Winter, to set or set your brakes gamble!

No sir. I’ve driven the 425, 430, 444, 455, 470, 475. At 80000lbs, running all 48, 500-515 gives the best fuel economy. The megas will buy 470-500, detune them for their drivers, but turn them back to factory specs for resale. Worse thing you can do for fuel economy is detune from factory specs. Factory specs isn’t the best because of the goobermint tune they have to run. The best economy will be from someone taking a factory 500hp engine, and then dyno tuning.

 

Bet money that the inside tire is showing the cords. When the outside blew, it’s off the bead and rotated at a different position than inside.

 

Scarier still we have a bunch of new drivers to the country that came during the summer......look for more pileups and trailers on fire from locked up wheels....

 

I actually quit May Trucking back in the 90's over tires that were showing cord, Did a drop and repower in Albuquerque at I think it was a T/A, pulled in dropped my trailer parked next to it, went to bed waiting for the other truck from Denver to show up.
Well in the morning the trailer I dropped was gone, and the re-power was parked there, on the pretrip I found it had a left front axle missing the front brake lining, rear lining on that brake very thin, and Left rear duals both tires were showing cord.
Called safety and was told that the last driver reported a brake acting up in Denver in the snow and ice, but they said nothing about the tires, so they wanted me to pull it to the Phx yard.
I refused sat there refusing to even hook up to it till they approved brakes and tires, T/A put 5 tires on the trailer and repiared/replaced all the brakes on the trailer, they wanted me to take all the old parts ( in my cab, not the trailer) to the phx yard and turn them in, next problem sealed trailer. I broke the seal out the tires and brakes parts in the trailer and turned them in.
They withheld my safety bonus because of the color dot on the sidewall indicated that the tires / brakes should be good, because when inspected a month prior in Layton, UT.
I did leave there employment for shagging drivers. But drivers learn and inspect your equipment for yourself. This did not go on my record because , when I quit, I took a family medical leave, and after I recieved my pay, I quit/ Back them they used to be one of the ones to post non-truths about drivers leaving. My attourney got my bonus money, plus extra and his fees. Don't let win, your life, your safety, your money.
I do not set my brakes if I can find semi-level ground, absolutely pack the snow down rolling back and forth, also if I think I need it I carry a couple of 90 sacks of playground sand, or kitty liter. Sand it before you pull in helps you when you leave.

 

I ran all 48 states including the Northeast and the Northwest and Midwest. I was able to loosen frozen brakes on dropped trailers by applying air, waiting and then pushing backwards to pop the brakes free. I think I added a cap-full of alcohol to brake lines maybe 4 times in 28 years. Yes, make sure all wheels are turning, or else.

 

I do agree with you, I'm just saying, I've worked for companies that knew nothing about motors, and listened to over anxious salespeople how a small motor gets 15 mpg, and bigger motors will just get the driver tickets,. I'm not talking about the HP you are saying, I'm talking about 270/300 HP L-10 Cummins or boat anchor non-turbo 3208s, 238 Detroits, and we'd haul 80,000, ( or 73,280) with our foot to the floor all day struggling at 45 mph on the hills( by the hour, luckily) and these bozos couldn't understand why we burned them out in 18 mo.
No sir, indeed, I'd give my driver( when Hell froze over) the biggest darn motor that would fit under the hood, tickets would be their problem.

 

I drove for a company that had a beancounter that convinced them to detune their trucks from 455 to 350. Economy went through the toilet. The first truck had a 9speed top 2 (a 10 speed transmission with an automatic shift on the top 2 gears). The detune caused the auto shift to malfunction. They put me in a new truck with under 100k on the odometer. They had to tow me 4 times out of the Rockies. Dealer reset the factory tune and warned the company that they would void all warranties of the fleet. I get to a terminal in Houston and the company once again detuned the engine. The engine failed when I got to Dallas.

Did the company know that detuning engines would hurt both performance and economy? How could they not? If a fleet of 5000 trucks get detuned and suddenly fuel economy drops by 2mpg, DEF systems failing prematurely, computer controlled transmission failure fleetwide. Obviously economy wasn’t the goal.

 

So was that 9 speed auto thing kind of a test for the 10 speed autos that came later ?? Was it Eaton Fuller or ultra shift??!

 

This was in 2007. Don’t know the type as it was something that I would never order on a big rig. It was engaged with the cruise on button. Cruise off, what should have been the 9th forward gear (it was called the 9speed top 2, but it had 10 forward gears like a regular 10 speed.

When they detuned the engine, it “lost” 9th gear. 9th gear would just buck like running an engine at too low rpm. If you turned it off, it felt less like shifting a manual from 8 to 10. Huge loss of performance.