As is detailed in Overdrive's Partners in Business soup-to-nuts guide to an owner-operator career in the Equipment and Maintenance section, conservative approaches to engine-oil life have long been the rule of the day for most owner-operators. Yet the truth is that oil life is quite flexible, and dependent on a host of operational, maintenance and bedrock equipment factors.
Extending drain intervals safely, however, is possible, as the example of Overdrive’s 2023 Trucker of the Year Jay Hosty showed. Owner-op Hosty used oil analysis for more than a decade to push the limits on extended drains in his Detroit-powered 2006 Western Star. Analysis led to extension to a whopping 100,000-mile change interval, even without a bypass oil filtration system.
He still achieved well more than 1 million miles with the engine before an eventual, 2024 overhaul early in the year.
What's your own approach to oil drains look like today? Weigh in via the brief survey here to inform ongoing reporting about evolving maintenance practices.
Today, owner-operator Hosty's hit about 37,000 miles on the upgrade to his old '06 Western Star -- a 2022 model 4900EX that is his first truck with a diesel particulate filter and SCR aftertreatment system utilizing diesel exhaust fluid. He put the truck into service in recent times after biding his time with the new-purchased unit for a couple years for the right price for installation of a custom sleeper. He's just one break-in oil change in so far, he said earlier this week, and so far so good with everything else.
At once, fuel mileage is lagging slightly behind his prior 7-plus-mpg lifetime mileage with the 2006 model. The 2022's lifetime fuel-mileage average is 6.5 mpg so far. He's utilizing Pittsburgh Power's Max Mileage fuel treatment routinely in hopes of minimizing emissions-system issues long-term. Added costs between the Max Mileage and diesel exhaust fluid he's tracking with his fuel mileage using the FuelGauges program. The additions are adding a fairly minimal cost at just 3 cents/mile so far in his analysis.
Overall, the 2022's "running pretty solid," 2023 Trucker of the Year Hosty said. While the "fuel mileage isn’t up like the old truck, I'm hoping as it breaks in it does better" and better.
Overdrive's 2025 Trucker of the Year competition: Enter your business through October via this link.
Trucker of the Year nominations/entries can be made via this link.
