How often do you change the oil on a big rig?

Answer 1

I was lead man in a fleet that for 3 years did not have a foreman. I set up the shop from day one, and put our fleet on a scheduled service program of 10K mile service intervals that included: replacement of all fuel and oil filters, full check over/adjustment/replacement of belts, check all lights, air tires to pressure spec or replace as needed, rotate steering tires at 80K miles regardless of how well they were wearing, checking for frame cracks, suspension issues front & rear, all gear lube levels.

We had the lowest cost per mile operation and downtime of the entire 1800 unit fleet. We also were getting 50K to 100K more miles between overhauls. They were perplexed at HQ.

The answer was simple: devise a regular maintenance plan and stick to it. Oh, we pulled oil samples and had a lab do an analysis with each service, which further supported my schedule effectiveness. Some smaller fleets may use hours instead of miles.

This is especially true of heavy equipment or off road equipment. 35 mph is the same as 1 hour of engine operation. Hours are used when miles are few or not possible to calculate as when a vehicle spend most of its life sitting and idling, as in fire truck for example.

A 30 yr old fire truck may show 20K miles on the odometer but the engine may have 300K miles of use. Farm trucks are that way as well, they may never leave the farm but the engine may idle all day.

Answer 2

"Big Rigs" where i work most of the time get there oil changed every 250 engine hours :)

Answer 3

Most of the tractors that I serviced stuck to a 9,000 mile schedule, came in for new oil, filters, fuel filters, greasing, and brake chamber adjustments.

Answer 4

8000 Miles

Answer 5

15k-50k was done at our shop but over 50k if you were still out (that tells you how our home time policy worked-lol) the shop would issue a PO # for a truckstop to do it

Answer 6

never. just run it off the pier and become a priest

Answer 7

every 3000 miles.