Idling fuel consumption at 900rpms 2023 Freightliner

I'm the same way, plus if it's to hot I just get a hotel, to cold I will let truck run for starting issues, idling these newer trucks creates all sorts of other issues as well with the DEF systems.

 

I haven’t had any problems with my last two trucks. This new one will do a dpf warmup for 30 minutes once during the times I’ve idled all night. It’s not a full on regen, but it bumps it up to 1000 and creates heat in the filter.

But I’m like you, me and my dog get motel rooms depending on where we are. Even spending a few thousand a year on those it’s still hard to make a $15k APU make sense.

 

A great advice I once received, is only pour 50 gallons at a time. It really helps save on fuel and you will spend less money

 

Which motels do you recommend for staying with a dog?

 

How does that save money? You’re still going to need to burn the same amount of fuel you would’ve burned anyway no matter if you pump 50 gallons 4 times or 200 gallons once.

 

Bringfido.com shows pet friendly hotels. Just search what town you want to stay in. Find a pet friendly one and then use google earth to see if they have room for a truck.

 

Have you priced fuel lately?

I don't know any modern big rig that idles at a half gallon an hour. Heck the APU burns I think .2gph. No way does a 450hp engine burn within a couple of tenths of a gallon more than that tiny little diesel APU engine.

A modern truck burns almost 1gph with NO LOAD. Put the AC compressor on it and that tiny difference can click you over fully into 1gph. At 4.50 a gallon, that is 45 dollars of fuel burned in a 10 hour break.

With an APU, that 10 gallons of fuel burned, turns into 2 gallons. Instead of 45 dollars, you spend 9 dollars on fuel. So you save 36 dollars a night with an APU, and don't put all of those hours and wear and tear on a 35000 dollar engine. Say 300 nights of 10 hour breaks is putting THREE THOUSAND additional hours on an engine every year, just idling. Wow, that's a lot of wear and tear and is very hard on DPF systems.

Doing the math, 36 dollars per night divided into, say, $10,000 dollars for the APU means in 278 nights of idling you have saved the money in fuel to pay for the APU. Needless to say, the APU pays for itself, easily, within the first year of ownership. Go up to $15000 for an APU and it's STILL paid off entirely in 417 nights of idling. Actually, probably a lot less on BOTH prices of APU because these engines will need to do a regen every once in a while which burns FAR more than 1gph. Less than a year and a half. Not to mention it increases the resale value of the truck later on because most people LOVE APU's with high fuel prices.

I just got out of a truck that was brand new when given to me. Had NO apu at all and so I had to idle it all night whether hot or cold, in order to sleep. in 38000 miles of driving I put almost 2000 hours on that engine. I quit that company and went to the one I work for now. The truck has an APU, has 82000 miles on it, most of which I put on it, and has I believe about 1450 hours on the big engine. So it's got 250% more miles and about 70% of the time. The engine on the APU truck will need a rebuild far later into its life than the truck without the APU. And that truck, with all that idling, got HORRIBLE total fuel mileage.

How Much Fuel Does Idling Use for Diesel Engines? | Encore Protection.

 

Unless you get a lemon APU. Everyone wants to just figure the initial cost of an APU. Not the total cost of one. As in purchase, fuel, maintenance and repair. Sure repair is hard to see on the front side, an expense all the same.
We trucked pretty hard this year, only idled the truck last of July through August. Have slept comfortably with the truck off the rest of that time. Of course we’ll idle some this winter. Why would I figure the savings on an APU on days we didn’t idle the truck?

 

Your math is very flawed. I gave exact readings from my dash and during the heat of summer I idled all night less than ten times, most times if I idled it was during the day or until the sun went down. I have 195k on my truck and 4300 hours, so I’m not that far off from you without an APU.

Also your pricing is wrong, they’re in the neighborhood of $15k now.

Edit to add: If I’m going to be someplace for more than one night I get a hotel room anyway, so that stretches out how long it would take me to pay for an APU also. Because even if I had one I still wouldn’t stay in the truck multiple nights in the same location.

 

Just reset the trip meter next time you begin to leave it running. Then when you leave it will say how many gallons you burned.
My DD16 used about 0.85 gal per hour at 900.
If it was really cold out I bumped it up to 1,100 then it used 1.25 per hour.
Although I had a bunk heater and used that down to about -05f or -10f then ran the truck under that. 900 rpm to about -30 then 1,100 rpm under that. -47f was the record low for me.