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Most fleets are looking, for ways to safely extend oil drains while making certain chassis lubes and other needed services do not get overlooked.
Engine lube. It costs money. It takes time to do drains, to top-off and to refill engines, and there are costs related to safe disposal. So what can you do to minimize those costs? Are extended oil drains the answer? If you do extend drain intervals, what about chassis lubrication?
We talked with six fleet maintenance managers to find out how they deal with these issues.
First steps
Dave Rehurek, Fleet manager for Alumax Extrusions, says, "Several years ago we did extensive oil analyses to determine what is now our current oil drain interval, 20,000 miles. We still do random testing as part of our ongoing maintenance program. While this interval is fairly conservative, there are other determining factors that make it good for us."
As a private fleet, one of his primary concerns is getting product to his customer's production facility on time. This means that downtime must be controlled. With oil change intervals at 20,000 miles, he's able to combine them with the A and B scheduled maintenance work. In the long run, this becomes a cost savings for the fleet.
Extended oil drains have a positive effect on the environment, because the amount of oil to be disposed of is decreased. However, it is important to work with a reputable disposal company. Rehurek says, "We've contracted with a responsible used oil disposal company that picks up both our vehicle waste oil and the waste oil from the hydraulic equipment used in our plants. To keep our risk at a minimum, we make certain that the used oil is correctly and safely stored until it is picked up."
Alumax runs 20 Freightliner FLD 120s. Most have Cummins N14 500 hp engines. Rehurek says that the fleet works closely with both companies on such issues as extending oil drains. He says, "We are design-oriented and my specification sheet is quite long. We feel it is important to test our products before purchase and to build a good relationship with our suppliers."
"We have extended to the 20,000-mile oil drain interval knowing that the jury is still out on...