WHY SO MANY COMPANIES JUST RUN FREIGHTLINERS AND INTERNATIONALS

I had a 500 plus on either a rockwell 9 with the 120 in my avatar or the 500 plus with the 2001 century, that particular pass sometimes required a little slow, meaning below 40 in winter conditions etc. Ive got a snap somewhere in my folder of it on wet.

At 500 horses and room on the tach, around 1350 to 1650 to pull down against a upgrade I expect 45 or more. But I wont always get it. The mountain will have you find a speed at which you will be at with whatever power you have.

If your truck is inadequate or worse turned down in horsepower, the harder it will have to work, burning more fuel per hour to lift that weight up and over costing you even more time.

A comparison, using Townhill south of Breezewood PA on 70 upgrade. 350 big cam with roadranger 10 from 1983 COE 80K comes up to around 22 mph upgrade if I go against the pyro and stay there all the way up. It's 5 miles.

They gave me a new 94 350 or so Mach CH daycab and it rolled up that same grade at 45 with the same load, cut off about 5 additional hill problems and turned fishertown PA (Rt 56 near altoona on Babcock State Park Ridge) into a lark up or down in any weather.)

Fast forward to even bigger faster trucks and Townhill ceased to be a issue at or near 55 or more.

Most interstate mountain grades are maybe 5 to 7%? possibly by design. If you want em steeper, they have it here and there but 90 across to seattle is not that difficult until it's wintertime and full storm conditions ongoing. Once you get clear then Idaho has 4 to 6 more passes to get into Montana and so on.

I cannot remember how many times Im up there in Seattle hearing that 90 Pass all messed up, I rolled to the dalles on 84 via 5 and east off the cabbage towards Odgen. Still room to adjust routing towards the east coast. I think if I did that today many companys will scream at me for the extravagant waste of out of route and fuel. But generally no problems is better than problems.

I always believed a good company will not casterate the trucks. The more horses you have to work with, the less work you actually need to do to lift the load up and over.

 

Exactly! I know there's a debate about this in certain circles, but I agree, let those horses run free! Factory specs on the DD13 state up to 470 up and 1650 torque. I'm sure that if I could get this turned up, I could get better mpg.

Well, this isn't my company's doing, but Penske's. They like to keep the settings down for some reason.

 

It's a fine line between tuning down and up. Less horsepower means less fuel. But less power also means more foot on the floor for a longer time to get going. It also means longer foot time climbing mountains.

Wonder if anyone has actual test results on fuel usage to post.

 

Freightliner has a better warranty system with less hassle involved. They are just less hassle to deal with than the rest.

 

I've been trying to find exactly that type of info, with no luck so far.

 

I sure do, but not for posting from actual trucks, keep in mind GPH is not a common gauge in big trucks during my time. But I had three trucks that gave me insight to how many gallons per hour burned in near real time every few seconds averaging. Upgrade it's 30 plus gallons an hour maxed out on 1450 pyrometer flat out in your lowest gear barely moving upgrade with a 350 cat. 3 mile grade means I need a minimum of 50 gallons in that 145 gallon tank to get back over and out of vermont against that particular grade after loading. I had 78 or so gallons to get up there. I managed to get it a drink across the line in new hampshire I think. It was a 350 cat. A nice little engine, but needed 5 hours for all the gauges to return to normal temps everywhere after that grade.

I remember one company out of baltimore. They had next to the tach and speed a third gauge just as big. Every time you added fuel, the needle swung around, when it went into the red BEEP BEEP BEEP...

I quit.

I literally made it maybe 4 blocks towards the Baltimore Plaza with a load, turned around and quit my first day, I don't think I was employed more than 30 minutes. Im aint listening to that crap for 1500 miles.

 

No, No, No, No, Nooo! You don't get it at all. You are thinking too much like a small fleet owner might think with little experience. That is not meant to be a insult, just you are not seeing the forest for the trees.

FreightShaker and Irrational have a higher cost of ownership over the life of the truck not lower. Most truck drivers know that. All mechanics have had that exact same experience. Thats why most 0/0 choose Petes, KW and Volvos. Knowledge is power.

FreightShaker and Irrational are just aiming for a different market. The money in the truck business is in parts as much or more then initial truck sales. FreightShaker and Irrational try to rake it in by making sweat deals to mega fleets to get their product on the road and in need of parts.

Now the mega fleet doesn't give to shakes about reliability, lower parts price, or any of that crap because for the most part, they don't own the truck. Most of these products are leased with a full factory warrantee in the lease (or purchase) package. This works in both parties interest; the mega fleet gets equipment with a fixed cost of operation, and FreightShaker and Irrational get more equipment on the road their in need of parts and service.

You give the idiots in the front office way to much credit for knowledge they don't have. Mega executives have no knowledge of trucks, little of expenses, and could not calculate the mass of the ### times the angle of the dangle.

Downtime -- really do you think these CPM megas give a crap about downtime of a driver. They pay CPM, downtime costs them nothing. CPM means at worse it is a minimum inconvenience to have a driver sitting on the side of the road with a dead truck. In the slow times of the year it is a relief to repower a truck, since you have a load covering two drivers.

You have bee thinking about it totally wrong; You are not a mega or manufacturer. Don't believe me. For example, ask yourself why did Freightshaker sue Swift. Swift, the mega of megas, used to be an all Freightshaker fleet. Why? Was it because of Frieghtshaker's great reliability? No way! Just the opposite. Swift found they could make a dime from FreighShaker billing them for warrantee work as negotiated in the sales/lease contract. Freightliner sues Swift; Swift cancels orders citing EPA deadline. After the dust settled you would think Freightshaker would swear of Swift and Swift would never buy another FreightShaker. Thats what anybody else would do if you found them stealing from you, but this is big business and their are more factors to consider them what may be obvious to most.

 

I hate to say it but there hasn't been a decent truck built in the last 10-12 years. All everyone wants is a plastic throw away truck. 400-500K miles trade it in and start over.
The Freightliner FLD was the last good one they built. Even Peterbilt has cheapened up theirs(Ihate those chinese looking headlights!) all in the name of saving 000.0001 ounces of fuel a mile.
And I notice freightshaker doesn't even put a visor on their trucks!WTF is that all about??

 

I read through this thread. Many good posts and observations. However, I think we have overlooked the number one reason why Freightliner dominates the fleets of mega carriers: fuel economy.

The folks that spec and buy trucks at mega fleets are interested in the bottom line for the 500,000 miles they own the trucks. Cascadias and Evolutions have the best air flow and therefore the best fuel economy. Then they are neutered to run slow and stay low on the rpm's to enhance that fuel economy.

The living space in a Freightliner is actually quite good, for the first 500,000 miles. Lots of drivers love that space and storage area. I did when I was with Swift.

But then AFTER 500,000 miles that truck is sold. By then the plastic interior has started to break. You need a screwdriver to pry open the hanging closet and Gorilla tape to keep the closet from collapsing on your head when driving a rough road.

Then there's the plastic exterior. Look around you as you drive or are in a truck stop. Look and all the bungie cords, duct tape, zip ties, and cargo straps holding it together. Missing bumper assemblies, fuel tank panels about to become freeway decorations, or ground effects strips flapping in the breeze and dragging on the road.

Once the mega is through with that truck they don't care. Freightliner loves the added shop time. Struggling owner operators buy them because, guess what? They are CHEAP at 500,000 miles.

I see FreightSHAKERS all they time off road in the oil patch. Heck, I drove an '07 Century Classic for my first 18 months out here. THEY. FALL. APART. Drive any lease road and you could collect enough spare parts off FreightSHAKERS to start a junk yard (with some Gorilla Glue and spray paint).

Fuel economy. That's it. The bottom line. After they are done with the truck they don't care.

 

Sorry don't buy the snake oil that Freighshaker is selling about their truck being more efficient. Spec for Spec. all the the trucks will get the same fuel economy. Now some lie more on the dash fuel economy gauge and I am sure that is done exactly to affect sales. Much like a Volkswagen lies on a EPA dyno test.

Nor do I buy that the execs. at a mega know the difference or how to calculate fuel milage.

Don't believe me. Ask yourself this: When Judges and Jurys are handing out money left and right to small fleets that bought Irrationals,(Navistar Hit With $30.8 Million Judgment in ProStar/MaxxForce Lawsuit) why haven't any of the mega's hopped on the law suit bandwagon? After all who has more Irrationals, more to loose, then Swift, Werner, or Knight. They all have in house lawyers. At this point, what is the hold up? The mega lawyers have no cases, because the mega's suffered no losses in their contractual dealings with Irrational. Unlike the small fleets that purchased them outright.