More cold weather

February 20, 2015 I guess I am stuck on this cold weather, but go outside and you will see why. I was talking with a long time Surry legend today about the effect of cold on Ford tractors and he brought up another issue which I knew about but overlooked. Condensation and ice in transmission and hydraulics. This applies to all equipment, New Holland, Massey Ferguson, John Deere, whatever. If you think about a transmission for example, it is an enclosed space that is vented to the atmosphere. You have new clean oil in there and you use the tractor and all that warms up with use. Air expands as it warms so out the vent it goes, The tractor cools off and as it cools the air contracts and more air and water vapor comes inside that case. as it keeps cooling off the water will condense on the sides which are cool and run down into the oil. Not much just a tiny amount. You do the same thing tomorrow and the next and so on. It can happen even without starting the tractor as the weather warms up and cools off. It's only a very tiny amount but over time it builds up. Now, if you ran that tractor all day it would probably get the oil hot enough to evaporate the water out but how many of us do. OK like usual water is a bad thing in the wrong place and a couple of results of this are- it actually can accumulate in the bottom and freeze and break something or believe it or not lockup your gears. The long term issue is water will damage the shafts and bearings in that machine and that will be costly. If there is so much water it locks up the only fix is heat and an oil change. If the oil looks milky after you run it- that's water. So- keep the water out of where it doesn't belong and you,me, and your tractor will all be happier. Thanks Charles