Born Free Leap'n Lions RV Club Info & Discussion Forum

I expect this will generate a lot of comments and opinions. However, are there facts that support changing oil long before the vehicle has reached the suggested oil change mileage, but long after the number of months recommended? I've indicated before that I am frugal with these types of things. I have read the oil "breaks down" after a period of time, but is that true of today's lubricants? And exactly what does "breaks down" mean? I'm not inclined to change oil in my BF until I reach my own mileage limit (which may be different than yours) no matter what the age. So am I doing factual harm? I'll add that in every vehicle I have owned I have used the mileage limit only, not months, and have never had an oil related problem.

I'm with you Dallas. I do my oil changes based solely on mileage. And seldom, if ever, put more than 5k miles a year on any of my vehicles. I run 100% synthetic oil, and change the oil at 10k miles. I do exercise all (four, I have a carbon footprint the size of Sasquatch ) of my vehicles periodically.

Bill

Certainly, this is a very personal choice area. For my vehicles, I seldom replace them at less than 10 years of age (all purchased new) and never with less than 175,000 miles on odometer. My last RV was 15 years old when sold in favor of our 2008 BFT, and had 188,000 miles logged. Our BFT already has 29,000 miles--we do love driving it!
We travel on paved roads nearly always, with relatively litlte city driving. Most trips are at least 24 miles one way and most road trips are either 4 or 6 hours in length (family visits). For the last 30 years, we have changed oil and filter (always) at 5000-6000 miles on a combination of Hondas, Toyotas, Fords, Subarus, and Winnebago's, and have never had any thing close to an engine problem, so this works for us. I would suggest more frequent servicing if primary travel included rock or other "non-paved" surfaces.
Good Highways!

Do these comments apply to generators?

For my part, I do the generators on specifications from the manufacturer,

I used to change my oil religioously at 3 months intervals. Then I was listening to the guys at Car Talk and they said that was silly. Oil doesn't go bad over time. I now use Mobil One for the engine and generator and strictly go by miles (hours for the genset)