I bought and installed MB tractor bearings back in April of this year. I am very comfortable in saying my MPG improved a minimum of 3/10 consistantly since then. In May I went ahead and ordered them for my trailer also. When I received them at the end of May inside was an installation guide. I asked my mechanic and the local shops if they would install them as per the guide, they all basicly told me they know how install bearings and I wasn't comfortable any of them were going to do it the way I had asked. I called Craig about also doing my transmission and rear ends, just to get some pricing and how to go about doing that when the time comes. We got to talking about the trailer bearings and he referred me to get them put in at charlotte truck centre. They referred me over to Race City Diesel in Mooresville NC to install them. This last run I did I went right through there and made an appointment. They were installed Friday June 1. Craig himself came over to RCD to set the end play exactly as it should be. Mine were set to ABOUT 0.006". I say about because when the new wheel seal is installed it gets compressed, making it up for debate as to where zero end play truly is. Craig can explain this better than I can. The guys at RCD knew their stuff, listened to how I wanted them installed, and even stayed late to get the job done. They charged me exactly as he said before they even started even though the job actually took longer because it was a learning process I guess you could say. Craig was there for the whole installation.
I was impressed by the tractor bearings in the beginning. Truck rolled so smoothly. When I left that shop to head for my delivery in Toronto, ON, it almost felt like the trailer wasn't even there. The small hills going north on 77, I had to pay more attention to the speed when going down the hills. I will say this, MAKE SURE THEY ARE INSTALLED PROPERLY!!!!! The end play is of utmost importance. Don't let a mechanic that won't show you the endplay when it is being set to do it. Don't accept the "I've installed hundreds I know what I am doing" thought process.
I know some people are skeptical, there always is. My idea to them is this - either stay the way you are and don't try them and I will get better MPG than you, resulting in being more competitive than you are, and therefore don't say "its BS" or "you are being paid" because I am not. Or buy a set for your truck or trailer, try them, and come to your own conclusions. I am not looking for opinions from anyone. I am only here to tell you my experience, (SO FAR) with MB. In the coming months (when cash allows) the transmission and rear ends will be done.
My mpg (only from fill up Wytheville, VA to Toronto, ON) was up about .2. This is even with a fault code that came on that the ecm wouldnt allow it to go full throttle. That will get looked at on monday. Hopefully it's only a sensor ... By the way I haul reefer and it is mostly 70k+ 90% of the time.
My MicroBlue experience
Discussion in 'Trucks [ Eighteen Wheelers ]' started by gokiddogo, Jun 3, 2012.
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SORRY!!!!! can i have a mod please move to garage????? THANKS!!
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Is the cost of purchase/installation worth the mpg savings or vice versa
Joetro Thanks this. -
it is definetly worth it. Not sure as to how much about pricing and what not I am allowed to post on here, but by my calculations payback on each (truck and trailer) is less than 1 year or 100,000 miles.
Dice1 Thanks this. -
I installed the MicroBlue Wheel Bearings on my tractor in June 29th, 2011, did both rear ends with MicroBlue in July 30th, 2011, did motor main and rod bearings December 7th, 2011 and replaced tranny with MicroBlue treated one December 28th, 2011.
Here is the gains from each change and I do alot of dedicated runs too.
MicroBlue Wheel Bearings (tractor 3 axle only) = +4/10ths mpg
MicroBlue Rear Ends (x2) = +8/10ths mpg
MicroBlue Tranny (13 spd) = +1/2 mpg
mygauges.com under "Dice.s Truck" and "Dice.struck2012" has detailed results.
Here is my 2012 first quarter IFTA that is up to 9.16 mpg compared to January 2011 my fuel mileage was 6.33 mpg that is not all MB, but I did a couple of other mechanical adds that helped out too.
More on those other adds in this thread: http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...ers/93751-cat-mpg-opinions-and-advice-10.html
Keep us posted.
Note: The ECM is not the best way or a very accurate way to measure fuel mileage. Always use the odometer miles vs gallons of fuel used to fill up (all the way).Last edited: Jun 3, 2012
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Thanks for the posts and I hope we see more positive results concerning the use of MB in trucks. I read some about the guys at MB and I guess they did some work for NASA or something...
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MicroBlue has been in the racing world along time with some teams even applying it in house. MB expanded into the trucking world the middle of last year. Microblue website: http://www.microblueracing.com/
Colberg High Performance Tractor also can apply Microblue and has been using it for years in their Tractor Pulling Motors for their customers: http://colbergtractor.com/pulling.htmlSheepDog Thanks this. -
SL3406, double yellow and Heavyd Thank this. -
So the hard rubber stemco seal isn't compressible at all when installed? How do you determine true zero end play? Tighten it til you cant anymore and call that zero?
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Actually the Stemco seal is Rawhide and the seal isn't smashed up against anything on the spindle, it's totally free to float on the sealing surface.
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