Idleing

I don't idle to sleep. I set my alarm early, start my truck, set up with a blanket over my head. When the truck is warm enough I get up and get dressed. Years ago you had to let a truck idle before you shut it down to let the turbo cool down. Now a days you just shut them down.

 

I don;t like to idle, but of the weather is hot enough in the summer, then I have no choice. I never idle in winter, but if I have to in summer, then I do. I have to get a good nights sleep to be ready for the road the next day, so that makes it a necessity sometimes. I try to avoid truckstops so I don't have to idle just to block out the noise of the guy next to me, and try to leave windows open as late into summer as possible. But when it's too hot and muggy, or it rains and i have to close the windows, then I can idle. The switches and sensors on my truck won't allow it to idle below 60 degrees, but above that temp I can idle it.

 

usa has the idle-up function on the (cruise button isn't it?) truck disabled, so it idles very low with the vibration that burky mentioned. and YES it is annoying!!!

 

Who told you that?It's stupidity.Turbo's still turbo's and have to be cooled down.

 

As long as you come idling into a parking lot, or running at lower speed to get off the highway before shutting down, there is little need for a 5 minute cool down on the turbo. Typically, unless I have just been running hard under a load, by the time I get the truck parked somewhere, the turbo has cooled down enough for the engine to be shut down. About the only time you really need to cool one any is if you come into a rest area along the highway, and had no real slow down time before parking. Current engines tend to flow oil at a higher rate than older ones did, and that also helps out with cooling the turbo prior to shutdown.

I wouldn't shut off one immediately after a hard loaded pull, but it isn't a problem most places I park. By the time I finish updating my log books, the truck is ready to shut down.

 

Not like they use too.

 

That has nothing to do with Volvo or International. That is simply a setting in the ECM that can be turned on or off in any truck. You may have only had that situation in a Volvo or cornbinder, but it could happen just as easily in a Pete or KW if the ECM is set that way.

 

Every Volvo I've heard of has this and a couple are O/Os and a couple are company trucks so maybe they come this way? And if you know more, you can turn it off?

 

The idle is controlled by the ECM computer, and unless you have the equipment on hand to make changes yourself, you can go to any authorized dealership and they can adjust the settings for you. Of course, if it's not your own truck, then you are basically stuck with the settings that the owner has, or the default ones if he hasn't specified anything in particular.

Here's an example of ECM settings, as they apply to my company Mack. When the outside temperature is below 60 degrees, the truck will not idle longer than 5 minutes without the shut off warning coming on. When it comes on, the driver can "blip" the throttle and it will override the setting for 5 more minutes, but at that point (10 mins total idle time) the truck will shut off.

If the temp is higher than 60 degrees, then the truck will idle for 5 minutes, and the engine shut off will sound. The driver can then "blip" the throttle, and the truck will remain idling as long as the outside temp remains above 60 degrees.

Use of the PTO wil override the temp setting switches and as long as the PTO is engages, the truck will continue to idle without any automatic shutoff.

These are the settings we specified when we bought the trucks equipped with heaters. if we want to change them, we can go to Mack, they hook the truck up to the computer, and they can program in the desired settings. Our 2000 trucks, with no installed heater, will idle in any weather, regardless of temps.

 

Yep...idle shut-off time is specified in the ECM and can be turned on or off. Even on Volvos.

As far as cooling down the turbo, even the new ones shouldn't be shut down hot. I always watch the pyrometer and shut it down after it gets below 300 degrees. Even if you pull in hot, it only takes a few minutes to go from 800 to 300.

As far as idling, I don't idle in the winter...I have a sub-zero sleeping bag, a bunch of blankets, and long johns. In the summer time, if it's humid, I can go to about 85 degrees before I have to idle, and if it's not humid, I can go to about 95 degrees. I mounted a fan so that it blows on my face. I was really surprised how comfortable I can be at 95 degrees as long as the fan is blowing directly on my face.

It's amazing what you can get used to when you are the one paying for fuel at 1 to 1.5 gal/hr at $3.40/gal.