Oil Change on the road

[JDsdogs]

While not a newb to RVing (many years), our upcoming trip will be our first of extended length.
Having been heavy equip mechanic for some years in the past, I do most of my own maintenance.
Now, I will be more than an oil change away from home and was wondering where others get their oil changed on the road.
With a class A, I'm guessing a truck shop of some sort.
Who do you look for? How does one go about finding reputable service on the road?

Not a beginner, but this might be considered a beginner question to those of you with experience.

Thanks in advance

[JimK-NY]

Grit dog wrote:


^Paranoia, nothing more.

Not really. At least in my area they use minimally trained part time workers, mostly high school kids. I used them for quite a while due to the convenience.

Here are just a few of the errors made by Jiffy Lube:

Put the oil drain plug in without a gasket. Needless to say it just kept slowly leaking.

Bent the oil cleaner canister so badly it leaked.

Changed the antifreeze, but did not get the air bubbles out so it was not close to full.

Broke my A/C unit!! Of course they denied it, but no one else had worked on the car and the broken pipe was next to the oil filter they just changed.

Don't fool yourself. Plenty of low quality businesses survive and even do well. Jiffy Lube managers are well trained when it comes to selling additional expensive parts such as new wiper blades. They even showed me that my differential oil was "dirty" and needed to be changed. I had done that less than 10k miles before.

[Grit_dog]

JimK-NY wrote:
I would never take my Rv to Jiffy Lube. I made the mistake of using them years ago for quick oil changes on my car. They made way too many mistakes. Their techs are high school kids or other cheap labor with minimal training. An oil change should be simple but you still need someone who knows what they are doing and does not make mistakes, such as leaving the old gasket and installing a new oil filter and new gasket over the old. Or not being careful and breaking off the pipe for the A/C.

^Paranoia, nothing more.
Think about it. If the zippy lube places regularly let the oil they changed run out of the cars as they exited the service bay, they would not be in business.
I do the majority of my own work and share your concern for shoddy workmanship, but I've had likely a couple hundred services done on my company trucks at whatever random shop is on the street corner when I need a service and have time.
Once they left the fill plug off the diff. Made a mess, I was pissed, owner was apologetic, I was 100miles away when I saw this so I went to autozone for a plug and a couple quarts of 90wt and then a car wash.
Anyone who's worked on.....whatever....has made mistakes over their lifetime. Odds are about the same. Considering I've done probably 5x the services my self than zippy lube, I've never muffed one up.......until last year. Left one of the drain plugs loose presumably on my snow bike. Lost the oil about 15mi up the Mountian from the truck, smoked the top end only fortunately. That'll stick with me a while and will be double checking that for some time to come!

[Community Alumni]

Same as washing RVs in RV parks. Management will allow professional RV washers to wash RVs but not guests. Go figure.

[time2roll]

Odd to think it is perfectly fine to have a mobile guy come out to do some repair and yet crazy to have the RV owner do the repair. Dang what if the RV owner was a mobile mechanic?

[rockhillmanor]

Pick a nice CG and ask the owner who they use for RV Mobile Repair.

They will come out to your site and change the oil while you sit back and have a cold one!!:B

No need to ever take your RV into a repair shop and wait and wait or worse yet have to drop it off.

My MH has never been inside a repair shop. All work even some extension have all been while parked at a CG. :C

[JimK-NY]

I would never take my Rv to Jiffy Lube. I made the mistake of using them years ago for quick oil changes on my car. They made way too many mistakes. Their techs are high school kids or other cheap labor with minimal training. An oil change should be simple but you still need someone who knows what they are doing and does not make mistakes, such as leaving the old gasket and installing a new oil filter and new gasket over the old. Or not being careful and breaking off the pipe for the A/C.

[Atlee]

I don't understand changing oil at camp grounds to save a buck or two at all. For one thing, it's against all rules at any camp ground I've stayed at. And the same holds for doing it at the far side of a Walmart parking lot.

I understand the idea of doing it yourself gives one the satisfaction of "knowing" it's done right, and the idea it will save one a few bucks.

However, in this case, having either a Jiffy Lube type store, or a dealer do the deed will not cause massive failure in the engine. Also, if a $40/$50 oil change at a dealer or a $20/$25 oil change at a Jiffy Lube type store will break a travel budget, then maybe that trip shouldn't be undertaken in the first place.

[timjet]

I think it's important to consistently change your oil at the recommended interval. However going a few thousand miles over once or twice in my opinion is not going to reduce the longevity of the engine or cause you other problems.
I doubt most people change the oil in their cars at recommended intervals or if they do I'm sure many have gone a few thousand miles over. I don't see cars and RV breaking down because of this. Just my opinion.

[falconbrother]

Back in the early 1980s I would take long road trips on my motorcycle and always changed my own oil out on the road but, in an RV I would never consider doing that in a campground. The risk of spilling oil on somebody's nice clean campsite just makes it not worth the trouble. I'll be happy to pay someone to do it. Just contact the place you want to do the service and schedule a time. Now, at home...I haven't paid someone to change the oil in motorcycle, truck, car, van or motorhome since 1984.

[2gypsies1]

In the public parks we've volunteered in you were not allowed to change your oil in the campground. Yikes!!

[dons2346]

If I owned a campground and I saw you changing oil, you would be leaving immediately whether you had oil in the motor or not

[time2roll]

^^^^ I disagree. If you normally change it at home I see nothing wrong with self changing on the road. Rules permitting and no mess or spills. Of course if you have a pro do it at home you should do the same on the road. This is no time to learn.

Same with the rest as long as you finish in a day and do not become stranded or disabled.

[Expyinflight]

Grit dog wrote:
Changing your oil in the campground is pretty ghetto.

You sir....win the "common sense reply" of the day. 🙂

Makes me wonder...what's next? Draining the radiator? New shocks? Brake job?

Some think it acceptable to treat a campground or rv park space as their own personal garage. Changing the oil in such a place would never enter my mind.

This type of behavior is exactly the reason campgrounds and rv parks post more and more rules and restrictions.

Some will say...."but I'm very careful, I don't make a mess changing my oil".
Yeah, right. Tell that to the campground or rv park owner/manager. I'll bet he disagrees.

[Grit_dog]

If talking gasser, 15k mi is 2 oil changes in my book.
15k on a diesel is more than I run but less then some that run by remote filtration and oil sampling. So it's not out of line to go 15k once on a real diesel. (Just don't do it on the older Powdersmokes with HPOPs.. They like clean oil).

Oil change intervals on diesels are in the 300-500 hour range depending on who's engine it is. 500 hours is right about 15,000 miles if you're taking it slow. Pounding down the highway 15k = about 400 hours. Still good.

[Grit_dog]

Changing your oil in the campground is pretty ghetto.
Guess if you can do it perfectly cleanly with no spills that's fine, otherwise, if you got the scratch to travel 15,000miles without returning home, then just go get the oil changed.
Some mom n pop shop will do it cheap. Show up with your oil and filter to make it easy for them and I bet $50 or less gets your oil swapped.