Aero Vs Long hood for dry bulk and good MPG

I run dry van and have a 2023 Volvo VNL 860 with a D13 500HP and 2.79 RAR. When I run 80K I tend to get 7-8 MPG depending on location. Normally never get less than 7.5 and I drive 67 most of the time. The 7 MPGs are when I am running 70 plus in a hurry. If I can run 62 I would stay close to 8 in Most any area with some kind of decent miles.

 

Don’t know about running that light, but I can get mid 5s with a bucket or a Walker at 100k, obviously you will have more idle time then either of those with the unload time.

Honestly, especially not running general spot market freight, get what you want, no sense walking out to a truck every morning that you hate, high idling to off load is going to kill milage on anything to begin with

 

The year and a half I pulled pneumatic with my old 579 I got 6.37 on paper. I was right at 30k empty compared to the guys with hoods who were pushing 32k. Pneumatics pull hard and catch wind in a lot of places, plus depending on what you’re doing every day you could easily have 10+ hours of idle time at 1000 rpm running your blower.

I’d worry more about weight than fuel economy unless you know where you’ll be loading all the time. I was on a regular deal and our outbound food grade loads were always 24 ton. One backhaul place I could get away with loading 27 ton. At the other two backhaul places you loaded on a scale and you weren’t leaving over 80k.

 

Might be an aero truck but still a nice looking ride….specially with the shiny pneumatic behind it

 

12 t800 isx15. 13 speed. 100k.

Pto 1 hour load and unload.

6.9mpg.

 

Also, how big of a trailer are you going to pull? A low 1200 cube trailer will pull easier than a 1600 cube food grade trailer like I pulled. That trailer was 13’2”.

 

I think another thing to consider is where in the country you'll be running. And are you doing local, multiple loads a day, or longer stuff and maybe 1 load a day?

I run a Western Star 4900 (glider with a Cat), and do local runs, 3 loads a day usually. I'm in central PA in the hills literally all the time. Right now, I'm averaging 4.8 mpg. Last week I went for a stroll to Maryland, which I haven't done since last summer. That trip I got 5.8mpg.

FWIW the best I've gotten was running between Martinsburg WV and Mechanicsburg, PA. Two loads a day, 6.8 mpg average over the 5 months I did it.

Aero vs. hood? Well, I can't see it matters much in what I'm doing. I'm not running the highways much, mostly two lane hillbilly hell. And the guys I know running aero trucks aren't doing any better on fuel than I am. Even running the longer runs we have, it really doesn't seem to make much difference. The trailer is what really hurts...

 

Where are you located? Last I heard Oakley wasn’t even paying $2 a mile…