Does anyone else have a truck like this?

Happened the same at Conway Truckload with their Peterbilt.

 

Hmm.. the dpf service/replacement interval on the s60 is 500k... I think they did drop it to 300k for the new motors, not sure but I think so.. The GM and techs at the Detroit Diesel shop I use are real big on the new DD motors, they say the egr on the new motors is low flow due to the fact that they also use scr to clean the emissions.. supposedly the new motor is a big improvement over the s60.. I drove a DD15 for awhile back when they were brand new, and I was impressed with the engine, however I got out of that truck around 100k on the motor and bought my s60, so I don't know about any problems that might have developed over time... The one thing I do know is that the more complicated a system becomes the harder it is to figure out what's wrong when it's not working properly..

 

I came back on the road a year ago and drove a company truck in an 09 cascadia with a DD15. We had 455/1550 rated engines with 10spd od and 3.42 rears. My particular truck had a fleet history of 5.8 mpg. We also ran tripacs. I can't say i remember a regen e er happening. Much leass ever doing a manual regen. I had like 480k or there abouts on the truck when i drove it.

I finally got so upset with the performance, i started to add lucas upper cyl lube to the fuel. This engine had a lopping idle to it so bad and ran so rough, like it had an injector miss. Within the first two tanks, a gallon of lucas overdoaed each time, the lopping idle was gone. Ot started to pull hills better too.

When i finally quit for them, i was at 6.4 mpg average.


I bought an 07 century with a 14L EGR S60. Rebel127 tuned the ecm on it for me amd in january late, i had the overhead ran finally. I am seeing mymileage return and performance marketly better.

I have been considering a suggeation for you. A design of experiments of sorts. (yeah, the engineer in my background). I'll post it. when i get home later.

 

Sorry I'm late on calling BS on this...... It's my fault that a multi national corporation put out a product that was poorly engineered . And basically untested........ It's all my fault LOL


K T weren't you thinking about some 07 cats a while back......... You would be even less happy with them!!!

 

Yeah, we did buy 5 2006 M2's with cats last year, but I sold them all before we even put them on the road. They were all small motors.

I just don't think that a mechanic or a driver can really appreciate the frustration that comes with spending the kind of money we are with these newer trucks, only to have multiple problems, lengthy down time and thru the roof repair and maintenance bills.

I honestly do know a couple of people that had so much trouble it literally broke them.

 

Design of Experiment I was talking about.

Either you buy in and do all of it, or just don't try any of it.

3 groups of trucks.

Group 1 and two are pretty much the same. One truck each of low, middle and high miles from the fleet.

Group three is the balance of the trucks.

Group 1
Adjust Mechanical Overhead. (yeah, I know what the specs say)
Turn power up to max factory power.
First two weeks, overdose with Lucas Upper Cyl Lube. Then dose with 2 qts each Monday when they leave out.

Group 2
Turn power up to max factory power.
First two weeks, overdose with Lucas Upper Cyl Lube. Then dose with 2 qts each Monday when they leave out.

Group 3
Leave power settings where they are at. Don't do anything to the fleet.
First two weeks, overdose with Lucas Upper Cyl Lube. Then dose with 2 qts each Monday when they leave out.

If you want, try a group 4. Don't even use Lucas in those trucks. They would be the control group.


Track how they do perceived power wise as well as start new IFTA tracking sheets. Those should be hand calculated NOT off the EOBR computer.

Track weather conditions in "general" for the next 4-8 weeks. After 4-5 weeks, you should start seeing a change somewhere in the fleet. If you can. Do this so that drivers don't know what group they are in.



Now. Having said all that. The last company I drove for had ALL Cascadia's. I drove the oldest in the fleet. It was a 2009 model. Most had DD15's. Some had DD13's. All had 10 SPds. The DD13's had directs with 2.64 gears. The DD13's with 10spd Dir and 2.64 gears were up there in mileage. But there were also some DD15's with 10 OD trans up in the top 5 also. It was about an even mix.

NOTHING in the EPA07 emission engines were really above 6.2 mpg overall. Even the EPA10 engines were struggling to get over 7.0 MPG. Didn't matter if it was a DD13 or a DD15. Nice days, flat ground and not much wind, these trucks would get the mileage. But any work(load, wind, terrain) into them, they started to really suck mileage.

 

Understand what you are saying, but with the way we are setup it would be quite a job to record all of that data, somedays I have a hard time just getting drivers to call in.

All of the overheads were run right after I bought the group, mileage ranged from 115,000 to 250,000 before I even put them on the road I had ALL of them gone though for ALL updates,recalls, adjustments.

That alone cost me over 40,000 dollars, within two weeks of being on the road EVERY ONE of these trucks was towed back in for something. One was towed in for a set of injectors that went from running ok, to could not pull an empty trailer.

Another truck would not regen, the doser valve had sprung a leak and would not allow enough fuel pressure to be injected to regen.

Another truck had the high pressure fuel pump quit, even though it was just replaced on a recall a week earlier, one truck went down with a bad SAMS cab module, out of service for 6 days and the bill was 4100.00

Another truck had ruptured a HP fuel hard line and could not be driven as it had fuel everywhere, another truck had to have the EGR replaced, One truck lost an ECM, and the last truck has been an ongoing list of different sensors going bad about every two weeks.

So far after putting these "almost" new trucks into light duty service I have spent OVER 78,000 or almost 10,000 PER TRUCK, in an 9 month time period.

Although I do appreciate your input on your experiment, I truly doubt that I could keep a "group" running long enough to complete what you are asking, as everytime a sensor or problem would crop up it would dilute your findings.

The one truck with the highest mileage is with one of my most seasoned drivers, he will be at 350,000 soon, I will still have a 150,000 miles left on my warranty, but I am going to for go that and have it turned up to whatever max setting Freightliner/Detroit will take it to.

This hand is a very good steady driver, he will be able to tell me in the first week if we have made substantial gains.

On another note, I did post that engine rating graph so that you could see that we are NOT pulling off the bottom, and you will notice that the sweet spot on that motor is at quite a bit less RPM than what past motors were.

Also, after discussing this injector problem with Detroit rep, they are suggesting NO ADDITIVES whatsoever in these motors. They are trying to eliminate all outside influences to see if they can pinpoint the problem.

Detroit KNOWS it has a serious injector problem, the last truck, (two weeks ago) that had ONE bad injector at 165,000 miles had a WHOLE SET installed at the request of the DD rep.

The motors themselves, the "architectural" part of it anyway, maybe be very good, but the "operating" system and sensors that are required to run closed loop leave a LOT to be desired.


Stan

 

Did you buy a group of fleet trucks that were flooded?

 

LOL, no they came from a VERY reputable fleet. This was a large fleet, but they only bought 10 of these trucks for a lite weight contract that they had, I was told that shortly after they were purchased they either lost that contract or that company went out of business, that is the reason the miles were so low, so I bought all eight of them and I understand they kept two for local runs.

These were not by any means cheap trucks, they are "hard loaded" all power windows, all power mirrors, factory battery powered APU's pull out desk top, hanging closets.

The best/most cabinets available, full gauge pack, full jakes, ultrashift trannies, all alum wheels, dual polished fuel tanks, all polished wheels, factory polished tool boxes, factory installed refrigerators, wood grain accents throughout, carpeted sleeper, sleeper windows, chrome grill and accent pkg, the best Artic insulation and sound deadening pkg, swivel air ride seats, T/T wheel, steering wheel controls, xm am/fm weather radios, the best int, pkg available, the list goes on and on.

I will admit to you right here and now, I have always been a Paccar guy, we have always had mostly KW's in the fleet, and I have always had a Pete.

I will tell you that the Cascadia "platform" the cab layout, the visibility, the maneuverability the ride, the quiet, the storage, is everything that I could ask for, for what we do.

To be honest, I was hoping these truck might last us 7-10 years, but at this rate, it's not going to happen. We HAVE to run a midroof truck, even my old T 2000 had the top spoilers removed, but you can't buy any of the new KW's 680/700 as midroof's.

Some of my drivers do take there wifes, and trying to take a driver out of a wide floor aero cab and put him in a conventional narrow cab Pete usually doesn't work.

So we saw these Cascadias and wanted to try them out, if it wasn't for the breakdowns, low power and poor mileage, they would be the tits!

It isn't just these trucks with these problems, get this thread out of here and into the O/O section and you WILL hear the same thing from O/O of anything from 08/09 up.

Btw, I do appreciate you taking the time to think about our issues, but as stated, I just think that trying to get just one of these trucks to improve mileage would be a step in the right direction, and then we can go from there.

Thanks again,

Stan

 

I prefer to think of this as the "mad scientist" in you. It sounds a little less "boring" than engineer.