[Jim/Chris]

Ichange mine every 10,000 miles. I don’t do my own work so I have a level 3 service done at Prevost Mira Loma. I put about 25,000 miles a year on our coach.

[Jerry]

I think the book says 12,000 miles or once a year. Seems reasonable for typical RV usage. Cost is about $140 including filters if you do it yourself. Cheap insurance.

But you better invest in a very large drain pan ……or your garage will be added to the list of superfund cleanup sites. The black plastic concrete mixing pans sold at home improvement centers work great.

[Lacey]

yea, there`s my controversy. If todays oil has no “shelf life” and I don`t put 12K on it why would I dispose of perfectly usable oil ? just peace of mind ? each time I change I`ve done oil analysis & virtually no changes.

[Archived]

I use 5000 mile intervals. Makes me feel good. No other justifiable reason.

I rationalize the decision by telling myself that at the very least according to the Prevost requirements I have to lube the chassis every 6200 miles. So at my 5000 mile (or thereabouts) interval I drain the oil, change fuel and oil filters, and do a full lube on the chassis. But then I spend a lot of time poking around under the coach inspecting everything from the brakes, to the inside sidewalls of the tires, to looking at all hoses and wires for chafing, and then draining the air tanks in sequence to look for moisture and to verify the operation of check and protection valves.

I stretch a few hours of work into an all day event for peace of mind looking for any indications of something out of the ordinary or showing signs of needed repair. I have the Lennon Sisters singing on my radio so it is like I am in hog;s heaven.

When I am done I usually end up doing something that was unplanned. It might be as simple as adding some wire ties to keep stuff from rubbing, or maybe tightening a hose clamp. Then I log all the work and set up what has to be done at the next maintenance interval. So far, so good because except for the rare occasional surprise (like the failing CAC) our trips have been uneventful. BTW, the 5000 mile interval works well for the limited service needed for the conversion portion. That might entail cleaning AC filters, generator service, or maybe sanitizing the water system.

If I stretched the oil change interval to a greater number of miles I would still use the 5000 mile benchmark to do everything else.

[Archived]

Most fleets today are only keeping a power unit for a couple of years. They don’t care how long it will last, only how cheaply can they get by when they have it. Some buy extended warranties and have full service leases where the dealer does the maintenance. Many units are leased on either a 2 or 3 year cycle so they don’t get that many miles put on over that time frame.

I do a 5000 mile change interval on mine like Jon does. I have an EGR engine and the oil gets dirty fast. I do generator changes at 100 hours. I am sure I could go longer on both, but I have always believed it is cheaper to buy oil than engines. I will spend money up front to ensure better component life. I don’t want to be screwing with the engine in my coach due to some item going bad due to lubrication related issues.

Your mileage may vary….I am sure some people get lucky and never see any issues with their engines and run longer drain intervals.

[Andre]

I’ve been doing 8,000 mile oil changes. All I can tell you is at 8,000 miles, just look at the color of the oil, it begs to be changed. I cut off a 55 gallon drum that slides under the pan and holds all the oil including filters.

[Wilbur]

Note to self: buy a bus from an owner who maintained it as though they were spending somebody else’s money. I’m sure the extra few k it will cost will repay itself many times over.

[Archived]

I think the new 15 liter Detroit has 50K oil change interval from the factory.

You really need to sample to know what the oil is capable of and if there is an issue. Someone could say they changed oil every 5K but if they never sample they do not know if there is fuel or coolant in the oil, what the wear metals are etc etc.

I just did my first oil sample, oil had less than 6k on it but was over a year old, report came back great with very low wear metals, will sample and change at 12k and see what the report says and will have established trends for the engine.

There are a lot of owner operators with Series 60 and running very long intervals and some guys with bypass filters just change filters and top off and have over 100k on the oil. The key is sampling.

[Archived]

The longer intervals we see now on newer engines are the result of better oil technology and much tighter tolerances and new metalurgy in the engines. When our engines do wear it is usually on cold start up before the oil has had an opportunity to recoat all surfaces.

We all are different so how eacxh of us maintains our coaches is a personal choice. I doubt if there is a right way or wrong way as long as the maximum time or distance between changes listed by the manufacturer is not exceeded.