Idling, political correctness and you.

I turn it off at night using the 25/70 rule.
I'm having issues with my company regarding maintenance issues with the truck. Im going to tell them to fix what's wrong or I'm idling all winter. It's a good argument as my 379 rides worse then a dump truck due to worn out shocks and a worn steering box. The mOney I'm saving them can easily pay for the parts in a month.

But what do I know? I'm just a dumb ol' truck driver

 

And there we go anouther over estimated figure to scare people from idling. A $1 per hour really? $25,000 for an inframe really? thats more like a crate engine price and a few other things. First off I just had an inframe, I also had the transmission and stering box replaced. and some seals in the rearend replaced. Cost me $18,000. So lets figure $12,000 for the acual engine.

My last inframe on this truck was 6 years ago. During that time I have probly put around (I am going to say I average 6 hours a day idling.) So thats 13,140 idle hours since the last inframe. I am going to give a high estimate of idling my truck accounted for 20 percent of my wear and tear. 20 percent of the $12,000 is $2,400. Which acualy works out to 18 cents per hour of idle for wear and tear. Which is nowhere near that $1.00 per hour estimate.

Yes I idled 4 hours last night when I was playing a game. Fuel is $3.92 here. So it cost me $8.56 in total when adding in wear and tear.

But hey I am not trying to advocate idling. Infact I would prefer it if everyone else in the world did not idle. If everyone stoped that might acualy have an effect on the demand, which might even lower the price a few cents.

 

1 Chinese container ship pulling into port and leaving port dumps more pollution into the air than 600 trucks will produce for the entire year. And that's just 1 ship, not the thousands that hit our ports thru out an entire year.

Just saying

 

all I ask is that when you idle your truck all night, please go park by the refer trailers, and Mexicans doing the same thing. Some of us like to sleep in peace and quiet and not listen to that #### belt squeel each time your compressor kicks in and your air dryer popping off all night.

 

Read it again, I said that $1 per hour is the number I use for MY calculations. Not trying to "scare" anyone because I don't care how others calculate their costs and I certainly don't care wether someone else idles or not. Someone can let their truck run for a year 24/7 or shut it off at every red light. Not my truck, not my concern.

Yes really....but not necessarily. Not all "inframes" are created equal. I've seen 'inframes' for the same model engine from $3500 - $28000 depending on what need to be done. Pistons/liners, bearings & gaskets doesn't cost much if you do it yourself. Add new heads, turbo, gear set, a few other things and labour, not so cheap. Not all engines go 25000 hours to an inframe either. Some need to be done at 15000 hours, some go 30000. I CHOOSE to estimate high because this is part of the calculation I use when setting my rates. Owners that fail to consider things like engine hour wear or CHOOSE to calculate on best case senario are often the ones struggling to get by.

Then use .18 cents in YOUR calculations. You have my permission

 

May I ask, what kind of truck/engine runs a belt driven compressor? Perhaps what you're hearing is the belt slip when the fan cuts in.

 

For the guys that don't like sleeping with noise outside should possibly look for a different career. HaHa. J/K. Or buy themselves a better truck for keeping noise out like a Volvo. LOL.

 

WOW, I never thought I would ever read/hear "better truck" and "like a Volvo" in the same sentence.

 

Hearkening back to the title and intent of the thread, it was basically asked of us where we stood on it with regard to political correctness. I tried to refrain from being overly preachy, because face it, truckers are a stubborn bunch, and if they want to idle, they're going to do it anyway, regardless of the cost or the alleged environmental impact.

I wasn't attempting to "scare" anyone away from idling - if you were referring to my little number fest earlier. I was just trying to make a point that we could lessen the demand on foreign oil if we all took the smart business approach. And, we could pollute less.

I didn't think you advocated it to begin with. I don't know what kind of gaming rig you must be running - but it must be pretty hardcore to pull as much juice as you say it needs.

Point taken. Russian locomotives, truck drag racing Canadians, farting cows, industrial waste from factories ... the list goes on and on.

But on the flip, that those container ships are accomplishing something as they pollute. Not the case with a full size diesel that was designed to pull 80,000 lbs sitting there ... well, idle.

I would say that allocating $1 per hour of engine wear is a pretty safe approach to it. You may be padding for whatever comes along, but there are other variables such as oil life, belts, wear and tear on the A/C system, etc.

 

touche'