ISX 550 & Detroit 60 500 HP with 1650 Torque

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you as well!!!

Well, you could meet a middle ground here. The most efficient way to run in staying out of the overdrives. But also keep in mind that double over is more inefficient than single over. You could go with 3.08, which is the same road speed in the first overdrive as direct is with 2.64 rears (3.55 in double over is the same speed as single over with 3.08 or direct with 2.64). You would still have a gear up if you were to step things up on the road speed and be able to keep the engine from screaming. You have the same deal comparing 2.79 and 3.25 and 3.70. Same road speed with only one gear difference. If things would have been much different in what I am doing, I probably would have done this type of thing.

There are just so many options for everyone. And just because I am having good results with 2.64 rears is no indication that everyone will or that everyone should use that ratio. And dealers are usually no help. They are so used to typical fleet specs and what the manufacturer told them, that they have a brain cramp if you do something unique. As for who is building the truck, I would suggest you look further than Fitzgeralds. They do ok, but there are regular Freighliner dealerships that are doing as good or better on building gliders. I used a dealer near Waterloo, Iowa. They are building almost as many gliders per week, quarter, year as Fitz and they back everything they do very well. Last I checked, my dealer is building 8 gliders per week. You are able to actually order your glider direct to the factory spec'd with evey minute detail just like any other truck order. And Phil at Harrison Truck there will not give you any grief on spec'ing a truck any way you want. He didn't even balk one bit when I spec'd mine. Another Freightliner dealer to take a close look at is Omaha Truck Center. They are kicking out gliders pretty fast also. If I would have known at the time they were doing gliders, I probably would have approached them and got these two dealers into a bidding war for my business.

All of this is why I spent several weeks tweaking the spec's to what I wanted. You also have to work with what is available. If can be a challenge, but satisfying when it all comes together. Do a lot of research. There is quite a bit of information out there if you take the time to dig around on the internet for it. Lot's of examples of trucks doing some serious work using direct drive combined with very tall ratios.

Yeah, this greenie stuff is causing everyone headaches. I doubt any of this nonsense will get dialed back any time soon. But there are a lot of states that don't have any of this stuff on their radar. And even the EPA, when it kicked out it's 2014 regs and 2020 projected regs, also is allowing "grandfathering" of earlier made engines with no modifications. Only California is being totally ridiculous about this. But then, it is the land of the Fruits and the Nuts. In fact, when you look deeper, the EPA says no modifications can be made to these new EPA compliant engines until after 435,000 miles or 10 years, whichever comes first. So theoretically, one could make all the modifications they want after 435,000 miles. This is all rather strange territory for anyone that has a real brain and a dose of common sense.

 

Thanks Cowpie1 for the info.
I had a wreck last week in the snow and fog and wrote off my truck. 2007 Western Star tri drive with a NXZ 2006 cat. 760000 KM. Just had 95 code problem fixed. Ran real nice but averaged 4 miles per gal.
I have found a 2008 Western Star tri drive with I am assuming a 2007 series 60 with 440000 Km.
515 HP, 12000 hrs. Had a tank so lots of hrs. idling to run pump. Runs very nice. It has a dpf fillter.
What motor would this be called and would like an opinion on this truck.
Thanks in advance for any info.
joepeas

 

That is the 14L Series 60, the last of the breed. Good engine overall, but the EGR and DPF are not the greatest things. Now there are methods to delete this stuff out of the ECM so that it is non-functional. But I have no first hand experience doing that stuff to a Series 60. There is just no good going to happen when you make and engine eat it's own excrement (EGR) or have a large plug on the exhaust system that the DPF is. When everything works fine, it is great. But when stuff goes bad, it is a wallet buster.

I have seen some folks get pretty decent fuel mileage out of them even with that emission stuff. It is a hit or miss proposition.

 

Thanks for the info.
Merry Christmas

 

Hey Jopeas, what did you end up doing to fix your problem on your truck with the 95 code? Sorry to here you don't have her anymore. Good luck in finding what your looking for.

 

Sorry Sar I did not find your tread until changing to a new e-mail address this morning. Better late then never I guess.

It turned out to be a cracked IVA assembly. Replaced it and had a valve set and it run great.