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Old 02-15-2012, 05:54 AM   #11 (permalink)
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Highway Round Trip

Well, here's a bookend to this thread:

Had to make a run to Houston yesterday to buy an RV air-conditioner. Cost of freight on that item was high, and with no local deals worthwhile, I took advantage of being in a big metro area to source a few other things for truck & trailer along with a truck service not available to me elsewhere.

In trip-planning the roundtrip point-to-point was 407-miles. Additional miles was figured at 80 (dependent on locally sourced information this might be higher, potentially lower. In fact it was much higher). True cost was around $230 (cpm calc), of which $110 was out-of-pocket when food/misc is included. Freight "savings" was about $180, plus a labor expense of $40, so $$ is a wash, thus, "success" [break even] in a full day of working the truck as the aforementioned exclusive service was also done.

Filled up first time the night before and hit the road at 0430 to make the 0900 service appointment. Fog for over 100-miles made it a stressful dark-o-thirty drive with that 99% humidity and temps mainly in low 60's. Had to move at 65-mph to be on time for about half the distance.

Returned last night by 21:30. Engine run time was 11.25-hours for an average of 47-mph. Felt like I was never out of the truck over that 17-hours, but 5.75-hours says otherwise (truck drivers are allowed 11-hrs driving in a 14-hr workday). Minor crosswinds outbound & inbound with temps from low 60's to mid-70's for the most part. Truck was heavy with a lowered rake on the way back (full-timer "trunk junk" and had to load the 105# A/C unit and new 90# Class V hitch receiver; respectively, at the very back of the bed, and literally just beyond/below the crossmember = pendulum effect) and A/C was on most of the day.

Fuel burn was 26.8-mpg where 360-miles was country, and 170-miles was Houston metro ("town" miles). Went through [22] engine starts with [17] departures.

Filled second time at farthest point from home, and then again the third time a few miles prior to final shutdown. Nearly the same distance and nearly the same rate of consumption. Made a point of using SHELL diesel as some hotshotters claim better running & mpg versus the more usual VALERO diesel. Might be something to that. Used the last of a gallon of SCHAEFFER's #131, so the combo worked well. OFL and new fuel filter the past two weeks. Tire pressure at 55-psi all around.

This is the first trip of any distance out-of-town on this truck in 1.5-years.

Keeping shift points low is really working well. I was figuring fuel cost at 16-cpm but came in at .145 instead.

I have been working from the premise of 21/town and 24/country when driving for economy (hottest weather excepted) over the past couple of years. Now have seen that 23/town and 26/country while solo is possible (all other conditions basically favorable). The last 2k miles have averaged 23.8-mpg . . nice to see that extra 9%.

I now feel it safe to estimate country miles at 4-gls/100-miles solo for level terrain & mild climate. This is versus quite a few -- maybe most -- diesel pickups at 18-mpg/country and is worth just over $2000 every 10k/country at today's prices. More importantly it's a reduction of 550-gls to do the same work over the same miles.

(I'm a good ways away from new towing mpg figures, but if I extrapolate based on the type of solo improvements made in the past five years, I could see mpg going from 15+ to 17+. That's just barely beyond what others with my spec of rig are seeing -- 16-mpg high cited often -- so the potential is there as this would not be the high number for CTD/aero aluminum TT owners; or, 6-gls/100-miles [22-cpm at $3.79/gl].)


.


Last edited by slowmover; 02-15-2012 at 08:05 AM..
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Old 02-15-2012, 11:24 AM   #12 (permalink)
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Way to go, man. Keep on truckin'!
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Old 02-17-2012, 09:26 AM   #13 (permalink)
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Very nice. Good thread.
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Old 07-03-2012, 12:35 AM   #14 (permalink)
ron
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nice thread/read Ive been considering a rear end swap myself to improve mpg #s from 410s to 3.73s . I was worried about take off ,you guys dont seem to think its a problem with the higher gearing . But my 99CTD has an auto, do you think this gearing will kill my trans (may need an upgrade soon anyway) plan on pulling a 24ft viewfinder v-nose, so saving fuel is where its at
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Old 07-03-2012, 02:21 AM   #15 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ron View Post
nice thread/read Ive been considering a rear end swap myself to improve mpg #s from 410s to 3.73s . I was worried about take off ,you guys dont seem to think its a problem with the higher gearing . But my 99CTD has an auto, do you think this gearing will kill my trans (may need an upgrade soon anyway) plan on pulling a 24ft viewfinder v-nose, so saving fuel is where its at
3.73s won't kill your tranny. If you are going to go to the trouble of changing your gears, you might want to go to 3.54/3.55 (that still won't kill your tranny). Going from 4.10s to 3.73 isn't much of a change.
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Old 07-03-2012, 08:55 AM   #16 (permalink)
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I believe (but am not certain) that the CTD's are sold with identical transmissions regardless of the axle (4.10, 3.73, or 3.42). So I don't see how swaping one for the other would cause any tranny issues.
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BEST TANK: 2,009.6 mi on 35 gal (57.42 mpg): http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...5-a-26259.html


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Old 07-03-2012, 09:15 AM   #17 (permalink)
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thanks. Ill talk to my buddy he works a one of our local wrecking yards so ill have him look for a low mile unit and ill change the whole rear
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Old 11-07-2012, 08:34 AM   #18 (permalink)
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Update

I'm just about a year into my new life, post-divorce, where the truck has become the "garage" for tools/supplies/equipment. About 4-500/lbs of this will be removed once a new travel trailer is purchased, but some stuff in the current TT will be moved to the truck (truck bed specific toolboxes). Both vehicles will be undergoing changes, maintained, upgraded, etc., and the 130-c/f truck bed is where all this sort of thing is stored. My time to work on projects is limited, thus a place where the dirty stuff can go is a priority.

A recent set of scale weights showed:

Steer Axle: 4,100-lbs (4,750-lbs GAWR)
Drive Axle: 3,860-lbs (6,000-lbs GAWR)
Total: 7,960-lbs (9,000-lbs GVWR)

Individual wheel positions were also weighed, and the truck is within 40-lbs at all four corners.

The second set of OEM-spec MICHELIN LTX A/S tires -- with 11/32's of treadwear remaining at 68k miles -- failed on a highway trip at just over [5] years and were replaced under warranty with all-season MICHELIN LTX M/S2 tires. Same load spec range, and -- while also looked upon by MICHELIN as being "LRR" -- have shown a decrease in mpg (highway) of around 1-1.5/mpg. Still in first several thousand mile break-in period, though.

I expected to replace the A/S tires (closed shoulder, highway rib) with the M/S2 (or BRIDGESTONE Duravis m500) by the seventh year with all season type as the OEM tires were not so hot for wet or loose surface traction. An expected move north in 2014 means snow, and -- short of dedicated snow tires -- the mpg hit was already an acceptable trade-off. Another 2WD CTD owner in metro Denver reported good results with this tire. But I wasn't expecting to take a (retail) "hit" of $1,300 on tires this year. C'est la vie . . . .

With the new tires I'm using the DODGE numbers of 50-psi FF (all conditions) and splitting the difference of from 50 to 70-psi rear at 60-psi at present. After purchasing a new spare tire, I'll rotate more often (expecting shoulder wear on these tires the closed shoulder A/S didn't have) and look to find the "lowest" tire pressure I can run when solo (per CapriRacer the test of: after 1.5-hrs steady-state driving a pressure rise from cold to hot of no more than 10%) where DODGE numbers (projected at 15% load reserve above RMA) are in use.

Highway fuel economy has (at a lighter 7,350-lbs) not been below 24-mpg on level, near sea-level, Interstate higways, with highs of 27 (on a dead-stock truck) when at 58-mph (reference numbers).

Truck handling characteristics being what they are -- and tire wear being low by following DODGE guidelines -- the "supple" quality of proper load range tires via recommended pressure is a distinct aid to handling. Too high pressure in the rear, for example, exacerbates tail-out tendencies (and rollover propensity). That the first set of tires went 120k, and that the second set was on track to exceed 150k (by treadwear) bore out this pressure strategy for high miles + high fuel economy when using highway rib tires of the highest quality.

Trailer towing sort of comes down to RR tire traction (in a very rough understanding).

The load carried by the truck when towing (trailer tongue weight properly distributed; a 1,100-lb TW expected) will have new individual wheel weights taken, and the truck bed payload shifted around to reflect best compromise of FF/RR and Port/Starboard balance versus accessibility. Pressure readings will be regular as WD hitch adjustments (and scale readings) will be necessary to get the TT payload also "equalled" on all four tires (or six, depending on purchase). This may change the TW somewhat, so the truck will have a an expected small range of tire pressure changes to reflect load or conditions. (TT tires are kept at a constant sidewall maximum).

I've updated my Fuel Log, but it is not so detailed as I was topping off every week (hurricane season) and feeling under pressure during my limited time off (oilfield trucking). Looks as though my short trip (mainly to work and back, about 12-14 miles depending on route) is at 18.5/mpg to be conservative.

I've purchased a 120V 125-psi/3-GL CRAFTSMAN air compressor to keep up with my ten tires (truck & trailer; possibly twelve tires). Fast, fast, fast on pressure changes with all these 80-psi tires! I've recently run the FF tires to 55-psi to see how it "feels" overall. A higher quality 100-psi air pressure gauge will be added to the toolbox.

Other changes, below.

.

Last edited by slowmover; 11-07-2012 at 09:37 AM..
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Old 11-07-2012, 09:25 AM   #19 (permalink)
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Continued Update

My next day off will see me collecting a number of items for the truck which should have arrived at my mailbox. First among them is a new set of "Towing Mirrors". The "head" is considerably larger with slide-out versus flip-up positioning for towing.

First, a pic of the OEM Towing Mirrors (which are to be replaced):





And the replacement CIPA





The OEM towing mirrors are great when solo. And, I don't think too terrible at mpg (versus -- in the words of BigDave -- the human-infant sized FORD & CHEVY pieces. Or, baby-on-a-stick, ha!). Up, however, the DODGE pieces are probably not so "aero" . . . but the real problem is FOV (field-of-view).

One needs, at all times, to have the trailer rear bumper in view and then beyond. My rig has been at 63' of the state maximum 65' limit. So a rearview mirror which is tall can be adjusted to take in the entire side view of the TT with some adjustment for distance (one is always concerned about turns: potholes, ditches and other obstacles as the two vehicles do not track each other in turns, not even in highway curves). The OEM pieces are fine for keeping the TT in the lane or out of the bar ditch.

But not so much for relative points of comparison. They're narrow, and the FOV at a distance is diminished. Wider is wanted to know what is happening waaay back there. (Remember that one does not have an interior rear view mirror which otherwise serves this function . . the opposing sides of the trailer may as well be in different states).

I'm sorry to say that the majority of towed RV's one sees are handicapped by vehicles with poor mirrors (yes, the law addresses this, but not enough citations to raise awareness), and even more by drivers not accustomed to using them (include yourself, to be fair). Worst are the ones with stock mirrors -- who, because they can sorta see the ends of the trailer -- are actually blind to what is behind and around them. Check the mirrors that they have as you are behind/next to them, please. If you can't see them in their mirrors, they can't see you. Some won't ever see you just due to the component. (And as our economy continues it's inexorable retraction, expect that your fellow citizens will hang onto their upside-down mortgaged house until too late . . and mirrors on an overloaded trailer-towing family vehicle -- the Joads -- won't be addressed when there is no money for such. Be prudent about this already -present future as you roll the highways . . and I needn't mention hurricane evacuations, etc).

In for watching other traffic, especially in metro areas with several lanes and the usual brain-dead, jesus-phone-texting 'muricans barely cognizant of what is around them -- or, ahead of them -- there is, out there, the sad idea that being behind a big truck (or RV) is slow . . and that the solution is to get ahead of it (same lane). That this is dangerous never enters pea-sized brains. I see it daily in big trucks. (This includes drafting and less than four seconds of separation, EM'ers).

Thus a wider FOV, rearwards, yes. But the addition of a properly-sized convex spot mirror adds this (given only as example, ignore numbers):



The small convex mirrors trade depth for range. And the smaller that spot mirror, the worse it is.

When one is piloting a combination rig, the need to know not only what is behind one (as that is often the future) but what is next to one -- or what is about to be next to one -- is critical for best defensive driving. One may need to change lanes for any of a variety of reasons (choosing the path of least traffic resistance high among them).

FE while towing is about the least amount of driver input to maintain lane-centeredness under all circumstances. Predicting the future is part of that. Most RV accidents are written up to driver error. And the error is "loss-of-control" (doesn't matter who's at fault, either). Knowing what is around one (disciplined scanning) is basic: Smooth, error-free, no-wasted-motion driving is at the center of towing FE (subsequent to safest practice).

So I'll be experimenting with 5" or 8" convex spot mirrors on sliding mounts on those two arms. I've no idea past wood blocks carved to accommodate this plan thus far. And, looks like my FE will take a hit, but other changes are in store to help offset this.

.

Last edited by slowmover; 11-07-2012 at 09:56 AM..
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Old 11-07-2012, 09:31 AM   #20 (permalink)
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As always, safety above all else. I doubt the mirror difference will show above the "noise" of measurements.
If you like those CIPAs, I am sure you can get $150 for your OEMS back if you wish. I installed 3rd gen knockoffs on my truck and like them.

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