Blog

An Easier Way to Do Oil Changes on Big Trucks

Regular servicing is essential for the life of fleets. Changing the oil on commercial trucks also known as “Big Trucks” is part of that preventative maintenance program and Femco has created a more efficient and sustainable solution for oil changes.

Recently we interviewed Sean Sternberg who is the Account Manager at Femco USA, and we learned all about their innovative line of Drain Plugs.

History of Femco

In the early 1980s Poul van Santen was so frustrated with the poor quality of the traditional drain plug that he took it upon himself to re-design oil drain plugs. Poul was a local car salesman from Rotterdam which is in the Netherlands, and he had a passion for innovative engineering. He envisioned changing the way oil changes were performed and he wanted to design a much simpler, safer, and cleaner process. Together with his family he sat at their kitchen table and invented the Femco oil drain plug. A year later, Poul had redesigned the original prototype, and created the first single piece drain plug made from brass, with an improved valve and body.

Poul moved manufacturing to the center of Rotterdam and increased the range of products to include the Compact and Click Drain.

A Solution for Oil Changes

The Original Standard Series Drain Plug was a groundbreaking product that replaced the OEM plug and allowed for a more efficient oil change.

“There’s an internal valve in the plug, which we call the fail-safe valve, so if something were to break inside the plug, the natural weight of the oil would make sure it remains closed,” said Sean Sternberg, the Account Manager at Femco USA.

To start changing the oil, the only steps required are the removal of the cap, the connection of a hose or drainer, which triggers the actuation unit opening the valve and letting the oil flow clearly. This Drain Plug also gives the ability to drain the oil hot, which gives a better flush of particles.

Line of Drain Plugs

Femco has produced a line of innovative drain plug solutions that fit any application in commercial tucking.

Click Drain

The Click Drain Plug eliminates the screwing on or off the drainer from the Standard Series. The optimization of the Click Drain offers an EVEN MORE efficient oil change. By removing this step, they, in turn, save fleets on labor, human error by technicians, and the need for replacement parts. The Click Drain is also guaranteed for life. To summarize, the Click Drain is the essential efficient drainer for fleets.

Non-Drip

The Click Drain can be used to both drain and fill the engine; however, it’s not optimized for filling. The Non-Drip Plug was created specifically to be a two-way plug. It’s a flush fit valve, instead of the standard cavity. It’s great in situations when you need to ensure there is no oil spillage.

XL Drain Plug

The XL Drain Plug is similar to the Standard Series Drain Plug but is larger. This drain plug is for the heavy-duty off-highway market. Whether it’s in the oil and gas, mining, construction, or forestry industry, this product is perfect for large off-highway equipment. When performing an oil change on these larger pieces of equipment, the flow rate is crucial for efficiency. With the XL Drain Plug, the flow rate has a 50% increase compared to standard drain plugs.

Sustainability

Sustainability is becoming very important in the heavy-duty trucking industry to be competitive. Being able to have a mobile service done on fleets is great for the efficiency of regular maintenance. However, with traditional methods of changing oil, cleaning up oil spillage is part of the process.

As the world becomes more aware of the need to be greener, and the need for the protection of our planet, Femco’s products become more and more valuable every day.

“Keeping that oil off the ground and keeping it out of inefficient operations where it’s being double, or triple handled, all of that creates waste. If you can cut 1% of oil that’s lost during an operation, over the scope of the largest market in the world for these vehicles… that is a massive contribution to the sustainability of our planet,” Sean Sternberg of Femco USA explained.

A Product That Impacts the Bottom Line

Femco worked with a large fleet of over 5000 vehicles to determine the cost-savings their products had on the fleets total cost-of-operation. After going with Femco’s line of drain plugs, the company not only had reduced costs, but also experienced increased efficiency on the existing vehicles. This had a positive impact on the bottom line.

It did so to such an extent that the company ended up using the Femco products not only on their semi-trucks “Big Trucks”, but also their medium-duty trucks, forklifts, and some stationary pieces of equipment because the return-on-investment of the expense to install the products allowed them to achieve much greater profits overall.