time between oil changes

[kenmac]

More like 15,000 to 30,000 depending on type of operation. Local hauling with PTO time, 15K. Long haul, 30K not unusual, with bypass filter, even with dino oil. Few fleets run synthetic--seems like Rotella and Chevron have most of the market.


Some get more miles out of synthetic & every year more trucking companies go synthetic. I found this on the amsoil site https://www.amsoil.com/testimonials/409000.aspx and this https://www.amsoil.com/performancetests/gerlach_trucking/index.aspx

 

[cp1969]

Like I said, the cat dealer in my area that does my uao's ,say that these rigs come in all the time to have their oil tested just to see if they can go another 100 miles or so.

That seems far-fetched. It would cost way more to take the truck off-line than you'd gain by running the oil another 100 miles. Most UOA samples are collected when the oil is draining.

 

[kenmac]

I didn't say they were taking truck off the line. He tells me that when they are passing by the dealership thay will come in .He says it only takes a few min to do a test for them. These are independent truckers not companies. I don't know this ,but why would he have reason to lie about it ? I just have my personal oil checked there.

 

[cp1969]

but why would he have reason to lie about it ?

I guess just to stay in practice. (pretend there a smiley face here--I don't know how to do it.)

 

[DieselPower]

Probably more like 1,000 or 10,000 miles. I can't see getting UOA's done in 100 mile increments. Some trucks would need multiple UOA's done per day. As far as how long it takes to draw a sample, it takes less than a minute. Open hood, pull dip stick, insert vampire pump/UOA pump tube and suck out the sample, reinsert dip stick and close hood.

You are correct that a OLM does not know what type of oil you are using and if it's synthetic or not. Like I said, they assume minimum spec oil that meets API rating standards or whatever that manufacturers spec's may be. Using higher quality lubricants and even synthetic's would enable even greater drain intervals. The only way to safely tell for sure is through a UOA. For the average Joe wanting to extend his drain intervals in his car or truck in which he has switched to a synthetic oil the best practice is to perform a couple of UOA's during your first two changes. You can then go over the data and figure out what would be a safe OCI for your vehicle and driving conditions.

KICK - You guy's run 3,000 mile intervals on bus's? Did you come to this drain interval using UOA's? What oil is this fleet running? I sell alot of oil to bus fleets, school bus fleets that is and even on their in city, frequent stop start run bus's they are getting around 16-20K intervals. Their bus's that run out in the boonies on longer runs get as high as 28-32K. Their rear engine coach bus's get even higher then that. I can't imagine a modern bus, transit or not (even with a EGR valve) that would get OCI's that short. Shoot for that matter I sell oil to trash companies that get 5 times or more OCI's out of their oil. Have they run any test using different engine oils over extended periods of time to see if they can obtain better results? 3K just doesn't sound right.

 

[kenmac]

I guess just to stay in practice. (pretend there a smiley face here--I don't know how to do it.)

you mean, Like this I thought I was the only one that was bad with a computer here just go to advance b-4 you submit the post

DP I missed a 0. I ment 1000 mi not 100 my bad

 

[KICK]

KICK - You guy's run 3,000 mile intervals on bus's? Did you come to this drain interval using UOA's? What oil is this fleet running? I sell alot of oil to bus fleets, school bus fleets that is and even on their in city, frequent stop start run bus's they are getting around 16-20K intervals. Their bus's that run out in the boonies on longer runs get as high as 28-32K. Their rear engine coach bus's get even higher then that. I can't imagine a modern bus, transit or not (even with a EGR valve) that would get OCI's that short. Shoot for that matter I sell oil to trash companies that get 5 times or more OCI's out of their oil. Have they run any test using different engine oils over extended periods of time to see if they can obtain better results? 3K just doesn't sound right.

what kind of oil are we running? cheapest $hyt they can buy in bulk that meets the latest spec. you gotta realize we operate on a low bid basis, purchasers are independent of maintnence with their own goals ( ie cheapest). We were running 15 w40 Coastal Brand last I heard, for awhile was Delvac, before that was Premium Blue . always in bulk though , by the tanker full.

As far as them coming up with the 3000 mile OCI, that is straight from the Bus Manufacturer, with Detroit Diesels input. In our case 3000 miles is probably 4 to 5 hundred hours of engine operation. these vehicles spend alot of time idling, even when they aren't earning revenue.

We haven't run any tests of different oils lately , although in the past we had such a problem with the Premium Blue that we were buying in bulk that we had to go the trouble of doing extensive tests and suing Cummins. If I remember right, when we started buying Cummins engines in early 90's, Cummins insisted we had to use Premium Blue. We cant buy oil in containers, we have to buy it in bulk and we were getting tankerfuls of Premium Blue from some place in another state. To make a long story short, used oil analysis on the Premium Blue would come back with a TBN of less than 1. We were able to prove in court that the oil was crap and Cummins had to reimburse us. I believe part of the settlement was they gave us 10 brand new engines and allowed us to use whatever kind of oil we wanted, as long as it met API specs for that engine.

its hard to compare bus fleets in different areas of the country, we are in South Florida, traffic is horrible and its hot here most of the year so you might say our engines operate in a severe environment at least 6 months of the year. lot of sand down here too, which sometimes makes its way into the engine if its got an intake leak.

We didn't want to go to a 3000 mile OCI, we had too. some of these vehicle can run 3000 miles in two weeks and when you realize that we have 1000+ vehicles it really starts to be a maintnence headache and costly.

 

[deerefan]

I have read all the posts here...the knowledge gained is great. Quick question...I have decided to go the synthetic route next oil change and go 5k and see how it looks. When I switch oils, is there anything special I need to do? Do I need to make sure every drop of reg. oil is out and as far as filters, I use AC Delco PF47 regular filters on my truck, do I need to upgrade filters also? Sorry for my ignorance, just a little behind the times on new oil technology.

 

[milkman]

You don't have to use a special filter, and you don't have to flush the engine when you change to synthetic, and as far as running 5K and "see how it looks" that won't tell you anything unless you get an analysis done. It really bugs me that people scream that we need to conserve our natural resources and then change oil at 3K when the mfg. recommendation is 7.5K, just draining good oil while it has a lot of life left, end of my b****in' for today.

 

[DUMBDOG]

Just stick to dino oil and watch the pickup, it will tell you when to change oil. Three and five thousand mile changes are outdated. You bought a smart pickup, listen to it. Switching to a syn oil and changing it at five thousand will just cost you more money. If you are concerned, have the oil tested.