CRETE - A Year in Review

Service intervals of 15K for A and 30K for B. If they had time to get you in the shop. Could sometimes be longer on service intervals.

 

You should have asked that question before you bought the truck. Like most large carriers Acklie stretches their oil changes beyond sensible intervals because they know they won't own the trucks long enough to suffer the consequences.

 

jdrentzjr is correct. I would put some miles on the oil in that engine, then go get an oil sample analysis done. I, too, bought a used Crete truck. My service intervals are 10,000 for chassis lube and 20,000 for oil change. I have a sample analysis done every time I have the oil changed. They've all come back as well within normal parameters. I've actually considered stretching my oil drain intervals out to 30,000 miles for a while, having an analysis done every 10,000 miles. If that works out, I may even go to 40,000. If that works out, I'll go get a bypass oil filter system installed and try 50,000 mile oil drain intervals with 25,000 mile bypass filter changes.

 

Talked to a fella yesterday at Willmer that was gettin .23/mile. Werner? Doesn't matter. All you underpaid folks come on over if you are a great driver and aren't a pig. If not...stay where you are and just whine.

 

On the other hand, could it be that they were just gathering together PROOF for the sheriff that NO Crete trucks in the area had no involvement whatsoever in the so-called "incident"?

 

Thanks for the insight.

 

50,000 mile oil changes???
#### these things are tough!

 

Actually with the Gulf Coast bypass, you don't change oil unless your oil test's show something going wrong, then you change it after the repairs are complete...you only change the filter, take an oil sample and truck on...there are Gulf Coast customers that have 500K on the same oil that was put in when they installed the bypass system. Oil doesn't go bad, it just gets plugged with contamination, the bypass filters remove that contamination more efficiently than stock element filters.

 

It all boils down to perspective. Glass half full or empty?

 

SS and Redbeard are right on target; oil never wears out. From my Navy days, Navy ships are initially provisioned with lube oil during construction and then run on that oil for the rest of their service lives. They do, however, take great pains to continuously purify that oil to remove contaminates.

There are 3 things that will ruin oil in an operating engine:
1) particulate contamination (dirt, soot, metal wear products, etc), which can be removed by filters
2) dilution from solvents, like gasoline or diesel fuel, which may require an oil change since the solvent is dissolved in the oil, (anti-freeze doesn't disslove in the oil, but violent mechnical movements emulsifies the oil and makes 'mayonasse' from the water and the glycol is a contaminate) and
3) filtering oil through such a tight filter that some beneficial oil additives, like extreme pressure (EP) additives, are removed by the filter.

In all these cases regular sample analysis can tell you what's going on, what action to take, and when. So, if you have a good sampling program and take good care of the oil you have, you can literally run the oil forever. As a side benefit, you can also afford to use the best oil on the market, because you rarely, if ever, have to change it.