Running with JCT

Here's a pic from the Qualcomm. By the time it resets tomorrow, I'll have run a 3,500 mile week! I'm hoping to find a way to bump that 7.9 up to an 8. I get pretty decent mileage by using some well-known techniques that are refined by the ScanGauge. I first heard about this thru Kevin Rutherford's show on Sirius 128. There is no doubt that this little device has paid for itself several times for me. You can even see what 'progressive shifting' is all about. Tomorrow I'm going to try to get some good numbers while shifting at 12-1300 rpm vs 1500 rpm. The DD15 engine's torque curve is very flat from about 1050 to 1400 rpm. It's easy to blow past that though and you're really wasting some fuel if you do.

I made my delivery in Porterville this morning. This Wally is a sweet drop/hook. I made the drop and had my pick of four empties to haul out of there. There were two with no aero enhancements, one with the SmartTruck undertray (http://smarttrucksystems.com/undertray.php) and the other one with full side skirt and super singles. The only downside to the skirted trailer was the dreaded Carrier reefer unit. I would bet that when they test ThermoKing vs. Carrier, that they come out pretty even on a db meter. There's just something about the Carrier, maybe it's a resonance problem, but it seems a lot louder to me. I grabbed the Carrier anyway and headed to Tulare for breakfast and a shower.

After cleaning the trailer, I flipped the switch to precool it and nothing happened. I mean NADA! I climbed up on the catwalk and took a look at the battery. Everything seemed tight enough. The jumper cables were next but no go. JCT Breakdown sent me to Fresno to have Carrier check it out. Several hours later Carrier had extracted their pound of flesh and I was free to go. Lest you think that I paid for the repair let me say that not only did I keep my money in my pocket, but JCT paid me for the extra mileage.

I got to Lemoore in the late afternoon with thoughts of sleeping on their property. I like Lemoore, but it's a true hit or miss; sometimes it's drop and hook, other times it's live. It's pretty standard to get there low on hours and spend the night either before or after your load is ready. Today luck was with me. Not only was it D/H, but I got a nice trade in trailers. ThermoKing, skirt, but with duals. You can't win them all.

The CAT Scale said that I was at 76,240 lbs. The amazing thing to me was that after cruising down to I-5 and covering about 100 miles, I was hanging on to 9.0 mpg! That was all loaded too since the ScanGauge reset while I was at the shipper. I headed up to Frazier Park (elev. 3,850) for the night; it's just too hot in the valley! Of course, after that climb I was down to 6.2 mpg, lol.

Tomorrow is an up and down day through the mountains and the desert. I have no idea what is possible mileage-wise, but I would take 7.2 mpg right now. Soule_Man fought a monster headwind thru Coachella tonight. I hope he left some of that westerly blast for me!

 

Parked in Casa Grande tonight. I don't like the unexplained, but somehow I got 8.2 mpg today for 500+ miles in mountains at 76,000 gross. This trailer is sweet with the full underskirting, but I can't believe that that was all. Through all the windmills in Palm Springs there was a slight headwind! The Qualcomm did its weekly reset 304 miles ago and is reading 7.6 mpg. Checking the map, that reset occurred near Coachella. At 40 feet BELOW sea level! I'm now sitting at 1,500 feet. That's 7.6 mpg over 300 miles with over 1,500 feel altitude gain. I'm mystified.

I fueled up here at the Loves. The Fuelog says that my last fuel bought was in Milan, NM 1,522 miles ago. I got 8.1 mpg tank to tank. And an FYI if you've never had a DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid) truck; I used to budget DEF at 200 mpg. It's been a while since I checked my usage, but I topped off in Milan and again tonight and got 287 DEF mpg. At $2.69/gallon, that's less than one cent per mile.

Tomorrow may be very interesting. I'm planning on running to Van Horn, TX. If I catch a tailwind, lookout! Lol!

 

Didn't make it to the house. I came down 5 to the 210, I-10, AZ-85, and I-8. I can only guess that the full-skirt trailers get MUCH better mileage than I gave them credit for.