Annual maintenance

AikenRacer wrote:
I have been changing the oil and fuel filters for the engine and generator once a year. Our mh gets about 2000 miles per year and other than camping, it stays in a climate controlled shop. Recently, I have had several people tell me that my maintenance schedule is too frequent. I plan on maintaining it since I do the maintenance myself. I was just wondering when other do their maintenance? Also, do you change antifreeze based on time, mileage or analysis?

I think your activity is reasonable. Oil changes at 3000 miles is a very old standard, but considered quite reasonable 20+ years ago because lubricants weren't nearly as sophisticated as they are today. In most automotive circles, if you are using good lubricants oil changes every 5000 is sufficient. Likewise, on something like an RV where you have a period of regular use followed by a layup period, doing seasonal maintenance makes a lot of sense.

Fuel filters might be a bit of overkill. I think you wouldn't notice any change one way or the other if you didn't mess with the fuel filters that often... however, if you are a DP, I'm not super qualified to speak, but unlike gasoline, diesel fuel does suffer greatly from possible contamination and water in the fuel that gasoline doesn't suffer from as much. So changing out diesel fuel filters on a yearly basis may have some benefit.

Coolant these days is also pretty advanced. I would think that a mileage based replacement cycle on coolant would be sufficiently fine. You could also do coolant changes based on time, but that time frame between changes would be based on years, not seasonally.

OP, I’ll recycle your 10+ gallons of 2000 miles engine oil, into my engine...I prefer Shell Rotella T. 50 years ago Cat recommended 100 hour oil changes in their heavy equipment. With oil sampling I went to 250 (could of gone longer) but easier to keep up with when to change.

Just bought a new Cat SkidSteer...recommended 500 hours oil changes and Cat knows it’s going to be hard hours... 90+% power most of the time. 500 hours at an average of 55 mph is 27,500 miles. Most of the time my DP is using 40% power.

The oil sample when I changed for the first time at 15,000 mile showed I could have gone longer so next time at 15K miles I’ll take a sample and if it shows still good, I’ll change the 12 gallons at 20K.

I go 500 hours on the diesel generator mainly because it’s easy to remember.

On a gas rig I’d probably go 5000 miles as it’s all of 6 quarts to change.

An oil analysis is the only way to know if the oil life is done. Anything else is guessing. That said, I pulled a sample of mine after 4K miles (Valvoline VR-1 Racing 10w-30) and the TBN was at 6.3. And that was after 17 months. Anything above 1.0 is still considered acceptable.

The oil out of the bottle starts at 8.0 TBN (Virgin).

I'm now running Valvoline Full synthetic 10w-30

Any decent brand oil (even conventional) can live a long life 5,000+ miles. Age doesn't effect it so much as long as the engine is performing as it's designed to (no issues). RV's spend the majority of their time cruising on the highway at a steady speed. That type of driving is very easy on oil.

My recent trip I logged 3099 miles (US) and the oil has 5,527 miles on it. It was put in back in July 2020. I have no plan to change it until I approach 7,500 miles. I'm also using a Mobil 1 Extended Perf. filter

One thing a lot of RVers forget is the Hoses and Belts on the engine. I would replace all the belts and hoses every 5 years and keep the replaced Belts and hoses for emergency use if a new hose or belt fails. The cost of doing this is small compared to breaking down in the middle of nowhere and trying to find the specific belt or hose you need for a motorhome chassis. Doug

Lwiddis wrote:
“Keep in mind the guidelines are what the OEM has determined to be the minimum necessary to ensure the product operates thru the warranty period.”

I disagree. Do you have any evidence showing OEMs are only concerned with the minimum for warranties?

Nope, but can you show me evidence they are concerned with paying for repairs post warranty?

Factory recommendations are a minimum for me, I see no issue if you want to replace fluids and filters to your hearts content, over 90% of the vehicles we have owned during our lifetime (100% of our RVs) have never been back to the dealer for service. Additionally, I just love doing mods and maintenance on our RVs, it's fun and keeps me from having to work on the rig while on the road when I just want to enjoy the RVing lifestyle.

Doubt our Mh went 4,000 miles without changing the fluids and lubricating. A couple three years we didn't go anywhere and still changed the fluids.

Once a year like clockwork. $300 well spent as I don't do the oil change myself. I do have the SCA checked and added if necessary...Dennis

I get mine serviced every spring

If the generator isn't being run a whole lot I would just change its oil along with the MH engine oil before it gets put into storage.