Would it be worth testing forklift oil instead of doing oil change every 250 hours or in some cases of Toyota every 180 hours? We have near 50 forklifts and I was wondering would it make sense to test the oil instead of the hourly change.This comes to about every 3 weeks on average of an oil change. We spend lots of money on filters and oil. I am just wondering if we are wasting oil or is this best practice?

I would not jump overnight to a decision like that.

Points to consider

1) How many oil you change per equipment every time?
3) If the subject is just a 20 ltr pail "tiny" 4 cylinder, compared to 400 liter sump of a "respected" workhorse, I would go for the workhorse (probably you don't have 50 of them, but the effects of an unexpected breakdown are several magnitudes higher)
4) Start small, take 5 forklifts for a pilot
5) Don't take the "grannies" wich will be discarded in a few months to experiment, the wear paterns are higher, and if you are going to judge your fleet by their results, pulling the alarm clock at management will result in assuming things (Make an ass out of u&me)
6) You will have a to put some good logistics in place, taking an oil sample is not done by a carpenter, take your best man to do the job. If you miss, and the engines wrecks, it is your fault.
7) Evaluate the response time and support from the analyzing lab, don't go with salesmen, but with technical knowledgable people
8) Calculate the costs, compare it with the gains (put someone to run behind a forklift and get the cooperation of the driver also costs money, he could be doing other things) Imagine running behind 50 forklift trucks.
9) You need to hold track on the running hours, somebody has to warn the sample catcher in time (logistics)

10) Most important, use the results to succesively extent the oil change interval of the test trucks with the monitoring/approval of your analyzing lab. If Mangement buys the case, extend the interval of the rest. That is already an improvent.

How do you eat an elephant (50 trucks)?
Answer: piece by piece

Just my 2cts

Mike, Do you mean lube oil or hydraulic oil?

250 hrs, hydraulic oil change

That doesn't need an oil analysis laboratory to see that it is gross overkill. The oil vendor will be getting rich

We started long time ago with 6 months change out, and are already for many. many years on a yearly change.

250 hours is typical for diesel engines.
GM (Detroit Diesel) recommeded years ago 150 hours for continuous running machines. 250 hours will be reached in 10 days for engines in a 7 x 24 regime.

Hydraulic oil should not be contiminated that soon. There is no soot, ash, depletion of additives as is the case of engine oil.

We are using 5000lb lifts and using motor oil.We seem to change oillike I say about every 3 weeks or so on all the lifts didnt know if it made sense(cents) to do oil analysis or just go with the flow.

Are you changing the hydraulic oil also ??

The US Coast Guard, USMC, and USAF all use the TMEH1 Oil Analyzer to extend oil drain intervals on their fleet vehicles and boats.
http://www.reliabilitydirect.com/oilanalysisproducts/SKF-TMEH1.htm
For Hydraulics, I'd go with a particle counter.

Thanks Dave I will check it out. We change hydraulic oil every 3000 hours is what the mechanic tells me. We change the filter about every 1000 hours.

What are the volumes of motor oil & hydraulic oils involved here? And the costs for each annually?

I don't know all the costs involved, but this interval seems pretty short, though someone had to have a reason for it at one time.

I believe I'd test a smaller pilot group of lifts to determine if and then when the oil degrades or has too many contaminants. If oil degradation is found after 250 you may need to shorten the interval, if not, then I'd push the interval out a bit on the pilot group and see what it looks like then.