New International A26 12.4L Engine

Ya we know Steel Dragon. You hate International and I hate Western Star and Cummins. So instead of trashing, maybe we should listen and maybe learn if improvements are being made.

 

I enjoy hearing about these success stories Misesian. Keep it up.

Has anyone else in your fleet had similar - or different experience?

 

Yes, and like Oso has said in the past, it is very unfortunate for Navistar International that everyone associates their whole product line with the Maxxforce engine.

 

Right now I’m just two trucks. I’m hoping to have the other driver in one just like mine sooner than later. It will be slightly different with n automatic and a faster axle ratio to take advantage of downspeeding. Since December, a really bad month, I’m consistently around 9.1 or 9.2 mpg. If I’m light I can do in the 10s or like the run recently where I got 11mpg.

 

Who'd have thought that 7 or 8mpg would be considered bad?

So Misesian, what are your other specs? What tires are you running? What about your trailer - what are the specs on that? Tires? Any aero devices? How's your trailer gap?

So tell me - on a regular rolling highway, how much speed do you drop on the hills? How often are you downshifting?

 

It’s a 10 spd Direct manual
2.5 ratio
6x2
TK APU
1450-1650 torque
Super singles
21” tractor gap
Flow below

The trailer has
Super singles
Skirt
Trailer tail

I stay in top gear until I hit a 5% grade. That’s not because of the spec but because I only use 200 hp. I’m using only 25-28 psi of boost under “full” power. The truck is capable of putting out 40 psi of boost but I’ve only done that a couple times to get me out of a situation.
More speed = more HP to maintain it and to reach it. More HP always equals more fuel. You can’t reach the full potential of these new trucks unless you back off the horsepower.
I was at International today to get the oil changed and ran the numbers for my salesman for this month. Total Gallons divided by Miles came out to 9.3 mpg this month.

 

I’m also running FA4 10w 30 full synthetic and cruise at 60 mph at 1275 rpm.

 

Thanks. I am really interested in the exact tires that you're running. Not all tires are created equal, even if they are super singles.

 

I’m running Bridgestone 283A H rated on the steer
Continental HDL2 EcoPlus drives
I have 2 Michelin XTE and 2 Bridgestone on the trailer. Didn’t have a choice on that one due to recap failures on the road.

If I did it again, I’d use Michelin all around. The Michelin have considerably lower rolling resistance than any other tire. I’m trying to push the limits and that would be another small step.

I had Bridgestone drives on my last truck and after 250k miles on them, they still had 6/32 on them. The Bridgestone steer on the last truck had 180k on it and only used 6/32 of rubber. I run Centramatics on all positions. I couldn’t believe the mileage on the steer. I’m thinking it was because it was an H rated and I was only running 11800-12000 on the steer. I have a tread depth gauge in the truck to keep an eye on the wear.

 

Sounds great. Do you run trailer guides on your dead axle? I've heard that 6x2 is hard on drive tires.

I have a high mpg friend who runs xdn2's. The company apparently had winter traction issues with the low rr Michelins. His company has a Michelin account so he gets them at a good price.