Originally Posted By: A_Harman
Originally Posted By: dustyroads
Originally Posted By: A_Harman
The speed limit in South Dakota is 80 mph, and I felt like an idiot running 65, with all of the big rigs blowing by me at 75.
Don't worry about it, I don't. I only feel like an idiot when I'm keeping up with the "four wheelers" (cars/pickups, etc). I do occasionally haul production loads where a product is ordered and then shipped as "just in time" (JIT), and being late to the delivery could mean a plant/factory shut down (to some extent, anyway). When hauling those loads, I sometimes go with the flow to make good time but I don't like it. The vast majority of the time is spent cruising at an efficient speed (62-67 mph works very well for my Freightliner) and I don't care what others think. Last summer, I briefly got up to 80 mph in west Texas. I only wanted to see the instantaneous fuel economy at that speed. Besides the fact that heavy truck tires are only rated for 75 mph (sustained), I was not comfortable at 80 mph. After just a minute or so, I dropped back to my usual speed. The mpg was reading in the 4's at 80 mph, which is not good for my business. Besides fuel cost, speed decreases tire life and tires are not cheap.
About the oil...you are really piling up the miles. Has oil consumption gotten worse now compared to when you started working the truck? Thanks for the continuing UOA posts.
Oil consumption has been steady at 1 quart per 4000 miles since I started last December. I've put 100k miles on the truck in 10 months, even though I had 3 slow months in April, May, and June due to transmission problems. I'll very likely turn over 400k this week on the odometer. I have talked to other RV haulers, and they put on a lot of miles. I talked to one guy with an 8-year-old Cummins Dodge that had 930k miles on it. The truck looked like a reasonably used 8-year-old truck should look. I'm hoping I can get to 600k before having to rebuild the engine. Even though I am towing a lot, I believe I am working the truck pretty easy. I won't hook to a trailer that exceeds the rated towing capacity or tongue loads. And since I rarely get a backhaul, I'm always running deadhead back to the home terminal. (If I could get more backhauls, then I wouldn't have to run 10,000 miles a month, and my back and behind wouldn't be so sore all the time!)
Funny that you mention wind. I just ran to Colorado, and encountered a 2-day windstorm in Nebraska. What a drag. Sustained northerly winds of 30+ mph with gusts over 50. My company says to stop if sustained winds are above 25-30 mph. So I stopped on Thursday and waited 8 hours, and the wind never did slow down, even though my weather app said it would. Friday morning, the wind was still 27 mph, but I got out there and ran 60-62 mph until I got out of the heavy winds, then I kicked up the speed. Once I got into Colorado, things were back to normal, and the run was as nice as I had been expecting.
I've talked to guys hauling freight with HD pickups pulling flat beds around Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. They do get many miles out of their pickups. Some that I saw were around half a million miles despite running somewhat heavy.
Is it just the way a HD pickup rides that hurts your back...or maybe just need a better seat? I think it would be impossible for me to spend that much time in my pickup truck. The seats in most vehicles can't match the comfort of the seats in heavy trucks. I'm not talking about the air-ride part, I leave the air out but the seats are just nice.
Originally Posted By: dustyroads
Originally Posted By: A_Harman
The speed limit in South Dakota is 80 mph, and I felt like an idiot running 65, with all of the big rigs blowing by me at 75.
Don't worry about it, I don't. I only feel like an idiot when I'm keeping up with the "four wheelers" (cars/pickups, etc). I do occasionally haul production loads where a product is ordered and then shipped as "just in time" (JIT), and being late to the delivery could mean a plant/factory shut down (to some extent, anyway). When hauling those loads, I sometimes go with the flow to make good time but I don't like it. The vast majority of the time is spent cruising at an efficient speed (62-67 mph works very well for my Freightliner) and I don't care what others think. Last summer, I briefly got up to 80 mph in west Texas. I only wanted to see the instantaneous fuel economy at that speed. Besides the fact that heavy truck tires are only rated for 75 mph (sustained), I was not comfortable at 80 mph. After just a minute or so, I dropped back to my usual speed. The mpg was reading in the 4's at 80 mph, which is not good for my business. Besides fuel cost, speed decreases tire life and tires are not cheap.
About the oil...you are really piling up the miles. Has oil consumption gotten worse now compared to when you started working the truck? Thanks for the continuing UOA posts.
Oil consumption has been steady at 1 quart per 4000 miles since I started last December. I've put 100k miles on the truck in 10 months, even though I had 3 slow months in April, May, and June due to transmission problems. I'll very likely turn over 400k this week on the odometer. I have talked to other RV haulers, and they put on a lot of miles. I talked to one guy with an 8-year-old Cummins Dodge that had 930k miles on it. The truck looked like a reasonably used 8-year-old truck should look. I'm hoping I can get to 600k before having to rebuild the engine. Even though I am towing a lot, I believe I am working the truck pretty easy. I won't hook to a trailer that exceeds the rated towing capacity or tongue loads. And since I rarely get a backhaul, I'm always running deadhead back to the home terminal. (If I could get more backhauls, then I wouldn't have to run 10,000 miles a month, and my back and behind wouldn't be so sore all the time!)
Funny that you mention wind. I just ran to Colorado, and encountered a 2-day windstorm in Nebraska. What a drag. Sustained northerly winds of 30+ mph with gusts over 50. My company says to stop if sustained winds are above 25-30 mph. So I stopped on Thursday and waited 8 hours, and the wind never did slow down, even though my weather app said it would. Friday morning, the wind was still 27 mph, but I got out there and ran 60-62 mph until I got out of the heavy winds, then I kicked up the speed. Once I got into Colorado, things were back to normal, and the run was as nice as I had been expecting.
I've talked to guys hauling freight with HD pickups pulling flat beds around Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. They do get many miles out of their pickups. Some that I saw were around half a million miles despite running somewhat heavy.
Is it just the way a HD pickup rides that hurts your back...or maybe just need a better seat? I think it would be impossible for me to spend that much time in my pickup truck. The seats in most vehicles can't match the comfort of the seats in heavy trucks. I'm not talking about the air-ride part, I leave the air out but the seats are just nice.
