Fuel mileage

[the missing link]

(10-08-2019 )DDlighttruck Wrote:  

(10-08-2019 )Chamberpains Wrote:  When pulling hills, its more important to keep your RPMs up. So keeping boost down at 10 isn't gonna happen.

When you down shift, you should see a spike in boost to somewhere a little over 20 psi. Then it's up to you to do the dance of pulling the hill and yet trying to keep boost as low as possible. I can keep mine under 15 pretty quick after the initial downshift spike. But it takes some serious discipline. And I downshift a lot till i find the gear that keeps my RPMs above 1500 and gets my boost at around 15 psi. I also monitor my tps reading and I can now say I can pull every mountain in the states by using no more than 60 tps or 3/5ths of the pedal and never pushing it any further. This is done with full 80000# gross using a Cummins cm870 450hp Uni-tune, 10 speed, 3.55 rears. I actually have very little need to use more throttle pedal. Except on the occasional short on ramp in heavy traffic. My fuel mileage is in the mid 7's and im just now starting to see 8's after I replaced my transmission and exploded pilot bearing.

I’m a relatively new driver, but I’m used to the “hurry up and deliver so you can turn around and grab the next one” type trucking, or the “leave on Thursday and deliver 1000 miles away Friday morning” type of trucking

I pulled a 715 mile day a couple weeks ago limited to 62 mph (by my choice). So it’s still doable to make miles, it just takes keeping the left door shut.

I swear dispatch thinks I can pull triple digits which is another subject altogether

I’ll keep working on it, thank you.

There is no magic number ,at least not for me .
Some days I win,some days is a huge lose .
Depends on wind ,hills and 100 other things .
What I look at is if I can save .5 or 1 maybe more it's always a win .
Believe me there are days where I can run full power and never hit 65 or 60 mph .
Plain and simple do what you can when you can ....



I am really liking the star car .
She's a heavy duty girl but only 1000 lbs heavier then the 9900 .
Although to be far I really liked my old donky (9900) .
If ever truck I had did as well as that one I would be really happy .

[Rawze]

(10-08-2019 )DDlighttruck Wrote:  ..
I’m a relatively new driver, but I’m used to the “hurry up and deliver so you can turn around and grab the next one” type trucking, or the “leave on Thursday and deliver 1000 miles away Friday morning” type of trucking

I pulled a 715 mile day a couple weeks ago limited to 62 mph (by my choice). So it’s still doable to make miles, it just takes keeping the left door shut.

I swear dispatch thinks I can pull triple digits which is another subject altogether

I’ll keep working on it, thank you.

you have described about every bad habbit that kills your long term revenue. you are being taken advantage of .. and if you do not figure out how to refuse fuel mileage killing and illegal loads, then you will never have anything much to show for all your extra efforts.

- I refuse any load that requires more than about 600 miles in one "LEGAL" driving shift per driver, per day, or that has to average more than 50 mph driving time. THE INDUSTRY STANDARD FOR DRY/REEFER FREIGHT IS 50 MPH EXPECTED AVERAGE FROM PICK-UP TO DELIVERY FOR A DAMN GOOD REASON!. We try to negotiate a 48 mph average or pick-up early as much as possible so that we can get extra profit by slowing down even more. <- there is no more profit in anything more than ~600 miles-ish, or faster than 50~ish avg. All you end up doing is working your equipment and yourself much harder for the same pay at the end of the month, quarter, and year. You will have nothing but lower pay at the end of it all because of those extra 700+ mile per shift loads, backwards thinking about trying to get more miles, etc. because it will lead to wasted fuel mileage, and a lot more down time beating the hell out of what you got, and truck problems and maintenance are amplified greatly. -> Tell your dispatch to go stuff themselves and find some other ignorant bas#tard to do those kinds of things.

As far as keeping it moving and the door shut -- that should be the norm, not the exception. - if i pulled off for 20 min to take an extra pee and a coffee and get back onto the highways,.. I would loose $300 in revenue/lost fuel mileage because of having to speed the hell up to make up the time. -- 20 minutes IS NOT WORTH $300 in my book!, so once I leave out with a load, I keep the damn thing rolling steady and slow unless it is an emergency.

[DDlighttruck]

(10-09-2019 )Rawze Wrote:  

(10-08-2019 )DDlighttruck Wrote:  ..
I’m a relatively new driver, but I’m used to the “hurry up and deliver so you can turn around and grab the next one” type trucking, or the “leave on Thursday and deliver 1000 miles away Friday morning” type of trucking

I pulled a 715 mile day a couple weeks ago limited to 62 mph (by my choice). So it’s still doable to make miles, it just takes keeping the left door shut.

I swear dispatch thinks I can pull triple digits which is another subject altogether

I’ll keep working on it, thank you.

you have described about every bad habbit that kills your long term revenue. you are being taken advantage of .. and if you do not figure out how to refuse fuel mileage killing and illegal loads, then you will never have anything much to show for all your extra efforts.

- I refuse any load that requires more than about 600 miles in one "LEGAL" driving shift per driver, per day, or that has to average more than 50 mph driving time. THE INDUSTRY STANDARD FOR DRY/REEFER FREIGHT IS 50 MPH EXPECTED AVERAGE FROM PICK-UP TO DELIVERY FOR A DAMN GOOD REASON!. We try to negotiate a 48 mph average or pick-up early as much as possible so that we can get extra profit by slowing down even more. <- there is no more profit in anything more than ~600 miles-ish, or faster than 50~ish avg. All you end up doing is working your equipment and yourself much harder for the same pay at the end of the month, quarter, and year. You will have nothing but lower pay at the end of it all because of those extra 700+ mile per shift loads, backwards thinking about trying to get more miles, etc. because it will lead to wasted fuel mileage, and a lot more down time beating the hell out of what you got, and truck problems and maintenance are amplified greatly. -> Tell your dispatch to go stuff themselves and find some other ignorant bas#tard to do those kinds of things.

Wait a minute, please. 715 divided by 12 is 59-ish, or 59-ish mph average. I thought the 55-60 mph was the area to aim for? I know it was a long day but I thought running slower was the goal here

600 divided by 50 is 12, you cant log that legal in the USA. You’d have to shoot for a 55 mph average per driving shift to get your 11 hour drive time, which is hard to max out every day.

You can’t tell me (well, you can and will) that there’s THAT much difference between a 11 hour 55 mph driving shift for 600 miles and a 12 hour 700 mile driving shift for 59 mph average.

How do you expect to hit 600 miles per shift at a 50 mph average?

[DDlighttruck]

(10-08-2019 )the missing link Wrote:  

(10-08-2019 )DDlighttruck Wrote:  

(10-08-2019 )Chamberpains Wrote:  When pulling hills, its more important to keep your RPMs up. So keeping boost down at 10 isn't gonna happen.

When you down shift, you should see a spike in boost to somewhere a little over 20 psi. Then it's up to you to do the dance of pulling the hill and yet trying to keep boost as low as possible. I can keep mine under 15 pretty quick after the initial downshift spike. But it takes some serious discipline. And I downshift a lot till i find the gear that keeps my RPMs above 1500 and gets my boost at around 15 psi. I also monitor my tps reading and I can now say I can pull every mountain in the states by using no more than 60 tps or 3/5ths of the pedal and never pushing it any further. This is done with full 80000# gross using a Cummins cm870 450hp Uni-tune, 10 speed, 3.55 rears. I actually have very little need to use more throttle pedal. Except on the occasional short on ramp in heavy traffic. My fuel mileage is in the mid 7's and im just now starting to see 8's after I replaced my transmission and exploded pilot bearing.

I’m a relatively new driver, but I’m used to the “hurry up and deliver so you can turn around and grab the next one” type trucking, or the “leave on Thursday and deliver 1000 miles away Friday morning” type of trucking

I pulled a 715 mile day a couple weeks ago limited to 62 mph (by my choice). So it’s still doable to make miles, it just takes keeping the left door shut.

I swear dispatch thinks I can pull triple digits which is another subject altogether

I’ll keep working on it, thank you.

There is no magic number ,at least not for me .
Some days I win,some days is a huge lose .
Depends on wind ,hills and 100 other things .
What I look at is if I can save .5 or 1 maybe more it's always a win .
Believe me there are days where I can run full power and never hit 65 or 60 mph .
Plain and simple do what you can when you can ....



I am really liking the star car .
She's a heavy duty girl but only 1000 lbs heavier then the 9900 .
Although to be far I really liked my old donky (9900) .
If ever truck I had did as well as that one I would be really happy .

The biggest thing I like about my ride is if she’s running, she’ll get you home. 1000 miles or 1 mile, it doesn’t matter. Oh, there’s hiccups to be sure, but once I got the wrinkles ironed out she’s never left me stranded now for a couple years.

I don’t know if all 9900s are heavy but I’m usually 33-36,000 empty hooked to a trailer, full tanks. Maybe an all aluminum flat might get me down to 32,000

How are you liking the cross border racket?

[bazdan902]

Once you get used to it I find it quite relaxing to drive slow. And you'll feel like your abusing your truck when you drive fast or use anymore then 20psi of boost. Even when I do speed up I back off in the hills using 20psi max. Let it roll where it's not working much.

[the missing link]

I like this line of work and running south.
The 9900 might be little heavier then the light wieghts but what I liked about mine is it would do anything and go anywhere.
I do not like it if I have to push my truck any harder then I have to. It so much more stressful and beats the crap out of everything.
Give me call sometime if you want and still have my number .

[Rawze]

(10-09-2019 )DDlighttruck Wrote:  ...
Wait a minute, please. 715 divided by 12 is 59-ish, or 59-ish mph average. I thought the 55-60 mph was the area to aim for? I know it was a long day but I thought running slower was the goal here

600 divided by 50 is 12, you cant log that legal in the USA. You’d have to shoot for a 55 mph average per driving shift to get your 11 hour drive time, which is hard to max out every day.

You can’t tell me (well, you can and will) that there’s THAT much difference between a 11 hour 55 mph driving shift for 600 miles and a 12 hour 700 mile driving shift for 59 mph average.

How do you expect to hit 600 miles per shift at a 50 mph average?

That is some seriously flawed math there. Go convince some dumb-arsses on social medai with that garbage-can thinking, it does not belong here!!!


600 miles total (from pick up to delivery) = one driving shift only!. == Is easily doable in a single 11 hours if you keep the damn door shut and don't stop (minus the 30 min required break)!. U drive it 58-63~ish and your overall average is going to be around 54~!ish usually. - At a bare minimum speed most of the trip, u need to go about 8~9ish+ mph (that is really squeezing it and is hard to do) over the required average to hit the overall trip avg. within one single driving shift. That is how u get 8+ mpg!.

Much more than about 600~ish miles in a single trip kills most of this (because u have to speed up even more) and starts to cost more money, not less to make a delivery on time!. By the time a person gets to having to do more than about 650 miles pick up to delivery, and doing it in one shift, - a large portion of the fuel mileage saving is out the window because the truck has to be driven much faster (65-68 mph) and the fuel mileage is down in the mid to low 7's or perhaps even less if u got a truck or load that is not very aero-dynamic.

GET A GODDAMN GPS THAT HAS OVERALL TRIP AVERAGE ON IT!!! -- ONE THAT THE AVERAGE DROPS AND DROPS THE WHOLE TIME YOU ARE STOPPED OR ARE SLOWED DOWN, AND DOES NOT PAUSE THE AVERAGE WHILE YOU ARE NOT MOVING (not all gps's can do this, many are garbage when it comes to average speed calc.) AND YOU WILL FIND OUT THAT AVERAGE SPEED CANNOT BE YOUR DRIVING SPEED === U ALWAYS HAVE TO DRIVE SOME AMOUNT FASTER THAN YOUR AVERAGE TO MAKE THE TOTAL TRIP AVERAGE!!!!!

-- HOW MUCH FASTER == HOW MUCH YOU HAVE WASTED BY STOPPING OR GETTING ON/OFF HIGHWAYS, ETC!.

-- Loads that are more than one driving shift, need to overall average 50 mph drive time, and 48 if u can pick it up early or negotiate a bit on the time so that you can get higher profit from it ( minus required 10 hr breaks if solo) from pick up to delivery. -- and a person will do good to get make the average by driving it about 10-11 mph over that if they don't stop at all between shifts, and minimize their delays getting on and off the freeways. The avg needs to be 50 (and not 54-55+) because of the multiple on/off freeways and stopping, etc. kills the overall average more than a single shift load will. - a multi-shift trip, if u drive it 60~ish down the highways u will usually make it on time AND EVEN A BIT LESS IF YOUR REALLY GOOD at minimizing start/stop requirements, like parking or driver changes at rest areas with fast access to highways instead of those goddamn truck stops that kill 20+ minutes of driving at speed or more by the time u go from highway speeds, get in and out, then back to highway speed again. - I avoid the truck stops like the plague when under load. - They are no place for a loaded truck unless your running out of fuel, or required to be used because there is nothing else quicker (rest area, an entrance ramp, etc.) around at all!.

Someone claiming there is little to no difference in 700+ in one 11-hour shift is complete lunacy!!!! -- even if u squeeze your stop time to a bare minimum, u will still have to drive that truck a goddamn 71 MPH the whole time to make it in 11 hours! -- you will kill that truck, kill your fuel mileage and all your profit will go to every repair shop you have to stop at and you will also be funding the already rich oil companies for all your stupidity!...

here's your sign!@!!


- enjoy the view!!! --- all the fuel mileage wasted because you take s$it loads that are nothing but fuel and truck killers all goes to these guys!!!

-- You had better damned believe that I can get into just about anyone's truck and get a mile peer gallon better that they do most days on the same goddamn load, the same goddamn trip, because most truck owners and drivers have really crappy driving and shifting habits, use the cruise control way too damn much out of sheer lazyness, they dpn't keep the tranny in neutral and coasting that weight nearly enough, poor planning of stops, shi$itty attitude about how fast or they push that equipment, changnine lanes and passing people instead of letting the truck slow down, then making it up later, and the sheer dumbarsse-ness of stopping at the nearest set of shiny trick stops with terrible on-off-on highway speed killing delays while under load!.

You want a pay raise --- LEARN HOW TO DIVE THAT THING LIKE RAWZE WOULD!!!!!

The same social medai idiots who think it is impossible to get 9+ mpg on an 80,000 lb reefer or dry-van load are the same blind fools who complain that a few more miles in a single shift don't make much of a difference!.

When a person OWNS THEIR OWN EQUIPMENT -- THE GOAL IS TO work and drive it the least amount of miles possible for a given required minimum speed, as slow as possible during the trip, get away with as early pick as possible, and as late a delivery as possible for a given load, and to lower their driving speed as tight as possible to the required minimum average trip speed to get it there. Piss away any of those things and your pissing away profits at your own stupidity!.

[DDlighttruck]

There is NO DIFFERENCE in running a 600 mile day, in one driving shift of 11 hours, and a 700 mile day, in one driving shift of 13 hours. I can’t go back far enough to view the log book day, it was around 12.5 hours drive time for the day. I rounded down for easier math.

The ONLY difference is the extra two hours drive time, which gets you the extra hundred miles down the road.

My radar detector shows top speed at 63 mph, on tall rubber. I’m on short rubber now

I never once said I pulled a 700 mile shift in 11 hours of driving. 715 miles in about 12.5 hours drive time, driving EXACTLY like you’re describing, 55-63 mph, gearing down for hills, watching the boost gauge, no cruise, keeping the door shut all of that. I stopped once in 12.5 hours to get fuel and eat.

Why on earth would you count break time in drive time? Drive time is drive time

And no, I refuse to buy a truck gps. I had one in a company ride once that kept squawking at me for driving on no truck routes. I couldn’t shut the damn thing off fast enough.

[MageRoyal]

last i checked, it was only legal to drive 11 hours a day.