Hi All: A quick vid by one of our members when he was unloading his own day cab at this facility. His truck was shut down whereas the other guy was throwing away about a gallon of diesel b an hour. Wayne
A gallon an hour? I just spent 3.69/ gallon on diesel yesterday. He's only wasting $4.00 per hour. Mine is shut off if its not moving for the most part. But I see guys leave them for 30 minutes + as they hook up, and do the log book. Old school thinking, "its not good to shut off your diesel". BS.
I know from my experience with ambulances and fire trucks, that it seems that diesels use very little fuel while idling. I could be on the scene of an incident for hours and the fuel gauge would not move.
there was a news piece on the local news here last night about how the little guys are having a hard time with the price of Diesel at $1000 a pop to fill up. The guy on there was talking about how the price was now up to 55% of the cost (up from 45%). Gee lets see that would make what 45% of the cost profit for them. (give me a break.) But the guy they interviewed was on his was from CA to MA with a load and was setting his cruise on 65-68 MPH. That is what he said his best MPG were at. (try lower :0))
Hi Jason: Uninformed stupidity like his will be rewarded with an out of business sign soon. Wal-Mart and UPS will eat his breakfast, lunch and dinner if he continues that 65 to 68 mph crap. Fuel costs for OTR drives is more than the drivers wage at $4.00 per gallon for diesel b and if the present trends continue, they will be getting 7 to 8 mpg or they will be going out of business. 65 to 68 mph certainly does not bring about anything near 7 mpg in a fully loaded tractor trailer rig Wayne
When I moved from NC-KY in 2010 I rented a 24' Budget truck with a diesel engine, although I didn't do the math right down to the nearest tenth of a mile and wasn't really shooting for best MPG since I wanted to get there in time to rest a few hours before having to unload. I averaged about 10 MPG with it fully loaded front to rear and top to bottom running speeds 55-70 MPH. This was nearly a new truck so had a more aerodynamic shaped cab than some of the older models.
My wife's ex's brother used to be a trucker. One of the problems for him slowing down was ridiculous deadlines. Large companies with advanced logistics will know exactly most profitable speed to travel, but an independent trying to get loads depends on the agency and they'll just keep squeezing. I'd expect that as diesel prices rise more of the slow freight will ship by rail leaving a higher proportion of loads on the road with shorter delivery times.
Yesterday in front of a store was an H2 Hummer ideling - not the one that was part of the Channel 11 Dallas story as that driver definitely hypermiles now. Question: Don't 18-wheelers also average 8-10 mpg like the H2? Of course the payload is 8-10 times the H2 so the efficiency of a PeterBuilt is waaay better.
I think you're right, brandon. Still, if you compare a Hummer that is *capable of* towing 8000 lb to a tractor that can tow 88,000 lb, it's 10 times the capability for twice the fuel. Way better.
We get about 10mpg towing a 3500lb boat with my dad's 5.7L Tundra. It's actually pretty incredible how efficient big rigs are in comparison.
Hi All: Big rigs in the US usually pull between 4.5 and 8 mpg depending on load, route and driver. Wayne
In our case, gas is quite a burden in terms of everyday use of our car compared to diesel. In my opinion diesel is a fuel efficient. Precisely, it satisfies most drivers nowadays because it is already turbocharged.
Diesel is highly economical in terms of fuel efficiency and engines last longer. Although, in terms of maintenance, diesel engines is more costly than gasoline engine.
Oh boy where do I start? My truck is upper-middle spec for its powertrain. 14.8l California certified Detroit Diesel, either 455 or 505hp rated depending on which sticker you believe. Seems to idle .4-.5gph. Not that bad. But idling is hard on diesels, and furthermore it supposedly affects the catalyst systems on these a lot. In practical terms, there are instances where I have to idle. I don't have an APU, or a battery-powered AC, so hot weather pretty much makes idling a necessary evil. If I don't cook while driving, I'll have to idle for the crock pot and inverter to have sufficient power to do its job. In battery-powered AC units, there's a spare bank of batteries which supply a LOT of spare AH, enough for both cooking and modest AC overnight. And although I don't have this problem, health is tightly regulated and sleep apnea is a prime concern, so a fairly large percentage of drivers roll with CPAP machines, yet another drain on power. Without an APU, it's hard to meet a lot of these situations without idle. Worse yet, CA emissions means that between 20*F and 70*F, the truck will automatically shut off its idle after 5 min unless manually overridden. It's merely annoying for me, but jeopardizes the aims of alleviating sleep apnea-related fatigue in drivers. It's legislation very much written by people who don't live this life. When you have to live in one of these for weeks at a time, it's a lot different than choosing to not idle your way through the drive-through. Speed wise, my company limits us to 60mph, recently changed to 63mph (though mine hasn't been reflashed yet). We don't have ridiculous deadlines, usually, but it's close enough that dipping down to 55 isn't a great option, particularly when it's projected over the miles we drive and the fact that unexpected delays are a fact of life.
