Over the road truck oil change intervals.

[KLowD9x]

I don't know anything at all about big rigs, other than the basic ideas behind how and why diesel engines work. Other than that, I am in the dark.

Something I have always wondered about a vehicle that spends 99% of it's life on the highway; what kind of oil change interval do they use? and how is it measured?

 

[Chris142]

When I drove trucks they changed the oil and filters every 15,000 miles with Delo 15w40. Oil capacity is between 10 and 20 GALLONS depending on the engine and oil pan.

Trucks used in off road stuff like mixers and bottom dumps usually have smaller oil pans, I assume to help prevent damage from debris that could damage the larger oil pan. These are local trucks so getting the oil changed is not a problem.

Over the road trucks have larger pans and more oil capacity. I've heard of guys going 20,000 miles or more between changes since they may be thousands of miles away from the terminal.

My 62 Pete with an 855 cuin Cummins holds 12 gallons.

 

[wafrederick1]

10,000 miles is one oil change interval.My father's 2000 Freightliner is this way for the oil change which is 10,000 miles.Some take 6 gallons of oil instead of quarts using 15w 40 Shell Rotella T or any oil made for big rigs.

 

[2003f7]

Shopko trucks run a 50,000 mile OCI!

 

[Colt45ws]

When I changed oil on big trucks I remember filling the filter and watching the bulk pump click over 4 quarts before the filter was full. That was neat to me because I drove a cavalier at the time with a total oiling capacity of 4 quarts.
The pump had a zip tie rigged on it, so you could lock it on since it took so long to pump 30-40 quarts of 15W40.
They ran a 500 hour OCI. This was with Clark County, in Nevada. These were not OTR trucks though, mostly Road Department trucks; dumpers, flat beds and the like.

 

[chief]

I have 5 trucks with 500HP Series 60 Detroits. I use to do change at 12000 miles then I went to 15000 mile OCI and now I changing at
20000 mile intervals. I use Delo 15W 40 and currently using Baldwin B 95 filters.

 

[soldierman]

My FIL owns and operates his own Class 8 over the road and baby's his truck sorta. I've told him several times that today's engines could easily do 12-15 or more on a change. But He's been driving them probably since before diesels even had turbos and in those days between the soot and not so good oils 10K was pretty well required. Between much better oils, better ring sealing, better fuel control, and injection more than 15K should be possible.

Think back when you were a kid you could see a big rig pull away from a stoplight and really roll some black smoke. Anymore a truck with the same load will hardly blow smoke at all and when if does you can still see the sky though it. And the trucks these days usually have 100-150 more HP than back then.

 

[Kestas]

I would expect UOAs to have more meaning for heavy trucks with 10-gal sumps than for passenger vehicles with a 1-gal sump. Are UOAs popular with truckers?

 

[salesrep]

All are different depending on the route, conditions, etc.
35k is common for otr, some will go 60-75k. short run old school will keep it at 10k

 

[KLowD9x]

Originally Posted By: salesrep
All are different depending on the route, conditions, etc.
35k is common for otr, some will go 60-75k. short run old school will keep it at 10k


These are the numbers I was expecting to see. Not 10-15K miles. I was doing 10K miles in the old 850 on Mobil1 and that wasn't even with a whole lot of highway driving!

 

[msparks]

Since this is an oil message board, I will go out on a limb to say the OCI for a OTR truck is dependent on the quality of the oil, quality and type of filtration, and how old the truck is, newer trucks are harder on oil.

I've seen trucks going 60,000-100,00 with oil analysis. Other trucks going hundreds of thousands of miles with bypass filtration.

 

[KLowD9x]

Originally Posted By: msparks
Since this is an oil message board, I will go out on a limb to say the OCI for a OTR truck is dependent on the quality of the oil, quality and type of filtration, and how old the truck is, newer trucks are harder on oil.

I've seen trucks going 60,000-100,00 with oil analysis. Other trucks going hundreds of thousands of miles with bypass filtration.



Why would bypass filtration allow for more time between changes? That also seems like it would be hard on pumps/bearings in the engine.

 

[H2GURU]

For over the road trucks, currently for CAT it runs at 40,000 miles. For drivers who pay attention usually when engine starts consuming oil more than normal (1 gal/10,000 miles) the increased usage will coincide w/ the target milage. It is an indicator of total oil breakdown.

 

[Gary Allan]

Originally Posted By: KLowD9x
Originally Posted By: msparks
Since this is an oil message board, I will go out on a limb to say the OCI for a OTR truck is dependent on the quality of the oil, quality and type of filtration, and how old the truck is, newer trucks are harder on oil.

I've seen trucks going 60,000-100,00 with oil analysis. Other trucks going hundreds of thousands of miles with bypass filtration.



Why would bypass filtration allow for more time between changes? That also seems like it would be hard on pumps/bearings in the engine.


Soot control.

 

[pickled]

If you are a dino fleet of mixed age and usage (city/highway) using CJ-4 spec cheap fleet oil then 20,000 miles would be a typical A PM frequency. High quality synthetics without BP filtration will run roughly 65,000 without oil analysis and end up doing a LOT of in-frame rebuilds due to coolant contamination or dropped injectors. Never count on hourly paid drivers to catch a dip-stick gaining volume LOL! The poor guys are usually stressed to the max and rarely remember where they went in a day vs. how high on the dipstick the fill was yesterday.