Yikes!

[kryten]

Henry Albert is the head guy in the Frieghtliner "slice of life" program for at least the last 10 years or so. I've been following his blogs for at least 1/2 of that time and in the time I've been following him he's on his third (?) truck so he doesn't keep them much past 3-400000 miles. This is his latest one and he's going over some of the aerodynamics and specs which should get some hot sauce comments from our forum leader. Engine is a DD15 set at 400 HP with 1700 ft/lb at 950 rpmhttp://rawze.com/forums/images/smilies/confused.gif. Diffs are 2.16 gears.

Yes this set up will get good fuel economy but I'd hate to be the second or third owner. How many of the steering wheel holders will be climbing an 8% grade at 950 rpm and 100% load? Wouldn't bet too much money on many of these engines getting to 1 million miles and still be able to be inframed properly.

[Chamberpains]

Wow!! This guy has been brainwashed so bad. He's right with having everything tucked away and smoothed out. Thats great, take time to do things like that. A lot of little adds up to a lot. We get that. But when you get tunnel vision and over focused doing this, any one from the outside looking at it objectively can see you have plastic crap, that he admits, gets ripped off. That costs a lot of $$ to replace and repair. That flexible bumper, I would bet, won't take a full on curb and a tight shippers parking lot. I see those wheel covers flopping around and out of balance on all those trucks. I've seen countless Schneider and Swift trucks with those in between wheel dam's and rear wheel dam's torn all to hell and bent up from simply dropping and hooking trailers. He probably runs a dedicated run so he'll never see a dip in a road or driveway hard enough to crush the top of the trailer to the back of the cab... But another guy may! Where's the warnings aboout what he's doing?

Oh yeah, 75,000 mile oil changes, WTF?!?! 950 rpm's pulling?!?! Just toss those engines in the scrap heep when they go to sell them.

Thanks for posting that. I had no idea that extended service mentality had gone that far. Detroit was just starting to say 30,000 mile oil changes were okay back in the early 2000's. Now they're obviously saying we don't want to see a million miles out of our engines anymore. We want half that so we can sell double!! I know definitively to stay away from used mega carrier trucks now. I used to be a fan because they weren't this far down the worm hole. But yeah, now I see why Rawze says stay away.

[Rawze]

I am glad this guy is giving advice to the mega-fleets and the brainwashed idiots out there. It lets the O/O's who know better be more competitive against these clowns, by not buying into this salesman's Alligator-preacher bullarky.


- It is very clear this is nothing but a targeted salesman garbage towards mega-fleets purchasing agents and nothing more. For those who can't see that, I feel sorry for them.

All I see the guy saying when I watched it was ...

* Don't change the oil often enough so you can save some money, just let the soot eat the internals to death. The soot-monster and suspended wear metals eating the engine up and carbon packing the rings won't effect you cuz your getting rid of it at 400k miles when the warranty runs out anyways. - Ii also noticed he interjected "based on 7+ mpg". I wonder if they read on an Internet forum somewhere you should change your oil based on fuel consumption? - I have been saying that for years to people.

* This particular truck is geared to lug the crap out of the engine, causing lots of internal friction and wear when loaded, but when your empty you can save some fuel cuz its geared too tall. - Who cares about when your loaded 80k and need to actually move anything of decent weight,... Were here to look good, not to do actual work. Its ok to beat that engine to death on the bottom end of its rpm range, your getting rid of it and trading it up once the warranty runs out for a new one before the engine gets trashed too much anyways.

* We had to modify the radiator and fan to get them closer because lugging the crap out of the engine all the time makes excess internal friction + oil run hot. We also had to modify the water pump to speed it up when luggung the crap out of the enigne, but slow it down when you go fast. We won't talk about the fact that the wet-liners can have more chance of cavitation whenw e slow down the coolant flow, that is for the next guy who purchased after it has been beat to death, then traded in it to worry about.

I.E.> We have perfected the ratio of abuse and accelerated wear vs save a tiny bit of money right now, just enough to get you past your warranty period. Let the next guy who owns it worry about having to undo all the damage, more parts sales for us.

* Get with the dealer and OEM so they can get you set up for milking the most money out of you that they can get. Make sure to add on all the extra rubber and plastic pieces That wiegh an extra few hundred pounds just in case you drive like a bat out of hell at 70+ mph speeds where they will start to make a difference while your sucking your fuel tanks dry at an accelerated rate. - We want you to save a few thousand bucks over the next 5 years in fuel, so that you can give twice as much of it back to us every time you have to replace that wheel-hugging side-skirt junk cuz they are always getting destroyed by road use, backing up on docks that have ramps, etc.

-- This guy is obviously NOT a truck owner, but simply an OEM trained salesman. Even so, Freightshaker trucks ARE one of the most aero trucks out there. Owning one is not a bad investment if it is used as a highway truck and not off roads. A lot of the garbage he was saying comes from his own sheer ignorance and brainwashed salesman's training. That particular setup he is bragging about though, I feel sorry for the poor bastards who have to haul any weight with that garbage. It does nothing but suck the bottom out of the fuel tank unnecessarily when loaded heavy to make torque in rpm ranges that will beat up on the internals like mad.

[kryten]

(10-07-2018 )Chamberpains Wrote:  Just toss those engines in the scrap heep when they go to sell them.

A little video about Volvo recycling trucks from 7 years ago. The truck in question has done 1 million km and is at "the end of it's service life. The engine is too worn and will be melted down". I consider 1 million km (~623k miles) just run in nice. But I guess that's what happens when you lug the crap out of an engine.

[kryten]

(10-07-2018 )Chamberpains Wrote:  I know definitively to stay away from used mega carrier trucks now.

Two or three years ago I was loading somewhere near Vancouver when a company day cab showed up to do a preload. He started asking strange questions for a company driver like what to look out for with the Volvo. Turns out he had just leased the truck on the never never. I remember I told him driving city he should change his oil a lot more frequently. He replied that when he asked maintenance about when oil change was due they told him he got lucky and it was just done so he was good for another 80000km. This in a truck that did city work, and before that most likely pulled turn pikes on the prairies, severe service in anyones book. So when someone asks about buying a used fleet truck the best advice I can give is run fast, run far.

[smorgan87]

Trading at 300k what do they care about longevity? It got great mpg while they had it and f$#@ the next guy that just bought himself ticking time bomb and will go bankrupt trying to keep it together.

[Explosia]

I have to chime I here, because I bought one of these long legged company trucks. I have a 2.64 rear with a 10 spd.

In 9th gear I can run 63 @ 1400. In 10th I can run 73 @ 1300. I get worse fuel mileage @ 63 then @ 73 when I’m light. When I run California I am in the 6’s, when I run 73 I’m around 7.5.

It is opposite when I’m heavy, if I run 73 It falls to the 6’s, and I get back in the 7’s going slower.

Last week I just ran Indiana to Vegas with 15000 lbs across 70 over the Rockies and Utah to 15 and @ 73 and averaged 7.9

In both situations I watch my boost, but this is a weird truck, it does not like to run @14-1500 rpm. I don’t lug it under 1300 but as for fuel mileage it likes to cruise at that rpm.

[bazdan902]

(10-09-2018 )Explosia Wrote:  I have to chime I here, because I bought one of these long legged company trucks. I have a 2.64 rear with a 10 spd.

In 9th gear I can run 63 @ 1400. In 10th I can run 73 @ 1300. I get worse fuel mileage @ 63 then @ 73 when I’m light. When I run California I am in the 6’s, when I run 73 I’m around 7.5.

It is opposite when I’m heavy, if I run 73 It falls to the 6’s, and I get back in the 7’s going slower.

Last week I just ran Indiana to Vegas with 15000 lbs across 70 over the Rockies and Utah to 15 and @ 73 and averaged 7.9

In both situations I watch my boost, but this is a weird truck, it does not like to run @14-1500 rpm. I don’t lug it under 1300 but as for fuel mileage it likes to cruise at that rpm.

Is it a 10spd direct transmission? If so my guess would be you are losing mileage in 9th gear as that transmission is much more efficient in top Gear. If it was geared so you could run 55-60+ish in top Gear you would be a lot better off, also a shorter ratio would help in the hills and you'd be doing this all in top Gear at a more efficient speed/rpm.

[kryten]

The latest wisdom (?) from Volvo. This is in the Oct 2018 Driver's Digest

"Lowering the engine’s peak torque to 900 RPM and the optimal engine speed at cruise to 950"

The whole article
https://www.volvotrucks.us/news-and-stor...ight-time/