Originally Posted By: TiredTrucker
True, getting a couple more mpg is always a good thing, regardless of how the OEM got the vehicle there. But pickup mpg's, diesel or gas, is downright disgusting. Recent testing of some heavy commercial semi trucks, loaded to around 70,000 lbs gross, are finally busting the ceiling of 10 mpg. The lighter pickups, especially something made of aluminum, should be easily busting 30 mpg any day of the week. I know one semi truck owner, that Freightliner got ahold of him and had him run a test of a new Cascadia EVO semi truck from California to N. Carolina, grossing 72,000 lb, and he busted the 10 mpg ceiling for the entire trip. You can't even get a 3/4 ton pickup with a 5th wheel camper to hardly bust 20 mpg on a trip, and that combination is barely 1/4 the weight to the semi truck loaded. The pickup, fully loaded to max GCVR should be getting over double the mpg of the semi truck at the worse. At least 3 times better mpg than the semi on a normal day. Instead, they can hardly get out of the teen's for mpg. That is criminal.
So do semi's have much less stringent emissions than a pickup? I suppose a big 5th wheel RV trailer behind a pickup has nearly the aero drag as a semi truck which would explain a lot of its fuel usage. The ecodiesel in the Ram seems to be pretty good though, and if they made a 4cyl version it would help more if it was driven properly.
As well I guess there's economies of scale in moving freight, a 300 car diesel train makes a semi truck seem terribly inefficient, and a oil tanker makes the train seem inefficient again...
True, getting a couple more mpg is always a good thing, regardless of how the OEM got the vehicle there. But pickup mpg's, diesel or gas, is downright disgusting. Recent testing of some heavy commercial semi trucks, loaded to around 70,000 lbs gross, are finally busting the ceiling of 10 mpg. The lighter pickups, especially something made of aluminum, should be easily busting 30 mpg any day of the week. I know one semi truck owner, that Freightliner got ahold of him and had him run a test of a new Cascadia EVO semi truck from California to N. Carolina, grossing 72,000 lb, and he busted the 10 mpg ceiling for the entire trip. You can't even get a 3/4 ton pickup with a 5th wheel camper to hardly bust 20 mpg on a trip, and that combination is barely 1/4 the weight to the semi truck loaded. The pickup, fully loaded to max GCVR should be getting over double the mpg of the semi truck at the worse. At least 3 times better mpg than the semi on a normal day. Instead, they can hardly get out of the teen's for mpg. That is criminal.
So do semi's have much less stringent emissions than a pickup? I suppose a big 5th wheel RV trailer behind a pickup has nearly the aero drag as a semi truck which would explain a lot of its fuel usage. The ecodiesel in the Ram seems to be pretty good though, and if they made a 4cyl version it would help more if it was driven properly.
As well I guess there's economies of scale in moving freight, a 300 car diesel train makes a semi truck seem terribly inefficient, and a oil tanker makes the train seem inefficient again...
