Mike Ford - AMSOIL Independent Dealer

How Often Should I Change Front or Rear Differential Fluid? John Baker | Apr 16, 2019 12:05 PM How often you should change front and rear differential fluid depends on your vehicle, driving conditions and differential fluid quality. That’s a vague answer, but it’s true. If you drive your truck primarily on the highway in temperate conditions and rarely tow or haul , you likely don’t need to change front or rear differential fluid very often. But, if you tow a trailer or haul supplies frequently and the temperature fluctuates as wildly as your health insurance premium , then you need to change differential fluid more often. The only way to know the exact mileage interval is to check your owner’s manual or visit the dealership. Differential fluid change intervals Why the varying fluid-change intervals? Because severe operating conditions break down differential fluid more quickly and place greater stress on the gears and bearings, inviting wear. The truck ma...

Firearm Lubricant Scent: Does it Scare off Game? Mark Nyholm |   Oct 24, 2018 10:30 AM   Have you ever heard the saying, “the nose knows?” Some of us have bigger noses than others, but in general animals have a far more advanced sense of smell than the humans who hunt them. If you’re a seasoned hunter, you know that your clothing, your choice of hunting products and your hunting spot all help determine whether you go home empty-handed or dine on fresh meat that evening. How well can animals smell? We humans don’t survive by our noses. Unless, of course, you’re a professional candle tester with a calibrated nose able to detect the faintest fragrance. In contrast, most animals use their noses for security. How good is their sense of smell? It’s said the average dog can identify smells more than 1,000 better than us . Of course, we don’t hunt dogs. What about bears? Of all the animals in the woods, bears have the best sense of smell and can d...

Jamie Jarvi |   Aug 01, 2017 9:26 AM The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is a true bucket-list destination for any motorcycle enthusiast. Each year thousands upon thousands of riders descend on Sturgis, S.D., and turn this small, sleepy town into a motorcycle mecca. Some travel the road to Sturgis as an annual endeavor, while others make it a once-in-a-lifetime journey. In either case, there is always the thrilling experience of hitting the open road to Sturgis. For those taking their inaugural ride to the world-famous Rally the week of Aug. 4-13, we’ve got some ideas to keep in mind that will help make your first rally appearance a success. Formulate a plan: It’s easy to become overwhelmed with the sights and sounds of Sturgis. Leaving room for spontaneity is essential, meaning you don’t need a minute-by-minute itinerary. But having some guidelines ensures you are in the right place at the right time, whatever your dining/entertainment/riding needs. Be...

What’s the Difference Between Motorcycle, Dirt Bike and ATV Oil? John Baker | Jun 13, 2018 4:12 PM   Most people who ask have an underlying question they really mean to ask: Can I use the same motor oil in my motorcycle, dirt bike and ATV/UTV? Sure, you can use a single oil formulation for all your toys (assuming you use the correct viscosity in each). But you shouldn’t. Kind of like you can dump Filippo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil into your machines, but you shouldn’t. Why? Because each application presents unique challenges to motor oil that one formulation can’t meet. We’ll break them all down to see why. V-Twin Motorcycle Metric Motorcycle ATV/UTV Dirt Bike But first, let’s look at what the motor oil must do regardless of the application. Whether in a Harley-Davidson, Kawasaki sport bike, UTV or dirt bike, the oil has to protect against wear and fight the damaging effects of extreme heat . These include deposit formation, which robs...

Lindsay Premo | Dec 12, 2017 8:42 AM Having grown up in the country, snowmobiles were a common form of transportation. When I was little my dad would tow the toboggan behind our late ’80s (don’t even try to guess my age from that!) machine to the local bar for burgers or through the woods to our skating pond. After the great Halloween storm of 1991 that dumped three feet of snow on Duluth, Minn., the snowmobile was the only way my dad could get us to the end of the driveway to catch the bus. And, of course, when we were old enough to ride ourselves, my siblings and I took the liberty of doing donuts on my mother’s perfectly manicured (yet snow-covered) lawn. So how does one choose the right snowmobile? We polled our resident experts (AMSOIL Dealers, employees, sponsored race teams) to see what they recommend when choosing the right sled. What type of riding will you be doing? Will you be pulling your fish house out to the middle of the lake? Cruising thr...

John Baker | Nov 29, 2017 8:22 AM First Signature Series Synthetic Motor Oil , then XL Synthetic Motor Oil . Now, OE Synthetic Motor Oil is our latest oil to undergo a formulation change and facelift. What’s New? Everything. The oil inside the bottle, the label…essentially everything except the name. Excellent Wear Protection The protection the oil delivers is even different, as in better. The added protection is particularly important in the extreme environments produced by today’s smaller displacement engines that often run lower viscosity oil. Camshaft wear, for example, can result in poor valve timing, greatly reducing engine efficiency and leading to expensive repairs. The Peugeot TU3M Wear Test (CEC L-38-A-94), which must be passed to meet the GM dexos1® Gen 2 specification, determines a motor oil’s ability to limit wear. For 100 hours the four-cylinder test engine is subjected to extreme, wear-inducing conditions. AMSOIL OE Motor Oil provided 4...

Why Does Motor Oil Turn Black? John Baker | Oct 11, 2017 8:35 AM Motor oil turns black during use for a couple reasons: 1) Heat cycles During your drive to work in the morning, your engine reaches normal operating temperature (typically 195ºF-220ºF), heating the motor oil. Then the oil cools while your car sits in the parking lot. During lunch, the oil again is exposed to heat during your drive to Walmart for butter and shoe laces. The process repeats on the way home. And the next day. And the next. That’s what’s meant by “heat cycles.” The continual exposure to periods of high heat naturally darkens motor oil. Some additives in motor oil are more susceptible to darkening in the presence of heat than others. In addition, normal oxidation can darken oil, too. Oxidation occurs when oxygen molecules interact with oil molecules and cause chemical breakdown, just like how oxygen causes a cut apple to brown or iron to rust. High heat accelerates oxidation. 2)...