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

We have a 2006 BFT with the E350 engine. Most of our miles are on interstate highways. The Born Free manual recomends 3000 mile oil/filter changes. I change my F150 pickup every 5000 miles due to mostly highway miles. Can I safely go 5000 miles on the BFT or should I change at 3000 miles due to other factors (weight load or whatever)?

You say that your Born Free has an E-350 engine? That could be either a 6.8 L V10 gas engine or a 6.6 L Power Stroke Diesel engine.

On my V10 gas engine, I change oil somewhere between 4000 and 5000 miles generally. I think Ford probably recommends a longer interval between changes for their diesel engine.

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Bill Hemme - Spencer, Iowa
E-mail: whemme@earthlink.net
2002 Born Free (Ford E-450 V10) 26' RSB
2016 VW Golf GTI - toad

It's the V10 gas.

I run a synthetic oil in my 2005 24RB BF with V10 (E450). I use Red Line synthetic oil: http://www.redlineoil.com/products_moto ... ubcatID=14
and I use the Mobil 1 oil filter (also synthetic) I plan on running it about 12,000 miles before I change the oil, eventually I'll change all my fluids to synthetics.
Steve

I run a full synthetic in my V10 BFT. I plan to go 5,000 miles between oil changes. May go a little longer than that if changing oil is not convenient (i.e., in the middle of a trip) when I hit 5K.

Bill

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Barb & Bill
2004 Born Free 22' Built for Two (Sold)
no longer towing a 2008 Smart ForTwo

Escondido, CA

Bill,
Why only 5K miles, what brand of synthetic are you using?
Steve

Hi Steve:

Castrol Synthetic. Think I should go further?

I probably only put about 5K miles per year on the rig, that means an oil change once a year. Last time it was $39 at Wally World, included filter and 6 Qts of synthetic oil. Not a bad deal.

Bill

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Barb & Bill
2004 Born Free 22' Built for Two (Sold)
no longer towing a 2008 Smart ForTwo

Escondido, CA

Hi Bill,
I guess if you are only driving it a short distance a once a year oil change is fine. I'm running the same oil in my jeep but only because I can't reach the filter and I let the dealer change it and then I run about 6K miles.
I have found that Castrol Syntec is really not a true synthetic it's base is a petroleum product, thats why I've been using the Red Line brand of oils in my other vehicles. I've also found (online research) that there are not many good oil filters on the market. I like the Mobil 1 brand as it's easier to obtain, but there are other good ones on the market, you just have to hunt for them.
I stay away from the Fram filters, they used to be good, but then they went cheap a few years ago and I consider them to be low end filters, I think they are now mfg in Germany. If I had to purchase a general purpose filter I would probably purchase a Wix.
Steve

Thanks for the info Steve. If I can get 7,500 miles on my BFT in any one year, maybe I'll wait till then to change the oil. I'm always looking for savings so I can afford more gas for the road.

Bill

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Barb & Bill
2004 Born Free 22' Built for Two (Sold)
no longer towing a 2008 Smart ForTwo

Escondido, CA

Steve:

As result of your research have you formed any conclusions regarding transmission fluids/additives ~~ we will be having ours changed shortly, so now would be the time for us to consider an alternative to the OEM product.

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Larry & Sharon
2002 26' RSB
Suzuki X90 4x4 Toad

Larry,
As I stated in a previous post, I'm partial to RedLine Oil products
http://www.redlineoil.com/products_gearlubricants.asp
I have to drive to Seattle,WA. to get them as they are not available here in Sequim. You can do a search for dealers on their website. You still need to "break in" your engine on regular motor oil, but then afterwards you can switch to synthetics. I even run redline 10w-30 in my Generac gen-set.
There is a lot of info on the net, just do a search in google for "best synthetic oils" and you will get lots of hits.
Here are a couple:
http://www.synlube.com/synthetic.htm
http://www.whatprice.co.uk/car/synthetic-oil.html
http://www.mr2.com/TEXT/synth_oil.txt

Hope you can find some useful info here.

Steve

Regardless of all the promotional stuff, I still believe that dirty oil , whether synthetic, vegetable or mineral, does not belong in an engine. The black color of old oil is mostly carbon, and carbon is abrasive . How much longer do you plan to keep your engine, and what do you plan to pass off to the next guy ?

Bill,
I agree about dirty oil, but I left a lot out of my post, I use the best filters I can find and if the oil is dirty, just change the filter and top up (kinda messy), there are also quite a number of companies that do oil analysis: http://www.oillab.com/bestoil.html
so if someone was really worried they could send in samples to determine how much of a problem it really is.
I've actually noticed a slight improvement in my gas mileage since I've switched to synthetics ( slipperier) about .5 MPG (not a scientific test).
I just checked my oil today, and after about 2000 miles is still relatively clean. I'm assuming we are talking gas engines and NOT diesel!
In the past I've always changed my oil around 3 to 4000 miles, but I'm experimenting with synthetics now and if analysis shows it's not working I'll switch back to the lower oil change interval.
Steve

Steve: Good point .

Bill,
It seems to me I read that the reason the Ford V10 is using 5w-20 now is because it increases gas mileage by .1mpg at the expense of the life of the engine, it used to be 140K miles but is now only 70K miles, I guess anything to make their CAFE readings better. Anyhow, I expect to get at least 200K out of my engine, but it will probably take years! I'm using Redline 5w-40 in our V10!
Steve