Quote:
Originally Posted by slowmover
Others (outside our group) made comments about it being a show truck. Hybrid technology, or some such speculation.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank Lee
You should tell 'em it's nukular.
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I was thinking exactly along the lines of Frank's thinking. Great minds think alike. Or is that drink, alike? Anyways slowmover, you should said nuclear like Frank suggested, or I would have went with nuclear fusion, gas turbine, or moose-piss powered.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BamZipPow
What sort of mileage and performance are you seeing? If I'd known you were passing through Houston....I would've drove and sat by the side of the road waiting... 
Any planned upcoming changes/improvements based on what yer seeing on the road? |
Next time I am heading to or through Houston, I can look you up BamZipPow.
As far as the number one question I get all day long, at truck stops, shippers, consignees, Border Patrol Agents, etc. the fuel mileage, I honestly don't have a clue. This is the second trip on the truck. The first one was 4000 miles. I was having trouble with my high-definition engine display that sits over the OEM "A" dash panel. The speedometer was wildly fluctuating. The day we left on the first trip, I removed my HD display after messing with the software and hardware for a week prior. I figured I would rely on that OEM dash panel for the speedometer. Well the OEM speedometer was reading 10 or less MPH at a GPS verified 55mph.
So while at the MATS show in Louisville, I replaced the transmission tail shaft speed sensor, which relates that speed to the engine ECM. It still did not work after changing that $100 sensor. So I drove the rest of the trip doing 55 GPS MPH. When home, I took it to the Cummins dealer and the put their INSITE ECM tool on it for an hour, found nothing, and charged me $127.50. So then I made an appointment at the local OEM dealer and they spent 4 hours diagnosing everything, replacing the "A" panel, checking the wiring, etc. This is after I already checked the continuity from the speed sensor to the ECM, which was good. Finally the dealer flashed the firmware on the PROM chip of the ECM and it worked. I finally had the speedometer and odomeeter working! And then I was double-pissed at the local Cummins as they did not update the ECM to the latest code. I did software for 10 years prior to this project, and the first thing you learn is up-date or re-install the software if it does not work. The firmware that the OEM before it was updated was 10 years, and 14 revisions old!
But wait, there's more. After sitting at home a few days to get a load out, we grabbed that load going to Brownsville. And, sun-of-a-gun, the speedometer and odometer stopped working again. Well, not exactly stopped. Here's the weird part. When we left home on this trip, at 55 GPS MPH the speedometer said 10 MPH, and has since been diminishing just like last trip to 1 MPH at 55 MPH. I am outside of Columbus, Ohio right waiting to load-out. If we don't get anything in the next couple of hours, I'll just drive to Cummins headquarters in Columbus, IN and have them fix it. I know them there and they are expecting me. Hopefully, if the problem is a bum ECM, they will just replace it for me as a new one at the dealer is $1600.
When we took the empty trailer to the Louisville show last month, the fuel gauge was dead-nuts at 1/2 a tank, which is exactly 150 gallons. It cost $1300 to fill this thing up by the way, so I don't want to hear anyone with an SUV whining about a $75 fill up. By the time we got to the show 858 miles later, the gauge was still 2 widths of the needle above 1/4 tank. If one assumes we used 70 gallons of fuel to go 858 miles, we got 12.2 MPG. If one assumes the 60 gallons, we got 14.3. Remember, we had an empty trailer, and I only do 1225 RPM all day long with the Cummins at 55 MPH. But these calculations may be off by a ton. Like they say, your mileage may vary.