Fuel Mileage-what's yours?

My truck differs from loads and trailers.

I tend to get 5.5 on this ole shaker. If I run up the I5 corridor I average around 6 to 6.5. As always it depends on the loads too.

Since 3/4 of my loads are over 38K, I don't usually see a huge increase in MPG.

I do have her wide open, but with 670K I'm lucky that she's still a good truck.

Trailers and Lucus Oil Stabilizer makes a world of difference too. If I pull a spring loaded trailer my truck seems to slug up hills. If I pull a new airride then it's like a glider.

The oil stabilizer is a miracle worker. If I go 1,000 miles without Lucus my truck doesn't perform well. You can hear the engine slug and it seems like my fuel mileage also goes down the drain.

 

I didnt realise that this topic was already started and just got done starting one in another section of the forums. Ile put some different things in this post that I didnt put in the other though. I run a Kenworth T600 which has the Cat engine with a 13 speed trans. I use progressive shifting and most always run at 62 mph (our trucks were spec'd for this). I get on average 7.4 mpg and my average load is 36,000 lbs. Just pulled 43200 from lakewood ,N.Y. to Calexico , Ca. and got 7.2 mpg.

Iceratt

 

Any one have experience or care to speculate on the effect trailer type has on fuel usage.

With the same tractor what would the difference be between a van and a flatbed both empty.

I have always been curious about this.

 

ile say this about fuel mileage. The way an engineer for firestone explained it to me was that the biggest determination in fuel mileage is friction. Where the footprint (tread) of the tire meets the sidewall. the most friction is caused in this location and the more there is (under inflation or extreme overweight) the less fuel mileage you will get. This explains a bit as to why the super single is a better fuel mileage tire than running a duel setup. First you only have 8 points of contact for friction. The other more obvious one is that there are less moving parts and there for also less weight. All of our T600's and most of our trailers are fitted with these tires and I love when I pull in for a drop-n-hook and see em'.

 

My Tractor is hauling roof trusses ( Low weight ) 97' FLD 112 S/A weighs 12,500 lb. /9 speed .73 O.D./ M11 330 h.p./ 4:11 Eaton/ 11R22.5/ 1600 r.p.m. @ 64 mph. The trailer weighs 16,500 empty but only hauls about 5-25,000 lbs of trusses and only carries the load one way. We see low 9's to low 10 MPG's so I suppose we are lucky, would love to put a 13 speed D.O. in this truck.

 

2006 Columbia, 515 Detroit 60, Eaton autoshift. Last quarter I made 5.87mpg, running reefer meat loads, normally 70k+. But that #### Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming speed limits kill my mileage.