Pickup Truck Records One Million Miles on Pennzoil(R) Motor Oil

[Ben Boyle]

Untrue, my brother drives a '94 half ton Chevy with a 350 that will be hitting 300k any day now. I now this is accurate because my grandpa bought the truck new so it's full service history is known. I got a new trans about 20k ago but considering that my grandpa towed campers and fifth wheels with it on a weekly basis that probably isn't so bad.

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Originally posted by den_s:
Any 1995 GM engine would not survive more then couple hundred thousand miles without major overhaul even if you change your oil daily. What's a B.S. story...

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[Scooby]

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Originally posted by T-Keith:
800 miles a day, even at 12 hours would be 66 miles/per hour AVERAGE. I don't know what area he's in, but he'd have to race between mailboxes. Usually the paper routes are only a few hours too. Seems a little hard to believe, but it's more believable then some. So many of these high mileage stunts are on japanese cars with 5 digit odometers, it makes it pretty easy to lie.

-T

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AGAIN, he DID NOT deliver to residences. He delivered from one location to another and the route was interstate, real easy to average 66mph.

 

[Racerjk]

One of my Dad's friends had a '91 Silverado that he purchased new. I believe it was the first extended cab truck I ever saw.

Anyway, the truck had 155k miles on it when he sold it. He peeled out from stoplights pretty regulary and pulled a race car and trailer at least a hundred miles a week. The truck was still going strong and had never used a drop of oil when he sold it!

Those trucks were tough.

 

[TheTanSedan]

Scooby, speed limit and travel time don't equate so easily.

Dallas to Atlanta is 780 miles. 11.75 hrs drive time with no slowdowns for traffic, weather, etc. Add in two fuel stops (.75/hr) and two meals (1-hour) plus four "take-a-leak" (.5/hr)
you are looking at 14 hours.

55 mph travel time average.

Now let's add doing any business and drop that mph/average further in account.

 

[97f150]

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Originally posted by TheTanSedan:


I agree with the above that some of the items on the vehicle not thought of, normally, ought to also be shown: worn-out seatbelts, broken seat cushions, sandblasted windshields, worn or corroded electrical terminations; fatigue on suspension/braking components, fatigued u-bolts, frames, bushings, etc, etc. I have strong doubts about the integrity of that vehicle, as even a Class 8 rig is thoroughly worn down after 750,000 miles and it is built for such work. No surprise that this is in GA, with no safety inspections.

All I see is a guy who risked the safety of the rest of every time he went to work,too mean to retire that vehicle at a decent interval, (as a depreciable capital expense).

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And whos to say that this guy isnt actually "normal", and replaced all that stuff as it went out. I dont know about you but when I see something getting worn down on my truck I replace it. I replaced my ball joints and tie rod ends, as well as sway bar bushings, brake pads and rotors, shoes and drums, universial joints and clutch within the last year and a half. Not all of it needed to be replaced, but I refuse to only change one ball joint or tie rod end so I did all of them. Now, my truck also has 195,000 miles on it, does that mean that it is unsafe?

 

[CosmicFlash]

Looks like a bunch of ** to me.

Yeah, an oil change every 4 days please...

Also not noting the make and model is a load garbage as well.

 

[trumpetgeek]

Forget the cost of oil changes. Would it be profitable to run a paper route if you were driving close to 800 miles a day? That truck probably got only 16 mpg. So he was burning at least 50 gallons of fuel a day at over $2.00 a gallon. To run that kind of mileage one would be spending over $100 a day for gasoline alone not to mention regular maintenance of the vehicle.

Tim

 

[Al]

I still call B.S.

 

[TheTanSedan]

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Originally posted by 97f150:

quote:

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Originally posted by TheTanSedan:


I agree with the above that some of the items on the vehicle not thought of, normally, ought to also be shown: worn-out seatbelts, broken seat cushions, sandblasted windshields, worn or corroded electrical terminations; fatigue on suspension/braking components, fatigued u-bolts, frames, bushings, etc, etc. I have strong doubts about the integrity of that vehicle, as even a Class 8 rig is thoroughly worn down after 750,000 miles and it is built for such work. No surprise that this is in GA, with no safety inspections.

All I see is a guy who risked the safety of the rest of every time he went to work,too mean to retire that vehicle at a decent interval, (as a depreciable capital expense).

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And whos to say that this guy isnt actually "normal", and replaced all that stuff as it went out. I dont know about you but when I see something getting worn down on my truck I replace it. I replaced my ball joints and tie rod ends, as well as sway bar bushings, brake pads and rotors, shoes and drums, universial joints and clutch within the last year and a half. Not all of it needed to be replaced, but I refuse to only change one ball joint or tie rod end so I did all of them. Now, my truck also has 195,000 miles on it, does that mean that it is unsafe?

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Is that pickup you mention a business vehicle, used to service customers?

No truck-dependent business I am aware of can long stay around without occasionally taking a truck out-of-service, scheduled or unscheduled, without a leased or rented replacement.

At what point does a truck become unreliable in terms of time and money? 180-200,000 miles sounds about right. And a light-duty pickup lasts only so long. There's another thread on the board about pickups lasting about that length of time.

Have all the suspension, body and steering bushings been replaced on that 195k vehicle? New brake hoses? New u-bolts and springs? Has it been put on a rack (at a specialty frame shop) and given a guarantee of being sound? Or one by the manufacturer's rep that our vehicles regularly and safely exceed 200,000 miles in commercial service?

Got new seatbelts on it?

No remanufactured parts installed, right?

The list just gets too long. And the IRS allows a sensible depreciation over 5-years or so for just this reason.

No reputable business would have done this. The state, their insurance company, their attorney would not have allowed the liability.

Thus, the cut-out of a "sub-contractor", an individual who will cut corners, like the a-hole of this "story": the safety of your family and mine isn't pertinent to the bottom line of these newspapers.

Think they have a saying on the masthead about "serving the community"?

It's a self-serving story from Pennzoil, not even an valid endorsement of their products. Show me the certified Hubdometer.

 

[427Z06]

Given the right conditions, a million miles on an engine is achievable:

http://www.mr2.com/ARTICLE/Mobil1.html
http://www.exxonmobil.com/corporate/files/corporate/mobil_1_fact_sheet.pdf