A variety of options abound when it comes to lubricants and coolants, but how do you choose the right one for your specific application?
With over a quarter-century in the oil industry, Petrocon President Joseph Giovinazzo is more than qualified to answer that question. At ConExpo-Con/Agg 2020, Giovinazzo shared his knowledge during a presentation titled “How to Select Lubricants & Coolants.”
Along with advice about the different types of coolants and lubricants, Giovinazzo helped attendees understand new developments in the industry. Currently, one of the biggest pushes is on viscosity.
“The oil companies and engine manufacturers are trying to push the lighter viscosity oils,” Giovinazzo said in an interview with Service Truck Magazine. “In the diesel world, it’s always been a 15w40 or 540 synthetic and the 10w30s now have gotten a lot of popularity. So there’s been a lot of confusion in the marketplace as to who should be using it, (and) how it should be used.”
Giovinazzo related the story of a construction company in Pennsylvania that he visited which had converted to 10w30 and had lost some dump truck engines due to excessive wear. Transitioning from one type of fluid to another has to be done carefully with consideration for what is actually required.
“Over-the-road trucking drives that,” he said. “You have some of the oil sales reps or distributor oil sales reps out there pushing it, trying to gain business, using that marketing tactic that, ‘hey, you should be on the new technology, should be on the 10w30,’ not really paying attention to the application of what those trucks are – high idle times, low miles per year, the heavy loads of high horsepower engines. They’re built to need some of that film strength. Pushing 10w30 where 15w40 should be, you’re going to get some wear.”
Heavy equipment focus
Giovinazzo’s presentation focused mostly on the heavy construction and mobile equipment side of things, topics of interest for service truck operators, he noted, as they are often the ones who are actually tasked with repair and maintenance of those larger pieces of equipment. But difficulty choosing the right lubes and coolants is not exclusive to larger equipment — it can impact service trucks themselves.
Different hydraulic fluids, for example, are often thought to be the same, with the main considerations being ambient temperature and moisture contamination. But the recommendations for what fluid should be used are often based on the components.
“So when it comes to a spec, you’ll see these manufacturers use the tolerance specifications of the individual components. Those are based on the tolerances of the pump, the tolerances of the bow. But it doesn’t always make it to the point where it’s consistent. Consider in what application it will be used. Is a variable speed pump in a piece of equipment that is heated or is it sitting outside at ambient temperature? And what climate is that vehicle sitting in. All those parameters play into what specification the fluid should be.”
The main take-away from Giovinazzo’s presentation was that there is a real need for education and training about coolants and lubricants.
Monitoring vital signs
“Your most valuable asset is the guy monitoring the blood of this equipment, the oil and the antifreeze,” says Giovinazzo. “If they get that wrong, it doesn’t matter how expensive the machine is – if they get that wrong that thing will never perform properly and will cause you X amount of dollars in maintenance. So you need to get them the right education, but how do you get that guy trained? Who’s going to train them?”
The companies that employ service truck operators will do the best they can, but their efforts are often limited by budgetary and scheduling concerns. Giovinazzo would like to see the manufacturers take the lead in this effort.
“The best source of information comes from the guys building the product,” Giovinazzo said. “Whether it’s the equipment builder or the oil manufacturer themselves. Most oil manufacturer sales reps are pretty well trained. Where I see the big gap is at the distributor level. Where the guys in the marketplace that are now delivering the oil, there’s a big gap in training and knowledge. I think the oil companies are doing a better job than they were doing three or 10 years ago. But there’s a big turnover in that industry.”
In the absence of effective advice from distributor reps, many operators will be relying on the owner’s manuals. These are good under normal, ideal circumstances. But the industry often runs in other conditions.
“If they run into a special application and they’re having a problem, they really need to be able to reach out to somebody,” Giovinazzo said. “They can do that with the oil supplier they’re working with and they can get access to a field sales rep. It’s just unfortunate, because what I see in reality is they’re getting their advice from the distributor rep at best, and if that advice is not good, that distributor rep is never going to tell them, ‘Oh, I don’t have that experience,’ or ‘I’m not sure.’”
— Matt Jones
Matt Jones is a freelance writer based in Fredericton, N.B.