Scangauge KR

Ohhhh Timmy.... Ya still getting commission from the snake oil salesman and the blue bearing snake oil?? When ya gonna post more outrageous mpg claims again???

 

Back on topic, I finally got a chance to try my new used scangauge. T600, stock 475 C15, 13sp, 3.25 rears on lowpro 22.5 pulling an old reefer. No trailer skirts, hubcaps, blue bearings, or the like.

Since February, I've been working diligently to squeeze out some extra mileage using the boost gauge and common sense, along with some mechanical improvements (fixed some intake air leaks and a turbo exhaust leak, put balancers on drives). I got to where I was getting low 6's loaded and around 7 MT. My last quarter IFTA mileage April - June was 6.1 with a fair amount of idling due to apu failure.

I should have bought one of these a long time ago and will get one for my son's truck soon. Still need to get some use in under a heavy load, as this week so far has been light stuff. This is the gauge on an easy stretch, I-71 starting at the J in Jeffersonville exit 69 and the picture was taken somewhere in Cincy, so about 60 or so miles on pretty flat terrain, no wind. Light load, total truck weight at about 45k. The running average here is actually a little low. It had gotten as high as 8.9 and been staying right around 8.5 most of the trip. A couple of hills coming into Cincy pulled it down a few 10ths.



I left Gainesville, GA Wed night about 10k lbs heavier and went to just north of Pittsburg to deliver before moving to Zanesville, OH to get this load. I reset trip A when I left on Wed. So the first leg with about 15k cargo straight up thru WV to western PA, empty to SE OH to reload, then to just west of Nashville, my trip mpg is at 7.1. That's about 0.8 improvement. Just recently, I ran some numbers and found a 0.5 mpg improvement leaves me not buying about $800 fuel in a month. Nothing to sneeze at.

I know running heavier will take away some of that gain. I'm expecting to see 0.4 - 0.5 improvement despite that. The main benefit is coming from just a tiny adjustment that I can now manage with the numbers right there on the dash to see. If my boost pressure is <10 psi I'm getting 7+ mpg. Go up to 12 and it's dropped to 6. 13 and I'm in the 5's. More than that, mpg just sucks. Thing is, with road noise, music, and my not so crisp anymore hearing, pulling on 8 psi boost vs. 12 psi hardly sounds or feels different. But it's clear as day watching the numbers. This purchase will pay for itself this week.

Accuracy-wise, I don't care about precision. Even if the number isn't exactly right, it will be proportional at least. If you don't like KR, either scrape his name off, cover it with black tape, or just get the camper version for $30 less. Regardless, it's a great thing to have. The numbers I've seen this week agree with much slower leftward movement of my fuel gauge than I'm used to.

 

I am starting a new line of business. Well, oldest business in the world I am just going to lend my name to it, make zero significant changes and split the extra money with the pimps.

I am going to put a "Big Bad Bill" tramp stamp on a bunch of Lot Lizards, have them say Thank you sir 3 extra times and throw in an extra "Oh you are so big" and charge 20 extra bucks.

Unless I have missed something (I'm lazy and don't drive anymore), the gains are coming from watching the gauges. In Red's case, boost (stunned at how a little difference makes a huge improvement). Can you not get the same useful information from the standard one?

 

You can yes , but the KR version has a few extra features which do come in handy . Such as
Fuel tank fill ups
profit per mile
cost per mile

which can come in handy , but I do see your point cause it is old tech just rebranded with some new calcs. But I have to say I do love my Scanguage ..

 

I just as Red stated .. Have saved by watching my boast alone . I also watch my Turbo RPM , and out out on Torque . As red stated < 10 your good 10> or more you go down a little . > 15 you drop big >20 well enough said ..

 

by standard do you mean regular old gauges every truck should have? if so, yes you can watch your boost gauge, but having the scan gauge let's you see exactly at that moment with the instant mpg reading, what the higher boost does to your fuel economy.
as for the regular scan gauge vs the kr model, the main difference is the instant mpg reading.
the stock one is just like the mpg displays in most higher end cars, it updates so rapidly it's tough to use it to pinpoint changes to your driving habits that can improve fuel economy, the kr model takes the instant reading and averages it out over the last 8 seconds. that stabilizes the reading so you can then more readily address specific cause and effect on fuel economy. the other things such as cost per mile are nice, are neat little toys, but imo it's the smoothed over 8second average that makes the kr version worth the extra 30 bucks. that and free 2 day shipping vs driving to a camper world and hoping they have one in stock.

 

Spyder covered it pretty good. My boost gauge is located low and right, in a cluster of other gauges. Ok to glance at now and then, but too far out of sight to watch closely. The SG is on the left end of my dash, up top just off my line of sight. Easy to monitor while making tiny changes to throttle input.

Since that last post, I've gone from Dickson, TN to Cromwell, KY empty, then back to my parking in Norcross, GA with truck weight at 73k. I wasn't exactly in a hurry, but didn't let it creep uphill either. A little less friendly terrain with Monteagle in the middle. mpg was running 6.1 - 6.3 on that leg, bringing the entire trip mpg down to 6.9.

I'd estimate half that gain off my usual mpg due to the unusually light loads on this trip, the other half to using the scangauge. I never suspected there was any KR magic smoke in there making my mpg increase. Just a better way to manage my own driving methods. In agreement with what others have already posted, the most benefit is from downshifting sooner and on lesser uphill pulls (contradicting the logic of keeping rpm low as possible) and fine control of throttle, down to shaving 2-4 psi boost on a pull.

Bill you better hurry up and get your tramp stamp idea on the street before KR steals it from you and laughs at you all the way to the bank.

 

Will this work for automatic trucks?

 

It plugs into your ECM port so I would assume yes , it just reads the data off your ECM and outs it on the gauge from your sensors

 

Even further this morning. Norcross, GA to the south side of Macon. Local traffic both ends plus the tail of ATL rush hour. On the plus side, about a 700' drop in elevation so more downhill than up. Solid 6.8 mpg for today when I parked, trip average unchanged at 6.9. Same load on board and not maxed out, but enough to see how much drag it adds.

This is what I'm talking about with the factory gauge. During the daytime it's in the shadow of the dash and hard to read other than a rough idea by the needle. Easier at night with not so much outside light and the gauge back lit.



This will be the 2nd thing I've bought that truly has bang for the buck. The other one was cat's eyes air pressure balancers.