Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/923471
commercial carrier journal | january 2018 43 EQUIPMENT: DRAIN INTERVALS and filter changes, and for the DD15, up to 75,000 miles. Paccar's MX-11 and MX-13 engines come with a 75,000-mile interval, up significantly from the initial 40,000-mile interval for the MX lineup when it was introduced in North America in 2010. International's A26 engine offers a standard drain interval of 50,000 miles for customers with fuel economy great- er than 6.5 mpg. An extended drain program can allow for up to 70,000 miles if OEM approval is granted through oil sample analysis and review. Cummins' OilGuard program offers free oil analysis. Cummins personnel will analyze the oil and make recom- mendations on drain intervals, which the company says can be pushed up- ward of 80,000 miles on newer engines depending on the application. Analyzing oil Oil analysis is a helpful tool in deter- mining the quality of an engine's oil and how much additional service life it can offer. A number of OEMs partner with customers on analysis programs to help evaluate qualifications for extend- ed drain intervals. "You evaluate wear metals and other things that characterize the condition of the oil at that extended service inter- val, and then you make a determination if it's doable long-term," Whitacre says. Brian Humphrey, OEM technical liaison for Petro-Canada Lubricants, says that in addition to providing the opportunity to optimize oil change intervals, a good oil analysis program also can help reduce unscheduled downtime, improve equipment reli- ability, extend equipment life and reduce maintenance costs. "By evaluating the condition of your lubricant and equipment on a routine basis, minor mechanical problems are discovered before they become serious and expensive to fix," Humphrey says. Whitacre says if analysis determines that a fleet is a candidate for an extend- ed interval, it's important to build some margin into the target mileage to allow for instances where the truck can't make it back to the shop for service. "You can't just make a recommenda- tion for 50,000 miles if the actual unit doesn't have some ability to go beyond that, because it's not always practical for an end user to hit that exactly on the number," he says. "If your target is 50,000 miles but for whatever reason trucks can't come in reliably and hit that mark, then that needs to be fac- tored into it." While drain intervals depend on equipment usage and type, most OEM- recommended drain intervals oen have a similar built-in margin since some applications are less taxing on engine oil than others. "When they do the extended drains, you've got to make sure you don't miss them, because it gets more critical," Granger says. Preventive maintenance When extending drain intervals, fleets must evaluate their preventive maintenance schedules to avoid skip- ping other PMs performed on the same cycle, Granger says. "If you're draining oil at the 75,000- mile mark, a lot of chassis parts that require grease can't go that far," he says. "ere might be some other inspec- tions on that interval, and fleets might want to coordinate with that." ere's also the oil filter to consider. Whitacre says in most cases, approach- ing 100,000 miles isn't a challenge for the filter's ability to handle the fluid. However, the filter's extended period mounted to the engine can cause issues. "ese things are designed to with- stand a certain amount of time shaking around on an engine," he says. Whitacre says that fleets with rigor- ous maintenance schedules that ensure preventive maintenance happens on time are oen the best candidates for extended intervals. Since other systems on the truck oen are serviced during oil changes, the overall mileage target will include various elements of a fleet's overall PM program. "e fleet doesn't always get a lot of benefit from a small incremental increase, because they may have other PMs to do on the vehicle at a different cycle," he says. In most cases, unless a fleet can double its drain interval – or push it Oil analysis helps determine the quality of an engine's oil and how much ad- ditional service life it can offer.