X15 questions

[Camstyn]

Thanks for the well written response. I do need to clarify a few things just to help understand the requirements of my work and what you can and cannot get away with.

. My linehaul route is 625 miles per night, 5 nights per week, with eight warehouse stops en route. It’s in the south central interior of BC, so terrain is much like western Colorado. Every night includes crossing six mountain passes, seven brake checks, etc etc. It’s a lot of steep up and down and extremely twisty secondary highways. It’s nothing like interstate driving.

Due to this, there’s a fine line between driving for fuel economy and being able to complete your trips legally. You also need to run aggressive traction tires with a lot of siping, and a truck with 4 way lockers. You can’t skimp here and spec for efficiency.

Having a set back front axle comes with the penalty of eating up steer tires on these twisty roads, too. I go through a set every 90,000 miles on my 389. They had to get changed every 55-60 on my 579. This is using Michelin XZE2’s, which last way longer than anything else I’ve tried.

I also have to run a moose bumper on my truck. In 11 years I’ve hit at least 50 deer and 2 elk on this route. It’s unavoidable, I’ve probably had more run into the side of the truck than I’ve caught with the front. So there’s another strike against an aero front end, an aero truck with a moose bumper is still better than a 389 but it has to close the gap a little.

My business model is to rotate a new truck every 2.5 - 3 years, with resale value and less headaches/repairs and everything is under warranty. Selling this truck with 400,000 miles on it I will get $50,000 more for it than an aero truck, that’s just the way the local market seems to be here. The truck gets well maintained but I’d like to see it gone before the aftertreatment issues start to cause headaches. I’m not interested in playing mechanic, I have a pretty good work/life balance and I’m not willing to give that up. I want to deal with as little truck stuff as possible on my days off.

With all that being said, my four year long aero truck experiment was a flop. Any minimal fuel savings I experienced were only a small fraction of the money I lost in resale value. In a nutshell, that’s why I’m back to driving a truck shaped like a brick again this time around. I really don’t see 9mpg being possible. I’d love to be proven wrong. If I could spec a truck that would average 7.5+ however, I would not even consider resale value.

With all that being said, driving that day cab for one trip was an eye opener. After my 579 experience I didn’t think I was missing out on much by driving these bricks. I’m leaving money on the table. I’d love to spec a 7.5 - 8mpg truck. I don’t care about driving a “large car” I’m only doing it because from a business standpoint it’s more profitable than my 579 was.

I’m not making excuses, getting defensive or being argumentative, I appreciate the non candy-coated advise. Just wanted to explain how I got here.