AirFlow BulletTruck Project (aerodynamic, modified Class 8 transport doubles MPG)

[slowmover]

Originally Posted by Shepherd777

That was us slowmover. We delivered yesterday in Brownsville, and picked up a load of Sony products in Laredo this morning. We are currently north of Austin after a one hour traffic jam having a dinner break. We are trying to get past Big D traffic towards Texarkana. Delivering in Ohio on Friday morning.

I have a CB radio, but I never have it on as most of the truck drivers are not as "enlightened" as you are. If I had it on, we could have met there in Houston.

Anyone have anything good to say on the CB???

I was in a group of four from one company and the length of the nose was fodder for comment. We run limited offroad for the oilfield, so the low ground clearance, long nose and the need for maneuvering room were the basis for comparison chatter. Others (outside our group) made comments about it being a show truck. Hybrid technology, or some such speculation.

[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?

[Frank Lee]

Others (outside our group) made comments about it being a show truck. Hybrid technology, or some such speculation.

You should tell 'em it's nukular.

[big shafe]

When/where in Ohio tomorrow?

[Shepherd777]

Originally Posted by slowmover

Others (outside our group) made comments about it being a show truck. Hybrid technology, or some such speculation.

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

You should tell 'em it's nukular.

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.

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.

[mcrews]

nuclear fusion, gas turbine, or moose-piss powered.

I vote for moose-piss!!!!!!!!

[slowmover]

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.

Awesome!! Just hitting double digit at slow speed bobtailing was impressive enough. But with a trailer . . . . !!

On the job I tend to drive 300-miles/day at a rate of about $270/fuel. A truly long day can see a $640 fillup.

.

[Shepherd777]

We spent the whole day with all the nice folks at the Cummins Technical Center in Columbus, IN.

The large bay that we were in had a warning sign on the door that read:
"No Unauthorized Admittance.
Customer Engineering.
OEM Classified Vehicles Present"

I was like a kid in a candy store. If I only had all their tools and equipment!

A lot of the new fuel economy stuff they are working on is re-cycling exhaust heat into power.

They confirmed that the speedometer/odometer problem on the BulletTruck is a bum ECM. But it's not as easy as taking a new one of the shelf and installing it, because it is an EPA regulated item. But they are working on a resolution for me.

[Shepherd777]

Cummins finally shipped me the new pre-programmed ECM, and I installed it last week. It works great.

We loaded in Connecticut last Wednesday night, delivered in Tracy, California yesterday, and Hillsboro, Oregon this morning.

We hit 35mph 3/4 headwinds all the way through Wyoming, and 40mph crosswinds through Utah. And then there was that rocky-mountain-thingy part. So the mpg went down a little.

But we still went coast to coast at 13.4 mpg.

Here are a couple of pics. The first one here is just like it says. From Gary, Indiana to Cheyenne, Wyoming. As you can see from the center top box, we are moving at 55mph.

I usually know how to spell Cheyenne when I'm not that sleepy.



Upper left corner is time. 3:04 in the afternoon.

We are doing 14.2 instant mpg at 17% engine load which means we are climbing. Level straight no-grade we would be doing 10% engine load and 17.5-18mpg.

The three numbers on the lower right mean 950.5 miles since I re-set the readout in Gary, Indiana. We used 67.4 gallons of fuel. Which came out to 14.1 mpg. We also averaged 14.1 from Connecticut to Gary.

Here is right after we got unloaded in Tracy, CA. I took this pic while still backed into the loading dock. As you can see, we went 3043.0 miles coast to coast. The lower right
2117.9 miles is the distance to where I re-set the display in Gary, IN. So for that 2117.9 miles we used 157.8 gallons of diesel fuel for 13.4 mpg.



Sorry for the poor quality of this pic. I have no idea what the white spots on the bottom of the display panel are. Dust reflections??

National average for Class 8 trucks is currently 6.5 mpg.

skyking - We're down at Jubitz in Portland, but I'm not sure which way we are going from here. If we do head up to Seattle, I'll let you know beforehand, if I have the time.

[JethroBodine]

Glad to see things moving along. Great numbers! Most guys we see are happy to get into the 7s.