Whether it’s planting time or harvest, the turnings of the seasons are some of the busiest times of year on the farm. With so much going on, it’s easy to let seemingly small tasks, such as changing your tractor hydraulic fluid (THF), fall through the cracks.
To avoid the risk of forgetting this crucial job, consider switching to a premium full synthetic THF. From the dead of winter to the peak of summer, a quality synthetic like CENEX® MAXTRON® THF+ can protect your operation year-round. Here’s how Maxtron THF+ is engineered to stand up to even the most extreme weather conditions.
Operability on the coldest mornings
All fluids crystallize when they get cold enough. For example, water turns to ice because on a microscopic level, the molecules crystalize into a rigid structure. The same thing can happen to a lubricant. As temperatures drop, the natural waxes inside a lubricant begin to form crystals. As a result, the lubricant becomes thicker, which can be a big problem for equipment.
To properly protect critical components, a lubricant must reach all the moving parts inside a hydraulic system. If the lubricant is too thick to run smoothly, it won’t flow to all the spots it needs to, leaving critical components exposed to wear. Without the protective barrier of a lubricant, moving parts are left to grind dangerously against each other, which can ultimately result in catastrophic damage.
But a premium full synthetic tractor hydraulic fluid like Cenex Maxtron THF+ is engineered to fight back against the cold. The secret to a full synthetics’ cold weather resistance? It all starts with the base oil. Typically making up 80 to 90 percent of a lubricant’s composition, a quality base oil is crucial to a good lubricant foundation. And while the base oils that go into conventional lubricants are refined to meet their own respective specifications, the base oil of a synthetic lubricant goes a step further.
Not only are the base oils for synthetic lubricants refined, but they’re also broken down to their base molecules for chemists to reshape and create uniform sized molecules. The change is microscopic, but the difference is drastic. With uniform molecules, a synthetic lubricant’s base oil becomes exceptionally stable against the cold compared to conventional base oils.
The base oil inside Cenex Maxtron THF+ combined with a powerful additive agent known as a cold-flow improver means that even when the temperature gets frigid, the lubricant will still flow freely so you can experience quick starts, precision operability and protection for critical components — even on the coldest winter mornings.
Durability through the hottest afternoons
While the cold can prevent a lubricant from reaching moving parts, extreme heat can result in the opposite problem. It causes the lubricant to thin, which means it won’t stay put and protect moving parts.
A thinned-out lubricant can be equally disastrous for your equipment. Although heat produces the opposite effect as cold on a lubricant, it still ultimately results in the same problem: the places on your equipment that need lubrication the most are left without a protective barrier.
Besides a loss of viscosity, heat can also accelerate oxidation. A naturally occurring process, oxidation affects many organic substances. For example, think about what happens when you leave a banana out for an extended period. The browning that eventually occurs is the banana oxidizing. Now imagine putting a banana in a hot oven. It’ll get brown much faster. This is because heat drastically speeds up oxidation.
Oxidation is a big problem for a lubricant because it destroys the benefits and additives that help it protect your equipment. If left unchecked, oxidation can eventually turn a lubricant into thick black sludge.
But because synthetic oils like Cenex Maxtron THF+ are engineered to combat thermal instability, they’re far more resistant to oxidation compared to conventional lubricants.
Whatever the weather, using a premium full synthetic tractor hydraulic fluid can eliminate the frequent draining and switching of a lubricant depending on the season. And with the tight tolerances of today’s equipment, it’s more important than ever to use a lubricant engineered to meet precise demands even at extreme temperatures. By switching to Cenex Maxtron THF+, you can be confident your operation is protected no matter the conditions. Find Cenex Maxtron THF+ at your LOCAL CENEX LUBRICANTS DISTRIBUTOR.