Pot stirring what's the best oil for heavy duty...

[fantastic]

[/quote]

appreciate that! I see your logic.

How many miles would you between changes?[/quote]

Thanks! My recommendation for syn blend would be 15,000 Oil Analysis time. Conventional would be 12,000 Analysis time. You could get anywhere from 12,000 to 20,000 out of the harder worked equipment & 15,000 to 30,000 out of lighter duty equipment.

Syn blends will most likely come w/a better add pack than conventional so I highly recommend it but premium conventional oils are ALMOST just as good. Find your engine manufacturers oil specification requirement & get the oil that meets it to get the best selection of oils available for your rigs. Most oils today are not dad or grandpa's oils they have gotten so robust that running older equipment for extended drains is no longer a no-no. At the end of the day an oil analysis is the king of evidence for what shape your oil is in. I highly recommend getting them in the beginning to give you an idea & confidence to run it longer (not implying you don't already have it).

Keep in mind your annual use & that perhaps you could plan on replacing the oil once per year as a good starting basis. As for your title I don't think your stirring the pot at all no matter what the naysayers say...HA! That would imply your not asking a valid question & no matter how many times it get's asked it's still an honest question & what we, open minded people, will continue to chase (as we should) for that perfect oil.

Justin

 

[dustyroads]

Originally Posted By: Sledge_Hammer
Originally Posted By: dustyroads

There's no way to determine the best oil in regards to wear. If you eventually find the comparison chart that you once saw, or found a brand new one it would be just about useless. Oil formulations change and your application would differ from a lab test or even some field test.

There's nothing special about your operating conditions. Running in a cloud of dust requires good air filtration, not a special oil. You have a mixture of trucks with some having dual cowl mounted air filters and others with a single under hood air filter. The difference between those types is the capacity of filtration and the number of miles/hours that they can run before needing replacement. You can use oil analysis to confirm that the intake plumbing is nice and tight by monitoring silicon (along with actual visual inspection of the plumbing). No oil can save an engine that is ingesting dirt.

Once you pick an oil and get a few oil analyses for each truck, you can start to get an idea of what length of interval is going to work and even allow a little extra safety margin. It doesn't require years of study to get an idea of how a truck and oil combination is performing. Even if a truck switches between city work and oil field you will have something to go by with monitoring of the trucks past performance. Fuel use also has an effect on the depletion of the oil's base number. I don't know anything about your operations, but maybe hours of use would be a better way to determine the change intervals along with the fuel burned. Just another consideration.

Hopefully you can find a distributor or sales rep to work with you in getting bulk oil delivered and help you out. You may be able to get free oil analysis in the deal and consultation from whichever oil company you go with. There's so much more to making an engine last than trying to pick the so called best in wear protection.





Since the trucks can vary dramatically in conditions from one oil change to the oil change, as we run in the city and in the oil fields on dirt roads, what do you think of getting an analysis before every scheduled oil change and use 10,000 miles as the base line to start taking samples? Or run a cheaper oil like what was suggested and just change it every 10k.

Oil distributors in most cases are more expensive here than walmart unfortunately.


I do believe sampling (but not draining) at 10k-12k miles is a good place to start. If by chance you have already gotten a few samples tested, then you have something to go on.

The health of each individual engine will make a difference in the oil's life, so it isn't necessarily one size fits all. You need to see how the oil is fairing on a case by case basis and learn as you go. I'm not too concerned about the different types of use. If you keep watch of the air filtration, I don't see the dirt roads as much of a problem. Just monitor the oil condition. Going back and forth between city driving and dirt roads shouldn't be a big deal.

Believe it or not, us OTR drivers run through lots of dust, too. Lots of blowing dust and sand storms in the southwest and rock salt dust in the northern states all winter. Just sayin'.

I would run a new CK-4 oil of your choice. The conventional 15W40s are fantastic and very capable for the job you're doing. It doesn't matter which duty cycle they work. Just sample the oil to learn how it's holding up and watch for fuel, coolant and excessive silicon.

Do you have a Caterpillar dealer/shop in the neighborhood? They can provide quick oil reports without messing with the mailing process, and they are knowledgeable.

 

[dustyroads]

Too late to edit, but soot level is another factor and with lots of stop and go city driving (and high fuel consumption), it could be somewhat of an issue. All part of the learning process.

Another edit- consider getting in touch with a Schaeffer's sales rep. TiredTrucker has said that they give him free delivery and his rep provides free oil sample kits. If you could work out something like that, the overall cost may work in your favor. That's besides the convenience of oil in a drum.

 

[TiredTrucker]

That is correct. All of my oil orders from Schaeffer are shipped free, truck tailgate service included. Free sample kits and analysis included with 55 gal drum orders. They are only $10 each if ordered separately if you don't order drums.

To be fair, I think some areas do have a modest shipping charge. You would have to get with a rep to find out and figure if it is worth it.

Don't overlook local oil distributors also. Many of them have oil under their own label that is equal with any big name brand on the shelf, but substantially cheaper. And they will many times offer a no or low cost delivery to you. Before I started using Schaeffer years ago, I was using a local distributor, Allied Oil and Tire. They were based out of Omaha and had a location 35 miles from my door in Central Iowa. Their oil was blended at the Warren Oil plant in Council Bluffs, IA. Looked surprisingly similar to Rotella in UOA's. Warren is a reputable blender. More that likely, you can find a similar situation near your location.

 

[ToadU]

I have a decent sized fleet of tow trucks. For years my diesel and gas oil has been Mag1. I recently had a change to Miles Lubricants. I am using 15w40 full synthetic. The price point is exceptional.

I will have UOA results shortly. I have no concerns switching from Mag1 to Miles. My company is abusive on our trucks and they run nearly 24hrs a day. I push change intervals to the max for economy.

I highly recommend Mag1 and based on specs and what I've seen so far have a high confidence in the Miles product.

 

[ToadU]

Miles full Syn is a high TBM and costs are less than "brand name" conventionals. Also if you call the comonay an engineer picks up the phone and will provide any info you want and spend whatever time talking to you that you would like.

The only reason I stopped using Mag1 was purely money. The miles is cheaper the specs look fine.

 

[dixon700]

Rotella t6 is a good all around oil and I would say hard to beat at $21 a gallon at Walmart.

 

[jongies3]

Best between T6 and TDT/Delvac 1? Whichever's on sale, you can't go wrong with either of those two and your engines won't notice a difference. I run T6 because I can get it cheaper through work than I can the Delvac 1 which is pretty pricey. Cost around $130 to change the oil in my 7.3 with that versus $100 on the T6. I know I can get either cheaper on Amazon, but, I pride myself in supporting the independent I work for so I spend a little extra to use what we have in shop.