Flow Below Added

Discussion in 'Ask An Owner Operator' started by Siinman, Jun 13, 2022.

  1. Siinman

    Siinman Road Train Member

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    I am going home for New years so I go I40 to 54 and then go to Kansas City MO. When I went up the mountains to Payson AZ I was at 4.4 MPGS. Now back to 6.5 MPGs but ran 70-75 on I40.
     
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  3. Constant Learner

    Constant Learner Medium Load Member

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    You put a lot of pressure on your truck. Not always the shortest route is the best one.
     
  4. Siinman

    Siinman Road Train Member

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    The truck was made to work. It did just fine on everything except for the mpg’s up the mountains. Never gets over temp and just purrrrs up the mountains.

    Now that I am back in Kansas City I am at 7.2 mpg’s for this load and 7.6 mpg’s for total trip. Still have to go to MA to drop load off on the 4th.
     
  5. Constant Learner

    Constant Learner Medium Load Member

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    That mpg should tell you a lot about what you did to the truck. It's not good.
    You should treat your truck like it's your child.
     
  6. Knightcrawler

    Knightcrawler Road Train Member

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    He did :angry5:
     
  7. Long FLD

    Long FLD Road Train Member

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    How do people manage that run in hills and mountains all the time? Coming north out of Phoenix on the interstate my dash shows mid-4’s all the time, same as when I’m climbing any mountain in the Rockies. All the years spent pulling flatbed in the Northwest at 105k we didn’t have any fancy dash readouts but if we averaged 5 for the entire week everyone was happy.

    I’m not sure what you’re implying that he did to his truck, but mechanically all he did was work it the way it was intended. It’s not like one trip up through Payson is going to cause him some catastrophic failure. All the years running heavy in the mountains and we weren’t losing transmissions or rear ends or putting holes in the block. We just made sure to put new drive tires on in the fall because we were lucky to get 100k out of them.
     
  8. Siinman

    Siinman Road Train Member

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    No doubt, I am wondering why he is pushing that craziness. Trucks go up and down mountains all the time and never have an issue. I guess if it was an old worn out truck a person could be worried about doing that kind of run.

    The other route he had suggested is 200 more miles than the route I normally take. If I had taken the other route that was 1450 miles and got 8 MPG at best it would had been 181.25 Gallons of fuel plus 3 extra hours. I would not had made it home last night and would be just getting home now.

    Going my way it was 1250 miles and got 7.2 MPG's and used 173.61 gallons and got home last night. Did I work the truck a little more by doing so? Of course I did but it is made to do that kind of work and is a newer truck. I replace my trucks now before warranty runs out so no big deal regardless. So I saved a few bucks and got home time and will get a 34 hour reset in before heading back out and finishing the run.

    Seems to be a no brainer to me on this one. I did this run many times in my 2014 Volvo and never had a problem either.
     
    Last edited: Dec 31, 2023
  9. Long FLD

    Long FLD Road Train Member

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    I would run up 17 just because of where our reloads were and I definitely wasn’t the only truck out there going up the hills headed to Flagstaff. I guess the takeaway from this is to avoid hills at all cost because you will work your engine. If that’s the case then we all need to make sure and park during high winds too because we don’t want to be working the engine all day.
     
  10. rollin coal

    rollin coal Road Train Member

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    Some drivers are very weird about hills and two lanes and go to crazy lengths to avoid them. Won't book loads based on weight or routes. These are heavy duty trucks built to haul heavy loads you're not going to hurt the truck running twisty, curvy, hilly roads.
     
  11. Constant Learner

    Constant Learner Medium Load Member

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    That's how I see it. It's my truck and I'll try to do
    whatever is best for my truck.
    I've seen so many trucks on the side of the road, and the notions "the truck will be just fine" or "it never happened to me before" are not good enough for me.
    I would drive the extra 200 miles and be home on 31-st.
     
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