Waiting on New Trucks thread.

the best part is that it says zero emissions.. they really fool alot of people with that line..like it doesnt produce emissions to build fiberglass trucks and mine lithium batteries.

 

And all the fossil fuels burned to generate the electricity. More than half of the electricity produced in the us is from "non-green" sources.

 

SDP CAT, Maxxforce… Those were designed by “real world” intelligent people too.

I feel like I just sat down at the counter at the Iron Skillet after that.

It may not be structural, but the stuff it holds is pretty dang critical. Ah heck, with it spinning slow enough like that if it gets a hole blown in it or it fails and drops all the slickems you might find out before the mains complain.

 

If these electric trucks really become mainstream I'm going to buy a pickup and mount a generator in the back to recharge them, make a fortune in the winter when all the batteries die.

 

Yes. Just like these things: zero petroleum, energy, metals, etc, used in the manufacturing. But, it’s “renewable”.

 

I’ll need to buy 50 scratchers instead of 10 then lol

 

This has been another interesting aero vs non sidetrack that's remained surprisingly civil. So as the relative newbie here, I'll offer my take nobody asked for.

Buy whatever makes you feel good. I don't care, I'm not writing the check or paying your fuel bill. Likewise you're not paying mine either, so it's a wash.

If you want to get in the weeds about specs, find a salesman that does something besides schedule his next cruise or tee times with the customers he likes more than you. I'm sure every brand has college educated engineers that can model and optimize to any use case. Tell them what you're gonna do with it, and they'll come back with a 20+ page report on how it should be built and why. Then decide if you can live with it, or just second guess it and get whatever the heck you want since it's your money.

I say this as ordering a new truck was new to me until not long ago. I got lucky and had a seasoned and mostly knowledgeable sales guy, who wasn't afraid to call people smarter than him and ask on my behalf. Until I met that guy, every other salesman basically just did a sales job because I was buying whatever they had on the lot. His job was to make me feel good about a choice, take my money, and get me down the road before it broke down on the lot. If you thought they were doing more, you're kidding yourself.

So most of this will be van trailer related, since that's what I do. I don't know poop from shinola about anything else, so definitely don't take this as me presuming to know something about what you're doing. Just a little insight to how I worked it out.

I have the magical downsped configuration. Not an extreme version. M8-445HE Mack with standard 12 spd OD and 2.47 drive axles. The spec is optimized for 70 mph, infrequent grades over 3%, 80k max long haul with a van trailer. IFTA comes in around 7.5 on my truck, a few tenths lower on the one my son drives, for a couple reasons that aren't surprising. I'm pleased with that, and it justifies the purchase.

I could have ticked a few more boxes and possibly had 8.5, 9.0 or better. Single drives, lift axles, 5th wheel position to make the reefer unit rub the paint off the cab, all sorts of ways to claw back a few tenths of mpg. I could also be a more careful driver, maybe even spend on pedal coach to get there. But I didn't.

Why? I keep up appearances as a pretty smart guy who might know better. Problem is, I lack the self discipline to make maximum mpg my mission in life 24x7. Something my son, nor any other employee I hire will never do, no matter what. Simple as. IMO it's not the hill to die on. I'll have a truck auction and get out if it comes to that.

I also don't like the trade offs. There's always trade offs. Special configurations means special parts. Special parts means less on the shelf when I need one, and usually way more expensive than regular more common parts. Lift axles are more complex with more parts, special ones, to get broken. Single drive tires are great until they aren't, and you pay back all that mpg loot with one blowout. And so on.

My spec would probably suck with an open deck, or at least be less than ideal. Over 80k gross would tear it up, period. It's not built for it. The clutches overheat if I try backing loaded into an uphill dock or parking place more than 2-3 tries. They absolutely would not hold up to hard pulls all of the time. Might work a few times. More if I added the transmission with the crawler gears to get the show on the road. But I didn't, so I won't.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's really built for 65k, because that's where the performance (and mpg) really falls off. I just delivered a full truckload of apples. I didn't scale it, I know I was right up on 80k. Sometimes pulling a grade, I'll let the cruise and computer do it's thing and chug up the hill in too high a gear at 850 rpm just because it can. It won't hurt it, but I'm under no illusion that it's ideal. I can watch the egt and engine oil temp (I did tick those boxes LOL) climbing and see it. Press the minus button to drop a gear and get the rpm back up around 1200 or more, and those needles drop right back to where they should be.

Point is, I'm never going to get Joel's mpg numbers because A> I'm not Joel, and B> I'm not Joel's boss buying a pioneer configuration so Joel can hit his numbers. You know why? Because pioneers always get killed by the indians.

 

Why don’t you enlighten everyone with the list of all the commercially produced products you’ve engineered, with your “real world smarts”? I’ll be waiting.

You’re welcome to go ask them about me. Health issues disrupted my world, for 3yrs, forcing me off the road for a bit. My buddy, who still works there, mentions the VP asking about me. She’d love to have me back. But, I’m not enduring an AI camera watching me.

Yeeees! Because you regularly bust your oil pan and all your “slickem” regularly runs out. Good grief!

 

Better get a big one with a pintle hitch. The generator you'll need tows behind, not in the bed.

 

^^^ Might be the most common sense thing I’ve ever read on this forum. Props!