The '05 Softail owners manuel shows all three every 5k, but the '08 Touring manuel says engine every 5k, primary every 10K, and the transmission every 20K. I've gone to those figures.

 

i change the oil 5k and the trans at 10k and the primary at 20k as my user manual says

 

Considering i live in Illinois, I change my oil around every 3k and everything else BEFORE i store the bike. I then drive it around for a few minutes right after I change all the fluids to make sure everything is coated with clean oil!! In my opinion its the best way to go.

 

Do you have a service manual? It should tell you how often to change each and the only one that gets changed at every 5k service interval is the engine oil. At least that is true for 08 softails.

 

As cheap as oil is...... 2k on engine oil, trans and primary every other time or 4k. Am I wasting money? Probably. But I'd rather change it early than late.

 

I change all three fluids every time; even with the synthetic oil, gasket and filter - still costs me less than just an oil change at the dealer.

 

The primary will usually get a little dirtier than the transmission due to the clutch. The clutch plates are slowly wearing down, the wear speed depends on how you use your clutch. These particles get into the oil.

I change all three at the same time. Oil is still a pretty cheap thing compared to other items we spend money on and I like to tinker almost as much as ride (I know, that's sad and demented ). I keep extra primary cover gaskets and drain plug o-rings on hand, just in case, but only change them if they look bad -- which they seem to never do.

There are plenty of oil threads (too many ) with hundreds of opinions on which oil to use. (I guess this is another oil thread.)

 

I don't care whu ya are, thats funny right there.