newmercman:
Jeff, the biggest factor for me in terms of performance and mpg is the wind, how does that effect you lot out in the bush? I’m assuming the prairies, steppes and plains are similar in that respect, a crosswind over 10mph and I lose a mpg and start splitting gears to get over a small ride, as the wind gets stronger more and more of my hard earned goes out of the stacks and if it’s really bad, 30mph plus, I can struggle to get into top gear at full weight.
Does that increase exponentially with each trailer you add?
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In short … yes more trailers more hassle… up to about 65 tons or 10 hp per ton everything groovy… once you get over that it goes down hill fast… Once your up to 90 tons ( Especially with a long diff ) 0 to 90kph about 6 to 8 k’s on the flat. fat chance if there’s any kind of hinderance… hills wind , tourist et…
MPG … funny you should mention that … in all the years I’ve been here only one ( half arssed ) company has been anywhere near interested in that…The boss of that company said he was trying to base his transport ethics on the ( in his words " Legendary Eddie Stobart" ) Considering what it was like for the companies I worked for in Europe, where every one was trying to squeeze every last meter out of a litre…down here no one seems to care
Yeh cross winds and head winds knock the crap out of us… Many years ago I had an old Louisville ( ■■■■■■■ Big Cam 450 no less )and was doing Adelaide Perth with it. back in the days when you do triples on that route. Coming back across the Nullabor ( Big empty space of nothing ) a bit like southern Arizona New Mexico but flat and with very little of anything other that that constant cross wind that blows of the southern ocean… IPEC decided that my load was 2 trailers with flat steel, which are full weight so they have to go at the front, bringing up the rear is a box van with 7 ton in it… As I was getting near the S/A border I was doing less than 30 kph and thinking I would have to dump the trailers and go and get fuel.
More recently we did a job running heavy 20 foot boxes, 4 at a time on BAB quads from Broom to MT Isa, just under 3000k’s each way. so if you can imagine that’s truck cab - massive space 20 foot box - another massive space 20 foot box - an even bigger space etc etc…124 ton into a head wind most of the way. I had my old K1 with the low diffs in it,it was only geared for 90kph at that time Its’ got the executive cab pack as it used to be the bosses own truck so it has the engine telemetry … at one point it was doing under 50kph and just managing 240 meters to the litre… I had to double take as I thought it was doing 2.4 k’s to the litre which I thought would have been exceptionally good … However considering that one guy ( mug ) was doing the job with one truck where as in Europe it would have been 4 trucks and 4 drivers to pay… then, averaging 1.5 to the litre is pretty good and I was doing over 6000 k’s a week loaded both ways … MPG doesn’t really come into it that much… besides it’s the boss that pays for the fuel I just phone him up at 3 in the morning and tell him how much of his money I’ve just spent … 1800 litres on the truck and another 2000 liters in the belly tanks …
I think the ethic here is more along the lines of work achieved, or tonnage shifted per litre…however if it was my own truck I think I would be looking for fuel economy. I did have a good look at putting my own truck on when I first arrived here but the rates I was getting quoted were on the bottom side of suicidal. I know I was making more money with an airbrush and a few pots of paint than some folk with trucks, and I’ve seen many go to the wall in spectacular fashion, just because they wanted their own name on the door of a truck.
Sorry to hi jack your great thread Dean …but NMM started it… I’m only being polite and answering him.lol…
Jeff…
