Reefer unit fuel burn rate?

On hot and humid days and following an opening of the doors, more frequent defrosts will occur and these can add to fuel burn but not in a significant way. Of course summer temps can engage more high and mid speed operation which wil have a somewhat higher burn rate.

 

Also some production frozen shippers will load "hot product" that may have a core temp of 20 degrees but will want your set point at 0 or -10. Your unit will run twice as long (hard) all the way from one coast to the next struggling to maintain that inside air temp that's continuously being "heated" from within.

Just something else to be wary of.

 

@Turbo guy

Ive ran a reefer for over 4 yrs now. Ive ran Thermokings and Carriers. Ive had 25,50 and 75 gallon tanks. Ive ran light and Heavy. Ive picked up just about every type of stuff that you can haul in a reefer from -20 deep frozen Ice Cream loads to 55 degree pool chemical loads. Ive ran double and triple temp trailers( trailers where you can set 2 or 3 individual compartment temps and use bulk heads to separate the temps). In the Humid temps of Georgia to the Frozen temps of Vermont. With that being said, YOU have you do your homework. Your trailer operation will depend on where YOU run, What your weather is, How well your unit is maintained, how many times you open and close your doors, are those doors single or double insulated, is your box structurally sound( meaning no breaches in its integrity) and if runs on Stop Start or Continuous.

Weather plays a big factor into the amount of fuel you will burn.

Hotter weather burns more fuel than in Cooler/winter type weather.

Start with a full fuel tank( you have to have a base line). DO NOT GO BY THE GAUGE, take the cap off and with a flash light, check your fuel level... gauges lie.

Top off your reefer fuel each time you top off your tractor, note the date and time of each fill up.
At that point its simple math... Ex. 3-7-18 (11.5 gal reefer) 3-8-18 (7.8 gal reefer) , 11.5 - 7.8 = 3.7gal burned @ $2.70/Gal(estimated and also depends on where you fuel) for fuel = $9.99 for Reefer fuel(subtract fuel discount if applicable)

Once you are emptied at the final stop then shut the reefer off, no need to burn needless fuel.

Once you get the hang of things then you will know when to turn on your reefer to precool it for your freight.

Keep a running total that way when you see a trend in your numbers and if they start getting ridiculous, you know its time to get it serviced or at least checked out.

Pro Tip( Always keep a Bottle of HOWES or the like on your truck)... if you know you are gonna drop your trailer an area with colder temps, freezing, put the recommended dose in the take to keep the fuel from gelling up)

Hope this helps

 

Good info from @STexan and @REEFERman450. I second the info they provided.

 

For a data point, we burned 24,902 gallons of reefer fuel in 1.933MM miles in Q3 2017. Fuel burn will be a little less in the winter

 

100 gallons I can do about three days and nights roughly at -20 no stop. A little less in summer.

But you cannot and must not depend on that, 100 gallons is really really cheap versus a failure in cargo temp on something costing upwards of a million plus.

The other thing with reefer fuel, you need a seperate accounting. It's probably still a different tax situation with each gallon used.

You need a sizeable amount of money ready to go at any time should the unit fail. You have a matter of hours to replace it or fix it at any price to protect the load.

Finally but not last. Reefer trailers MAINTAIN temp of whatever is loaded. If the shipper does not have the product already at temp you now have a load that's gaining heat and you probably cannot get ahead of it.

Since I always filled at half tank regardless of where I am going with the tractor, especially in winter I can be assured of reefer fuel, using fuel transferred over if that thing ever gets thirsty.

I am not a precision reefer man, but generally by and large Ive been lucky with them. I hate hauling dough. They would be at -30 setpoint if at all possible. (I think you can only get to -20 after a long precool before loading)

When used in summer time as a dry van, I would allow the reefer to run to cool the dock and warehouse plus the people working. A few hours of that makes for a happy crew. It's not much maybe a 10 degree difference. But it is a difference that helps some people not to overheat.

My figures should be taken with a grain of salt. I only know how to run them one way continuous. If it aint howling it aint cooling. Although there are times when it's cold enough I don't run it or even use it as a heater to keep from losing product that cannot freeze.

Nursemaiding a reefer is something that never stops. You check it every moment you can day and night. There have been times I check it in my dreams heh and even then, if it started coughing feeling unwell literally it's time to toss the log book and go to a reefer fixit man.

 

It usually says on the BOL if the reefer has to run in continuous or stop/start mode. If there is no temp. recorder in the product, I would switch from continuous to stop/start mode at night if it is cool and not detrimental to the product; save yourself a little money. A new Carrier seemed to average about 1gal/hr. Don’t run on continuous mode unless it is required.
In summer if the reefer is in continuous mode and it’s really hot; watch to make sure the coils don’t freeze up (you should see water coming out of the floor drains at the front) when it’s in defrost mode.
If you have less than 1/2 tank of fuel turn the reefer off while you fuel; they are really susceptible to picking up entrained fuel in the fuel lines and getting vapor locked, shutting the reefer off. Then it has to be primed to get the air out of the system - very hard to do by hand with that little pump on the reefer.
Learn how to load produce on a trailer so you don’t overload the drives, and don’t load beyond 48’ in California if you have heavy produce on the tail (don’t put it there).
Get a total pallet count before you start loading and total weight for each pallet. Load max. 1000lbs/foot for the first 3 feet in the nose of the trailer otherwise you’ll overload the drives and won’t be able to get the tandems far enough forward to get it under 34k.
Do a load sheet and balance your load between your drives and tandems: load single double single pallets etc. Always load the pallets sideways or chimney block with produce or you’ll run out of room. Scale! If you loaded correctly it will be a Cadillac otherwise you’re in the rumble seat for 2000 miles!

 

I remember being told years ago. 2days on continuous and 4days on start stop.

For what it’s worth. Always seemed about right, but i always fueled my wagons by 1/2 and tried to drop them on full. So...

 

Update:Just ran this reefer on S/S on - 10 for the last 49hrs and just put 17.884 gal in the tank so its burning about.... .365/gal/hr.