Extending oil drains is a beneficial way of squeezing every ounce of usage out of your lubrication, avoiding waste and saving money. There are several tools and resources available to optimize and extend your drain intervals adequately and safely. Optimizing your equipment’s oil drains is essential to saving resources and reducing costs for the future. Those seeking to safely extend drains and see an additional allocation of the lubricants can do so by inspecting the oil for any contaminants and routinely testing through a laboratory.
Extending your oil drains can result in:
Decrease in waste; increase of resources
Increase in equipment reliability
Decrease in new lubrication costs
Decrease in maintenance costs
Contact your Shrader Tire and Oil representative today to find out more about extending oil drains and our oil analysis program.
OEMs have general recommendations based on intervals such as hours or miles. OEMs can suggest these general recommendations but aren’t always specific to your application. They are unable to determine whether there is useful remaining life in the oil or perhaps the presence of acid, both resulting in unnecessary costs and resource allocation.
Common KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
Extending oil drains require specific indications that the oil has enough life for further usage. Key Performance Indicators for extending lubricant drain intervals include:
Acid Number: The amount of present acid. Oxidation and contamination levels can determine if the oil is safe for usage if under the OEM’s recommendation.
Base Number: The level of additives, specifically dispersants and detergents. If base number levels are above the limit, the oil may be safely extended.
Oxidation: If the oxidation levels are below limits suggested by the lubricant manufacturer, proceeding with extending oil drains can occur.
Nitration: Nitration is a critical indicator of the performance of natural gas engines.
Viscosity: If the lubricant’s viscosity falls within the lubricant manufacturer’s range, this can determine if the oil can be extended and utilized longer.
PM vs CBMCBM (condition-based monitoring) is the natural progression of PM (preventive maintenance) to determining what’s best for your equipment. To generate a dependable solution to evaluating the possibility of extending oil drains, routine oil testing and analysis is vital. Fluid analysis programs are the only way to identify whether you are meeting your KPIs. Identifying patterns through CBM results in a higher sense of control over contaminants that directly affect lubrication longevity.
Oil Testing and Analysis
While OEMs offer broad suggestions for scheduling your oil drains, a routine, consistent fluid analysis program can go the extra mile and determine any unusual wear pattern in the equipment, identify and control any contamination present, and determine the suitability of the lubricant for continued use.
Proper training and education in oil analysis is learned best while practicing hands-on with these processes, leading to improved longevity for oil drainage. Being involved in oil analysis cuts costs and prevents unnecessary oil waste by allowing users to decipher when oil drains can be properly extended and the lubricant’s useful remaining life.
Data Management Reports and Sample Reports
Running data management reports and taking action on sample reports can assist users in recognizing problems as they occur. Analyzing patterns based on the results of the reports makes future extension of oil drains increasingly more manageable. Understanding oil sample data and downloading data across data management reports offers users solutions to enhance oil usage. For example, downloading sample data through the Problem Summary Report available in POLARIS Laboratories’ data management system, HORIZON®, identifies KPIs for oil drains.
Acting on maintenance recommendations included in sample reports can streamline the process of identifying suitability within the oil. Sample reports inform users of levels of metal and contamination and can be used as KPI’s to determine drain intervals. Additionally, these reports allow users to view sample history and recommended actions indicated on previously submitted samples for the same component.
Optimize Your Oil Drains
Resources such as condition-based monitoring, oil testing, and analyzing data in oil analysis reports give users opportunities to safely extend oil drains. Understanding acceptable levels of contamination or acids in lubrication instead of hours or miles recommended by OEMs can result in extending drains and using oil for longer. Knowledge identified with KPIs based on oil analysis reports results in extended component hours, decrease in costs associated with labor and lubricants, and less waste.
Shrader Tire and Oil is celebrating 30 years of manufacturing retreads this year. The Toledo, Ohio-based company celebrated 75 years of being in business in 2023 and reached the new milestone in 2024.
“Getting into the retread manufacturing business has been a key to our growth”, said Shrader Tire and Oil President and CEO Joe Shrader. “Having our own retread facilities has allowed us to better serve and deliver high-quality tires to our customers.”
Shrader Tire and Oil purchased a 12,000-square-foot building just outside of the Village of Blissfield in 1993 and opened its first retread plant the following year with a staff of four – a manager and three employees.
The retread production plant soon outgrew its space and Shrader Tire and Oil added 16,000-square-feet to the plant, producing Oliver-brand retreads.
Oliver, which is owned by Michelin today, was America’s first retread rubber brand.
Truck tire retreads deliver huge savings to fleet managers and owner/operators and have a massive impact on the environment. It is estimated that nearly 300 million tires from cars and trucks are thrown away by Americans each year, but the use of retreads saves hundreds of millions of gallons of oil, and millions of tires continue a useful life rather than being consigned to a tire pile or landfill.
Simply put, retreading is recycling and conserving oil. The synthetic rubber components in a new medium truck tire require about 22 gallons of oil, but it takes only seven gallons to retread that same tire.
In 2005, Shrader Tire and Oil converted its retread operations to Michelin in Melvindale, Mich. A second Michelin manufacturing plant was purchased in 2017 in Pemberville, Ohio.
Today, Shrader Tire and Oil continues to utilize Michelin Retread Technology at those two locations, producing hundreds of thousands of retreads.
“We are proud to have been in business for 76 years and we are committed to manufacturing only the best retreads for our customers.”
Shrader Tire & Oil is the premier tire and lubricant distributor in the Midwest. With locations in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, Shrader Tire and Oil has 14 truck tire and fleet service centers, two state-of-the-art Michelin retread plants, 4 bulk lubricant operations and a 24-hour emergency road service network.
Congratulations are in order for our very own MRT II plant – located in Pemberville, Ohio – after Michelin gave high marks to the retread facility in its annual audit.
“My team deserves all the credit,” said MRT II Manager John Taylor. “They are a great team that cares about what goes to our customers. They’re a fun group to mentor and coach.”
Michelin annually does an audit of retread facilities. The scores given to MRT II for the recent audit include:
• 100 percent for Safety
• 99 percent for Process Quality Audit – The auditor goes post-to-post and interacts with the operators to ensure they can perform the functions by applying work methods and specifications correctly.
• 99 percent for Finished Product Quality Audit. The auditor chooses 20 random tires from the warehouse ready to go to the customer and brings them back into the plant, putting them through a rigorous inspection to ensure proper work methods were followed.
“A lot of hard work goes into ensuring we are producing at the highest quality retread level possible in the industry,” said Bob Watters, STO’s general manager of manufacturing. “Thank you to the MRT II team for exercising our STO vision to keep the transportation industry rolling and safe!”
An audit at MRT I will come later this spring.
Shrader Tire and Oil hosted two Delo Truck Experience events in September, one at our store in Melvindale, Mich. and the other at our Columbus, Ohio, location.
Chevron takes the Delo Truck across the country giving customers an opportunity to learn more about the product. Inside the Delo trailer are multiple interactive displays that customers can experience and educate themselves about Chevron and Delo.
Shrader Tire and Oil representatives were on hand to talk with customers and potential customers as well. Tours were given of the Shrader Tire and Oil retread plant, bulk oil facility and warehouse.
TOLEDO, Ohio — Employees and family members of Shrader Tire & Oil volunteered Saturday to build a playhouse for a local family.
Partnering with the Maumee Valley Habitat for Humanity, Shrader Tire & Oil employees designed, painted and built the 4-foot wide, 5-foot-long playhouse that was then donated to a Toledo family for their three children, ages 2-6.
The community project is part of Shrader Tire & Oil celebrating its 75 years in business in 2023. One of the company’s Core Values is Community Involvement.
Shrader Tire & Oil employees chose a barnyard theme for the playhouse, painting both inside and outside of the structure, using bright colors and amazing designs. While Maumee Valley Habitat for Humanity team leaders supervised, the team painted the structure, put up the four walls, created window borders and applied shingles to the roof. Using a big red barn as the theme, the playhouse included a bright blue sky, horses, cows, pigs, and sheep.
A family of five came to Shrader Tire & Oil headquarters on Sylvania Ave. in Toledo to view the finished project and take it home with them.
It was an amazing opportunity for Shrader Tire & Oil to contribute to Maumee Valley Habitat for Humanity.
Shrader Tire & Oil was founded in 1948 and has been located on Sylvania Ave. for most of the past 75 years. There are also 18 other locations in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, including multiple fleet stores, two Michelin retread plants and a bulk oil facility.
TOLEDO, Ohio – The Young Artists at Work group has completed a 120-foot long mural on the west side of the Shrader Tire and Oil headquarters on Sylvania Ave. in Toledo, Ohio.
The artists, ranging from ages 14 to 18, are part of the Toledo Arts Commission summer program.
After projecting the mural drawing onto the side of the building, about a dozen students began painting. It took them about five days to finish the colorful scene that depicts a trail with joggers, bikers, animals, flowers and plants that are native to Ohio. Each student chose one segment of the mural, such as a Cardinal or Daylilies, to design in the studio. Once on-site, the students then followed through with their particular design and painted it on the building.
The mural runs along the Chessie Trail, which was at one time a railroad line that served West Toledo, including Shrader Tire and Oil.
In the early 1900s, the track was known as the Toledo Terminal Railroad and served a variety of industrial plants. Over time, the rail line was split into two, eventually becoming the Chessie Line. After the tracks were removed, it became a non-motorized trail maintained by the City of Toledo.
Shrader Tire & Oil moved into its current location soon after the company’s founding in 1948.
Shrader Tire & Oil is celebrating 75 years in business throughout 2023.
