Great topic with lots of interesting viewpoints...and a few that appear a little bizarre to me (personal opinion). I have a few thoughts on some:
1) Running old tires, especially on the front? Serious? Please, at least keep good (not so old) rubber on the front. It's not just you on the road. My personal opinion--if you cannot afford new tires every 5-7 years, maybe you are in the wrong sport.
2) Stainless steel is actually not "stainless". It can corrode, and is susceptible to pitting (google it). Guess what pitting does to the internal seals on a hydraulic system?
3) Ask a farmer or heavy equipment operator, they "unload" the hydraulic systems (lower the bucket, etc.) when they shut down. Hydraulic systems ALWAYS leak at least a very small amount. If you leave the system loaded, it will eventually leak.
4) Funny rebuttal by Tom/Barb about WD (WD40?). Cleaners often work by chemically dissolving stuff (like rubber?), so to argue that WD is OK because it is just a "better cleaner" makes me wonder. I don't know the answer to this one, but some substantiated "references" certainly would be nice.
P
