Miles Vrs. Engine hours ??

I still go by miles. Hours rack up when you're idling not just moving

Hours are only useful for something like a bucket truck or electrical line truck that drives to a site, sets and runs at idle - half throttle for 5-6 hours, then drives back to the shop.

Well, i have seen Division ( electric company) that have 5 or 10 ton trucks that might be 12 years old and have 40,000 miles on them .... but them might have been running 1500 rpm 7 hours a day,  5 days a week, 52 weeks out of the year, for 10 years..... so your getting a truck with the frame / body having 40K miles, and the motor having 20,000 hours.... Good ? Bad ? ..... just something to keep in mind.

Edited by steve(ill) - 21 Jan 2021 at 7:31pm

for past 10 years or so ford's computers in their vehicles run up miles while they are idleing. it won't show on the odometer but shows on the vehicles computer, they use that for warranty work/claims. i don't know if GM or others do the same thing or not.  

Just go by the oil change light. The ecm takes ideling in account in the change time if it idles slot itll signal a change as early as 2000 miles trucks that do alot of highway miles it go aslong as 10000 miles between changes

She is a lead foot, and a tailgater, but she ain’t that fast.

I just toggled the dash on my '05 Ford super duty and had 8250 hours/182,000 miles. I'm the second owner and the original owner used it as a plow/salt spreader unit 

Dave H wrote: i have let mine run al night before when hooked up to the camper.  Kinda like an over powered generator.  I have installed one of those gizmos  that sets the idle to 900 when I flip the switch. Seems the last long night the ole 6.2 used a 1/4 tank of gas, and that is a BIG tank.

FYI. My pickup has 522 hours on it and 19825 miles, maybe 30 minutes idle time. Bought new July 5 2019. All highway miles. Do hours v/s miles depend on rest end ratio?

In heavy equipment and trucks One hour equated to 50 engine operation miles.   Idling was harder on engines due to running cold, carbon buildup, lower oil flows across lubricated parts.  That has been a standard for maintenance to me since 1975.

DMiller wrote: In heavy equipment and trucks One hour equated to 50 engine operation miles.   Idling was harder on engines due to running cold, carbon buildup, lower oil flows across lubricated parts.  That has been a standard for maintenance to me since 1975. More Idle time and fewer miles is harder on a machine than running full out high miles full load.