When it comes to keeping a fleet of vehicles – or even one – going, the king of all maintenance is still the oil change. No other single act can virtually guarantee your engine – gas, diesel, mobile, or fixed – will last for thousands of duty cycles and hours no matter what.
There’s just one problem… Changing the oil is a dirty job. Changing the oil on a big engine or stationary unit can be a filthy job – and that’s what happened to Gary Sage, a farmer in Texas, years ago. He got tired of getting covered in dirt and used oil while changing fluids in his agricultural pumps and developed an industry-changing – and oil-changing – idea.
Use vacuum instead of gravity to remove the oil and replace it.
No dirt, no mess.
Now, we both know that dirt and oil washes off at the end of the day, but dealing with stationary equipment out in the bush can be a whole different problem – serious environmental concerns abound when it comes to changing out large volumes of lubricants in the pristine wilderness with all manner of environmental impacts that can take place.
Again, the Sage Oil Vac system leads the way.
Expertec took a deeper look into exactly what it was that Gary Sage had designed and we realized that it was so brilliant that we’re amazed it took so long for someone to think of it. As a result of our partnership with Sage Oil Vac, we now offer four different platforms that utilize the Sage system and the results are amazing.
No spills means no clean up and no clean up means far less of a chance of slips and falls in the workplace. At the same time, since the used lubricant is securely stored, there is no chance of cross contamination between chemicals, again, lessening safety issues in the workplace.
How big does a Sage Oil Vac get? Well, the smallest units – Lube Carts – start at simple 20 gallon tanks and our heaviest systems on dedicated lube service bodies can be outfitted up to 1,000 gallons.
In other words, we can get you a big enough container!
In our experience, one of the biggest selling points of the Sage Oil Vac system is this – the mobility that it gives any company or individual when it comes to lubrication and maintenance. A fixed piece of equipment is easy to service and maintaining a fleet doesn’t mean pulling multiple vehicles into one central area with a grease pit. At the same time, our relationship with Sage allows us to configure exactly the system you need – oriented the way you need it. Need an extra fresh oil tank since you maintain both diesel and gasoline vehicles? No problem! We can custom-build those pieces into each Oil Vac system we deliver and make it even easier to use.
You can bring the oil change to the engine, not the other way around.
There’s one other key point that makes the Sage System so perfect – and why we recommend it so highly – since it uses vacuum and compressed air to handle draining the fluids, it is a simple process to reverse that and use vacuum and compressed air to help fill the unit you’re working on. We’ve all been there – trying to hold a gallon or two of cold hydraulic fluid at a weird angle while hoping the funnel doesn’t fall over.
Not anymore. The unique pump system of the Sage Oil Vac allows you to be virtually “hands off” for the process and as a result of Sage’s pump-free design, the service life on these systems is usually well over ten years. With flow rates of up to 15 gallons per minute, the Sage Oil Vac system leaves hand operated pumps far behind in terms of efficiency.
In other words, the Sage Oil Vac is not only an amazing tool for your operation, it is also a sound investment in the life of your fleet, no matter how big it is.
