soot etc., especially in diesels. Engine oils in diesel applications have a tougher job than ever. I know on Cummins ISX engines they recommend the same drain interval for standard or synthetic. It's because of soot loading, the emissions systems add a lot of soot to the oil to the point that it can clog oil passages. We've lost a few engine valve trains due to this issue, changing filters more frequently wouldn't help in this case at all.

[rusticretreater]

In that case I would run some cleaning kerosine through the engine too.  It would help wash it all out.