Running Hydraulic Fluid in Deuce in Winter OK?

I've had my first deuce for about 1 month now and love it. I have experimentally run some diesel and hydraulic fluid and it has run fine.
My source for cheap (nearly free) hydraulic fluid offers good clean stuff that is very clear and requires a little filtering. So I am entused about using a mix of diesel and cheap hydaulic fluid.


With winter comming up, I am concerned what the hydraulic fluid would be OK in the colder temps. I live in rural western NY, and it can get consistantly below freezing for long spells.

Will hydraulic fluid remain viscus enough in the cold to run in a deuce?

If not would mixing with gas, diesel, or additives help?

Do you guys use additives like diesel 911 in the winter for prevention?

Thanks up front for any help.

Lots of different hydraulic fluids out there. Hard to tell. I would suspect it will be fine cut with diesel. 100% WMO works fine in my trucks in the winter.

I also want to run hydralic fluid and waste oils in my truck. I am a field service engineer and for fill in work I do preventive maint. on CNC machines. My cutsomers would love to give me the year old hydralic oil, spindle oil, gearlube, and waylube. I have been thinking of setting up my 1.5 ton trailer as a maint. trailer and haul the oils back home with me. I get about thirty gals per machine and service about 30 machines a year, 900 gal apx.. Thats alot more oil than I need. Too bad there are not a bunch of others in the area to provide fuel, cuz I think I will have oil comming out of my ears..

x-ray said:

Will hydraulic fluid remain viscus enough in the cold to run in a deuce?

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It's a little thick, but not too bad. The more diesel is with it, the easier starting will be. After it's running, it's all good.

x-ray said:

Do you guys use additives like diesel 911 in the winter for prevention?

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No, I do not use Diesel 911 in the winter for prevention. Many people do, it's a bad thought process. The Power Services diesel fuel addative line is not graded in a "good, better, best" sort of way, there are different products that work very differently. The 911 is a tool to use AFTER the filters are frozen up and/or gelled to get you going again. To prevent issues, the Diesel Fuel Supplement is the correct and much more effective product. Oversimplified, the 911 forces the problem through the filter, while the supplement prevents it in the first place.
I know this statement is not a popular one, but three local truck dealers and a pump shop have changed their recommendations after discussions prompted them to look further into it than just existing assumptions. It's a VERY popular brand (and very good bang for the buck IMO) but it's very misunderstood.

As far as treating mixed fuels- Any brand (well, any reputable brand...) of diesel fuel supplement is very "targeted" at specific issues somewhat unique to diesel fuel. I don't know what it does for any other fuels, but I don't treat non-diesel fuel fuel, I treat the exact amount of diesel fuel that is added to the tank at any given time. Don't over concentrate this stuff... Leave a bottle of the 911, a bottle of the supplement, and a cleaned non-addative (maybe an oil jug?) quart of untreated diesel fuel outdoors on the shady side of an outbuilding (away from heated buildings) and check them periodically, eventually you'll see why I worry about overconcentrating from "stacking" by treating a whole tank when only a portion of the tank is filled...

Alright Jake, I'll bite, what happens? Save us all alot of time and fuel additive and just tell us what happens. Thanks

Since the deuce is "Multi-fuel" you can just add a few gallons of gasoline per tank to prevent jelling.
Any oil will thicken when exposed to sub-zero temps.
Jelling occurs when the parifin (wax) in diesel fuel starts to solidify.
Even in a straight diesel you can use gas as an emergency additive to prevent jell up.

Hey OD, you might want to look into on of those WMO furnaces if you have a work shop. My bro is in the machine rigging biz and in the last few years he has been spending more of his time in this economicly wonderland called Michigan, tearing machinary out of factorys and bringing them to the scrap yard. He gets waste hyd oil by the 200-300 gal tote. He runs his trucking shop at 70 degrees round the clock with his oil burner and still has plenty of oil to drop ocassional 55 gal drum of the stuff at my place for my trucks {m35a2 and m1009}.

As for additives, I keep a bottle of 911 or Meltdown for emergencies in both trucks and I only use additive in the late fall becuase I don't trust the gas stations to get to full strenght with their additives right away. I had it before when I had October fuel in my m35 and it sat for a couple of months and when I needed it January it started to gel up. I assume that the station had not switched to winter blend yet. I do not add oil to the diesel in the winter but in the summer I'll run 20% hyd oil in the m1009 and 50%-60% hyd oil in the M35. Both trucks love the hyd oil.