Servicing is a funny thing, when I worked at the quarry we had at the time the only Komatsu 700(I think it was 700, bloody huge thing) in the country, first one along with a fleet of 50 and 70 tonne Cat dumpers and a couple of big Cat loading shovels for face work. The amount of oil these things take is frightening.
For once it was a failure rather than costs that forced a change. We stopped doing scheduled servicing and instead we did regular oil sampling. The samples were sent for test and the testing company told us when to change oil, filters or mechanical parts.
Back in the late 90’s the face shovels were a quarter of a million pounds each so not something to scrimp on but we ended up saving a LOT of money we previously spent on oil services. More importantly we didnt suffer another engine or transmission failure and could schedule downtime to change parts.
I don’t know if anyone makes this kind of service available for private users but if so I recommend it.
If using decent modern oils and proper filters and not mitigating conditions I would go by manufacturers recommendation. It seemed strange to me when they first extended them in cars but I got used to it and don’t even think about it now.
