WOW that truck is a beast,I use to be a drag racer and had my car at Mason Dixon several times...

 

I wonder why synthetic oil isn't used more in commercial applications, ie heavy equipment, trucking, etc. Everywhere I've worked or been around (heavy mining, road trucks, paving) has used Delo or Rotella. Big Cat and Cummins motors are worth a pile of dough, and even more important is down time. That has to say something about cost vs. reward doesn't it? It seems that if synthetic was in any way superior, the professionals would know and use it in 16 cylinder Cats and the like. The extra expense wouldn't even register compared to a failure. Never seen a lubrication failure but have seen a lot of old machines retire due to everything around the engine wearing out.
Not trying to be anti synthetic at all or cause any controversy, just genuinely curious why pickup owners are more apt to use synthetic and commercial applications are not (in my experience).

 

1. Other than the stated interval extensions. Which, they (the professionals you speak of) may be on a mandated maintenance schedule. You know how big companies cannot think outside the box sometimes.
2. My main interest in changing my type of oil is cold flow properties. This may or may not matter to others depending on location and usage.

Please feel free to bring up anything relating to oil.

Technically, I (like many others here) would classify as commercial as we are self employed or similar. I maintain 3 diesels (2 personal 1 friend), my wife's G35xs. Lots of my equipment and others.

On that note: can I hijack my own thread?
I have heard of no one here using Lucas oil stabilizer.
It looks like a good idea. The cling/climb properties not for any snake oil claims...
Sounds similar to Royal Purple in cling sense. What about clinb?

Another rant...
Sorry,
DD

 

I am coming in late on this, but here is my 2 cents. I run Delo 15w40 change every 5,000 miles, I have seen trucks go over 500K with this oil and intervals. On another note, I know a fleet that uses Amsoil full synthetic and only changes out the oil filter every 400 hours. They run a oil sample every time and have not had any issues. They have been doing this for about 4 years now.

 

The answer to your question is cost, a commercial Cummins M11 35 oil capacity is 44 quarts...At $35.00 per gallon that's $385 for oil alone not counting filters and there are 2 of them at 60.00 each...

 

Ok. Delo 400 is 12 bucks a gallon. I believe part of the reason to run synthetic, specifically Amsoil, was to lengthen service intervals substantially. Some of Amsoil's literature says double the normal suggested interval or more based on UOA results. That offsets the majority of the difference in cost especially when labor is considered, and if it truly is that much better for engines, sounds like a no brainer. So why don't more fleets use it?

By the way, I dig my M11 dispite what a lot of people say about them being one of the first Cummins computer diesels and thus a turd.

 

Keep in mind that none of us (I believe) are large enough to buy in quantities as large as a multi million dollar corporation. Therefore we will pay more per gallon/barrel. Kind of odd...
Again, "corporate dictates cost must remain low. If no increase in revenue is seen and there is nothing "wrong with conventional" why switch? " I can somewhat see the fuzzy logic. However, better thinking has brought upon this discussion.
Thank-you all for your input.
DD

I know this is advertising; but the cold flow properties are impressive and important. No?

 

More food for thought for those who prefer synthetic. I must contemplate

Chevron Delo 400 Low Emission Synthetic 5W40 Gallon Jug: Automotive : Walmart.com


Excellent discussion btw. Been searching and studying.

 

I'm not fully qualified to weigh in here, as I'm not directly involved with the money in this particular aspect, but I do work for a multi-million dollar paving/excavating/landscaping company. We have around 40 diesel pickups, five triaxles and three horses. More importantly, we have 10 or so skid steers, 15 or so excavators (from little Deere 50's up to Hitachi 350's) and at least 20 payloaders, most of them Deere 544/624's and bigger. At 7 or 8 rollers, four paving boxes, etc, etc. We run Delo 400 15-40 in everything, buy it by the barrel, many barrels at a time. We have a 3000 gallon pump station for diesel on the premises which gets emptied at least a couple times a month because our weekly "top off" isn't frequent enough. We buy all of our fuel, oil, and coolant from the same oil company direct. There are certainly much bigger operations out there than ours, but that being said, for a family business, we're pretty substantial. I know for a fact that we don't use synthetic oil because in spite of the insane discount we get buying in bulk direct from the wholesaler, the cost is still prohibitive and the benefit too unsubstantiated. Our basic scheduled maintenance costs are tens of thousands a year, and while we have plenty of engine failure and repair costs to the tune or well over a million dollars a year, non of that is due to the oil we use not doing it's job. I'm sure if just one or two of the many engines we grenade and rebuild/replace every year was blamed on inferior oil quality, we would be giving synthetic a much harder look. As things stand though, it's not even being considered. When we have an engine problem, it would have happened regardless of what oil was used, and in severe service operations a longer service interval (while financially tempting) is seldom considered wise. The expense of the things that we catch before they break simply because the trucks are in there for service regularly more than outweighs the savings we'd get by not having to change the oil as often, which is debatable and as I just said, a knife that actually cuts both ways.
I'm not sure if that shed any light on anything or not as to why big fleets of heavy trucks/equipment don't run synthetic, but it's what I got for ya.

 

Thank You JBearSVT, that was very informative and helpful. Is it safe to assume most of the equipment does not run (get used much) in the winter months?

So far here is what we have...
Amsoil-2
Delo- 3
Delvac- 2
Rotella- 2
Royal Purple- 2

various weights/viscosity...

I like the claimed cling properties of Royal Purple.
What about cold flow?

Some of these websites very confusing I am pretty sure Royal Purple shot their video in the late '70's.

keep it coming please!
Thank You
DD