Is this excessive idling

I hear you, I did the math it came out to 24 something on the delivery truck.

Keep in mind you cannot put a dollar amount on a account that threatened to fire the entire trucking company if their load of flowers were not there at the stroke of midnight in chicago somewhere. Because someone has goofed off after loading in AZ. We did not make anywhere near half our potential income that year, too many rescues. (essentially take the load off the single about to be fired etc)

At some point I think drivers themselves will be bypassed by computer trucks. Robots essentially. I don't intend to still be around by then.

 

Again, your math is wrong. How? Because a tachometer does not have a clock. The only thing an hour meter is telling you is how many revolutions the engine has turned. There is a specific RPM that will turn the hour meter 1 hour every 60 minutes. If the engine is turning fewer RPM, the hour meter will show less than an hour in 60 minutes. If the engine is turning more RPM, the hour meter will add an hour in fewer than 60 minutes. That basic fact means your "average speed" calculation is flawed, since an hour on the hour meter is NOT the equivalent of an hour on the clock.

 

I'm sure mechanical engines work that way.... But are you really saying the engineers of these computer controlled engines have never thought to fix that inconsistency?

Just asking cause I haven't a clue but know it is possible to program a computer to do such a thing and to use the computer clock(in mhz) to calculate an hour instead of engine RPM (it is of course how our phones, radios, and other computerized devices tell time we have long since quit using the quartz crystals except in some designer watches and/or very cheap watches)

 

Yes, that's what I'm saying. Service intervals listed in "hours" would be significantly different if those hours were clock hours as opposed to revolutions of the crankshaft. "700 hours" is a much simpler figure than to say "840,000 revolutions" (assuming a 1200 rpm baseline), not to mention a gauge that would be needed with enough digits to display such a number on the dash.

Test it out for yourself. Idle the truck tonight for exactly 10 hours at the 650 or so RPM low idle. How much time did it add to the hour meter? Tomorrow night, fast idle the truck up around 1000 RPM again for the same 10 hours. How much time did it add? Guarantee more "hours" got tallied at 1000 RPM in those 10 hours than at 650 RPM, and neither case will have added a full 10 hours to the hour meter.

 

Are you sure on that?
We had an older JD tractor calculate hours how you say, mechanically/based on engine speed.
The new one is electrical and goes by actual clock hours.

Farm equipment but if they made the switch I'd assume trucks would've too. I haven't looked or cared.

If you really wanna be prissy about it you can always check the ECU/ECM

 

Hello,
Can you tell me about idling? If you need to idle for a long time are drivers trained in how to get around restrictions or idling? Or to new drivers generally not know how do get around it and think they can't idle for long. When a truck is idling in really cold weather does the truck provide heat in a normal fashion? Thanks so much!

 

Bypassing idle shutdown I have no idea how to do it. Besides, idling is very hard on any diesel engine. If you have to let it run, bump it up to 1000-1200 RPM to keep the cylinder temperatures up. Helps prevent the engine from slobbering diesel out the exhaust and into the oil.

 

There is no training per se. You might think that we are airline pilots functioning in a structured sky. We are not.

What we do sometimes is bypass company imposed limitations on idling. For example a handwarmer burning quietly duct taped to a temperature sensor on the tractor causes it to think it's #### hot outside and continues to permit that engine idle to run the Air conditioning. Follow me so far? I got like 4 boxes of the stuff in the closet left over from those days.

The truck's engine generates heat, a huge amount of it. Coolant gets to carry that heat away and dumps it at the radiator. Some of it is sent into the cab for fans to blow through warming the cab and sleeper. That is how we stay warm in the coldest of nights. Sometimes additional heaters burn diesel fuel and run off battery and transfer that fire heat to the sleeper. In the worse case scenario a large candle just so or a nautical oil lantern will provide both light and some heat. However for obvious reasons it's a big no no to have in certain rigs.

When its seriously cold, the fuel itself can turn to jelly, killing the engine, and freezing you in about a hour to exposure. If you are not properly covered and warm before then, you have a problem. You must get warm asap. So, trucks run 24/7 fuel = life. I'll absolutely take it from the reefer which isnt running when it's that cold to keep tractor going.

 

133441 miles at an average speed of 65 would be 2052 hours of driving time obviously the lower the average the more hours it will be, so this is just an example so over half the hours have been spent idling, however if the truck does not have an auxiliary motor and the driver has to spend a lot of time in hot or cold climates he will ultimately idle quite abit to keep his truck warm or cool.