Peterbilt 379

mileage is a murky thing to discuss. everyone drives different, terrain is different, and when people talk fuel milage they tend to tell you about the BEST they ever got even though it may have been empty and wnhill compared to when they drug 100k through the rockies.
if you are running a gd percentage of flat ground then the aero truck may save you 1 mpg or more. if your running mountains then it may not help at all.

if you have a big motor you need to watch the water temps and pyro a bit more an the aero trucks. at least that is my experience. they get less air underneath too so the trans runs warmer but with the new synthetics it's not a big deal. When the t600 first came out they had some heat issues but I believe the resolved them using deeper radiators to compensate for the surface area decrease

 

Soo true. I'm driving an FLD daycab now and I can't use the cupholder.

 

Would any of you buy a auto shifter Pete or KW???

How are they in the mountains???

What would be the best gearing for mileage???

 

In general auto shifters aren't as good as manually shifting in grades. That said most auto's have a way for a driver to force a up or down shift as long as it's in the rev range of the engine.

Gear Fast/Run Slow for best mileage.

Typically this means you want around 1300 rpm at 58 miles per hour.

Of course this means you need to drive 55-60mph to get the benefit.

 

I wouldn't buy an autoshift on any truck I intended to keep past a few hundred thousand miles. too expensive and too many problems when they get older.

cowboy tech... freightliner has yet to ever build a truk with a decent frigging cup holder! lol

 

I wouldn't buy an auto shift either. Been driving a W900 for the past few days with a auto and it stumbles all over itself. Seems to not be able to decide what gear it wants to be in when you're in a pull. But it does have that neat shift fart when you leave the jakes on.

Oh.. and it has the biggest super singles I have ever seen in my life... I swear they are flotation tires... I'll get a picture next week of the old one stack wonder...

 

This W9 has a manual option.. you can run through the gears with a button if you want, but if the rpm isn't right it'll just beep at you and do nothing. It'll piss you off... I rather the truck have to wait on me than have to wait on the truck.

 

yes the engine may be a little easier to work on, but you goda remember that means the tranny is that much further under neith from the backside along with the yolk on the driveshaft and such..... kinda like give a little take a little

currently in the process of giving a 1981 359 a total makeover, one of the things we did was move the cab back and put a long hood on it

theres only 8" difference between a short hood and a long hood, seems like a long 8" tho doesnt it?

 

check out the 389 it's even longer! oh yea "too long too low too loud"

 

I think it should go:
'Too long, too low, too loud, TOO BAD!'

( The 'too loud, too bad' slogan was on the back of a flattop W9 I saw on Rt. 22 not too long ago)