Van Wyk Inc.

So you're saying Andy is on board for glider kits then? I haven't been to Great Bend yet, good to know.

 

@bbechtel16, i dont think he's at all ok with it, them Freightliner Columbia's are junk too!!!.. what i think husker is saying is if your driving a Peterbilt 379 with a Big Cat Motor it probably wont look to good on the Fuel end, especially with the terrain and loads we pull.... my dream truck is a peterbilt 379 (well 389 they call it now) but i know that thing can probably be a pain putting it in certain docks at times and the way i drive it probably wont see over 5.6 mpg!! I'm all for W900's and 389's, but as long as im getting the opportunity to earn an extra 140 dollars every two weeks and up too 600 dollars every 6 months, then as long as im in an updated clean truck, wont hear a peep out of me!!

 

It is actually possible to get 6.5 MPG or better out of a long nose Pete, just look up Pittsburgh Power's web site and you can see it, I think they are using pre EGR C-15 CAT's too. The main drawback is pure cost to do that since everything is assembled by hand, tuned & balanced. It is not economically practical for a fleet our size to spend an extra 40 grand per unit, even with the fuel savings.

 

Settle down everyone. I was mostly being silly. I know we have good equipment here. That's why I came here Also if we still had Columbias I wouldn't have come here! Haha But regarding the glider kits I was serious. I haven't worked the figures but proponents of gliders claim they can be built cheaper than a factory truck, and with a pre emission remanufactured motor you avoid all the emissions BS that if I'd have to guess I'd say represents 1/2 to 2/3 of our mechanical repair expenses. It's a win-win.

 

@hawkjr were you at the Pilot in Brazil, IN this morning (Saturday)? I thought I saw 637 sitting there off in the back corner on my way up to the fuel island.I was going to stop by and say hi but it looked like your curtains were closed. @Mattaponi where did you go in Ohio with that White Wave load, was it that little coffee distributor in Coldwater? Well I have been in this new KW for a week now and I finally figured out why it is such a pooch on hills. Normally we put 3.55 rears in, but for some reason they put 3.42's in the KW's now. My old KW ran 1420 RPM's # 65 MPH but the way they have it spec'd now it is more in the neighborhood of 1390 RPM's # 65 MPH. This seems to be a truck set up for 67 MPH but held back to 65. If you anticipate the hills and get it wound up to about 1410 - 1420 RPM's before starting the climb you will be golden. Even on level ground running at 67 the motor sounds more healthy and the MPG gauge reads about 15-20% higher than the average when I keep it at 65. So far the fuel economy is dismal, but I have been in garbage weather with a lot of wind not to mention brand new tires. Hopefully within the next 30-60 days it will perk up a little bit. I'm keeping a notebook with all of my fuel ups to track the economy to see how it goes. I would be curious to see if there has been an increase or decrease in our average fleet fuel economy since we went with 3.42 rears, may track it for 2 months then ask Andy what he thinks about it.Other than that I am really happy with the truck. Yesterday from Salina, KS to Kansas City was solid snow pack & ice and she held her ground nicely. When I would hit big stretches of slush it never got squirrelly like that Volvo did. Driving in wind is like night & day, you don't feel like you're going to be blown over at any minute, all around a very stable truck built like a tank. Be safe out there & happy trails.

 

yeah that was me...if that was you 788, i seen you when i pulled in early saturday morning... was making the trip back from Kansas City to Front Royal and i was determined to get back to!!! lol, but yes if it was anytime after 7 A.M. i was knocked out cold...

 

That is my new chariot number, 788. I hear ya there, that's how I was on Wed morning when I rolled into Olathe to drop off the trailer from Cherokee. I came down from Hopkins & stopped in Worthington for reefer fuel & a washout. My fuel card did not want to cooperate & the people at TCH are less than the genius patrol, then my Qualcomm decided to go bonkers. Ended up taking a break in Worthington and finally rolled into Olathe around 0630, that last leg on I-435 I was holding my eyes open with toothpicks. I'm delivering in Jersey tomorrow so the way my hours are shaping up I am almost bracing myself for the trip into Westbury to pick up at the bakery going back to RDC, so if that's the load I get I may run into you somewhere down the road.

 

It's a brisk 16 degrees here at Certco in Madison. Was on time for my 0200, didn't bring enough money to get unloaded (fooled by our office's lowball estimates once again), big guy in charge in some fashion gave me a lift to the ATM after they got me right in a door, thankfully. They woke me up at 0600 to tell me I'm done and I have overages, shortages, and wrong product oh my. Most of this proved to be confusion caused by them not asking me if it was multistop, as I learned they are supposed to, and me giving them the master bills in addition to their stop. They cleaned out the #### trailer! I was supposed to have two pallets remaining for Save-a-lot in Edgerton. That appt. was for 0615 today... Well they got that all figured out and I was still 18 short of one and 45 of the wrong item. Wish me luck getting detention out of these guys. My lumper receipt says I was done at 0307...nice... I've just now attempted to clean this nasty fridge and fire it up for the first time. Hopefully I'll be snacking/quenching with cherry/grape Fruit2Day 4 many days (har har) to come!