You guys might find this interesting . . .

[patrickm]

Hello all, I am a civil engineer for South Carolina's DOT and was told to bring my truck (Ford Ranger 3 liter) over to the maintenance shop for an oil change this morning. Since I was the fist in line for the day and they were only doing a oil change I stood there and watched them do it. They put it on the lift, drained the oil, replaced the filter, and rolled a 55 gal drum of oil over to refill the truck after lowering it. Much to my surprise, the oil drum was full of Citguard 500 15W40, CI-4 rated by the way. I asked him if they put this in all DOT vehicles. "Yep, everything for as long as I can remember" he said. He will be retiring later this year. Everything is Rangers, S-10's, Cherokee's, full size trucks - 6's, 8's, diesels, Suburbans, Blazers, Tahoe's, Taurus', heavy dumptrucks, backhoes, loaders, grade-alls, etc. I'd be willing to bet that the diesel trucks are the only one's that spec this oil. State vehicles (light trucks and cars anyway, are kept to 125,000 miles and serviced on 6 month 5,000 mile intervals. This is not high miles but most vehicles are 10-15 years old when they are turned in. They are operated off-road, in dusty conditions, abused, thrashed, basically treated like rentals for these 10-15 years. I can say in my 9 years here that the engines are about the only things that don't require a lot of repair or replacement. Most of the light trucks will be on their 2nd or 3rd tranny and rear end by then, but the engines rarely use oil, smoke, or require overhaul. I'll leave it to you guys to draw conclusions. Personaly, I buy a new car every four years and do what the owner's manual says. Best regards, Patrick

 

[TallPaul]

I'd think a thick oil would be extra insurance in a dusty envronment. Would hate to have all that dust loading up a 5w20 or 5w30. How cold do these trucks start on 15w40 in the winter?

 

[haley10]

Sounds fine to me. This is South Carolina, so it makes sense. Citigard 500 & 600 have a pour point of around minus -17F, so it would be problematic for many of us. Delo and Delvac are better for cold weather, but this may be ideal for your climate. Great high temp flash points, too. Don't guess they run it in the snow plows.

 

[XS650]

That is not unusual for an operation with a large number of big diesels and smaller vehicles. That's one of the reasons most 15W-40 HDEO gets qualified as SJ or SL by the oil companies. They aren't doing it for us BITOG guys. Sounds like your gas vehicles get excellent engine maint compared to a lot of fleets.

 

[TooManyWheels]

A couple of years ago I rented a vehicle from Budget, telling them in advance it was for a 5,000 mile trip. When I picked the vehicle up it had 5900 miles on it, oil obviously never changed. When I inquired I was told that they normally don't change oil until 6500 miles. I was finally able to take time out on the trip, with 7,300 on the odometer, and get the oil changed. Otherwise it wouldn't have been changed until at least 11K.

 

[Ler]

Toomanywheels, changing oil on a rental, that's too much We used to make fun of a friend, saying if no one was looking, he's wash, polish, and wax a rental.

 

[TooManyWheels]

Ler - I'm not all that extravagant, I called first and made sure they would reimburse me!

 

[Mike.D]

I work in a fleet maintenance shop and we do the same thing. We use it in everything, gas,diesel big trucks, "yellow equipment" buses,lawn mowers. We change it every 4000 miles, seems to work ok.