Direct vs. OD setups

Articles and speculation are neat, but reality and "where the rubber meets the road" is really where it's at.

Let's take a look at yesterday's run. I had 46,000 lb of oatmeal in the box. I was running i-75 in Kentucky from Cincinatti to Knoxville, with a west wind crossing me. I have an 18 speed tied to 2.64 rears, all behind a 12.7 Series 60. I got 7.5 mpg for the run, I only dropped one gear, twice in the day (primarily because traffic screwed me up), I was cruising in 16th (direct) and running about 65 most of the time, let it flow to 70 occasionally. EGT's never got above 900F on any pull. Trans temps never got above about 150F. 265,000 miles on this setup.

That was my worse mpg for the week. Average for the week is just above 8 mpg. The readout actually shows 8.5 mpg, but we all know readouts are off a little so I subtracted 1/2 mpg to get what I posted here.

 

I got the Kevin ruthifod scan gauge. Wheather you like KR or not, his SG is cool. His allows you to add or subtract a % on mpg based on your truck. Mine is 13% off, but now the gauge reads exactly what my manual calculations are. Its great for getting MPG of a trip since you dont fuel at the beginning of every trip. It helps improve driving because you get a trip average and can weight the mpg results against driving conditions. Getting MPG by the tank doesn't always help you improve...be at least for me,,,i forget the conditions i was in a day or 2 ago. With the ability to edit the mpg offset, its much more accurate then just the built in one or a direct computer readout.

 

I have one too. I was using the general reading from the Qualcomm. The Scangauge (not the KR version) is adjusted accordingly and usually only off by a gallon or two at a fill up.

 

yea, i hit the trip button at the start of every run so i can estimate profit and expnces for each run. That way i know what runs are most profitable. 2 bucks gross in hill isn't as good a 2 bucks /mile on the flats.

 

Glad you needed to buy a scan gauge to figure that out just teasing you a bit.

 

more then just hills. traffic areas, wind etc. Knowing the MPG on every trip can help make better business decisions.

 

It's only false if it doesn't back up your thoughts then?

Lets not, it means nothing. After all isn't that what you told me in the "other" thread? You know, the post that I made about the "truck with the airplane gears"? Remember now? That's the one you shrugged off as if it were some fairy tale, but now your story is supposed to mean something? Whatever.

On a side not, are either of you now, or have you ever been a politician?

 

Back in the 70's I owned an Internaional 69 CO 4070A,had a 335 Cummins,with a 13 speed direct trans,with 4.11 gears,and 11.24.5 rubber.Truck pulled well,you split under your gears,instead of over.