10-4 Magazine - For Today's Trucker

March 2006 - Performance Zone

PROCRASTINATION
By Performance Specialist Bruce C. Mallinson

Think about this statement: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got, or less.” If you haul cheap freight, you will get cheap pay. If you don’t change your oil, you will wear out your engine from the iron particles that accumulate in the oil. Go into a scale house with a poor attitude, you will certainly get a poor attitude back. Am I right?

Think about your life, what you’re driving and what you’re hauling. Why are you having problems with poor fuel mileage when other owner operators are not? Why do some engines need to be rebuilt at 600,000 miles and some run 1,200,000 miles before a rebuild is necessary. Could it be you? Could it be the person doing your maintenance? Hell, maybe it’s your dispatcher, because you just always seem to have problems that nobody else has. Or could it be PROCRASTINATION! That’s right – some of you just take too long to make a decision to change.

Do you know that so many opportunities pass in front of you during your lifetime – some you will take, but most you will allow to pass by. And then I hear things like, “I have to think it over,” or “I have to do my research,” or “How do I know the product will do what the people say it’s going to do?” Another thing I hear is, “I don’t have time to read, I don’t know about the good products out there.” I also hear a lot of truck drivers say that Lucas Fuel Conditioner is too expensive to put into their fuel. These same drivers then wonder why they keep having injector problems, claiming, “Those electronic injectors are junk!” I hear this all the time, every day on the phone and at the truck shows. I got news for you – the stuff works! So you have two choices on the injector problem: keep buying injectors and having down time or stop PROCRASTINATING and just start using the product and eliminate the problem once and for all.

Want to make your engine live longer? Get rid of the stock mufflers and install straight through, free-flowing mufflers. Your truck’s soot level in the oil will decrease, the iron particles will be cut in half, the fuel mileage will improve by at least 1/4 mpg and you’ll love the deep, mellow sound. You guys with a single stack and a stock muffler are chocking your engine, but, I know, you have to do your research and think it over. “That muffler is expensive – it’s like $158 – and how do I even know if it’s going to work or not?” Well, I’ll tell you, if you keep PROCRASTINATING it will never work!

Did you ever stop to think that some of us out here that are not behind the wheel every day are thinking for you? We think, study, research, test, experiment – and nobody ever pays us for that precious time and effort. Did you ever wonder how many failures we had before we came up with a product that works? The W900-L Performance Muffler for the Kenworth and International that my company developed went through six changes before it was released to the trucking industry. The Pittsburgh Power Performance Computer was under development for four years before the first one was sold. We’ve been working on the Pittsburgh Power Cat Box for the Acert engines for two years now, trying to get it just right. And Brad Ekstam has been working on the FASS Fuel System for 13 years and is still trying to make it better, just to help you save fuel.

Guys, research is being done out there all the time – and not just by us, but by everyone in the industry – especially by those of us who love performance. While you’re driving, we are working together to improve your truck. But all of this testing and research goes to waste when you PROCRASTINATE.

Ever wonder why so many Petes, KWs and Freightliner Classics run so good? It’s because the owner operators of those trucks invest more money on improvements for their ride. That’s right, if it puts money back in your wallet, it’s an investment, not an expense. These owner operators know that a great running truck gets good fuel mileage, and good fuel mileage puts money back in their wallet.
Our number one client for the past two years has been Noel Diaz, an owner-operator from Puerto Rico that trucks by day and works on his friend’s trucks in the evenings. Noel installs a Pittsburgh Power Computer and the FASS Fuel System on all of the trucks he works on, then sets the remote control on power level two, and has the owner operator drive it like that for one month. On average, these owner operators are saving $100 to $150 every week on fuel. You can’t get that savings when you PROCRASTINATE!

Another problem I see out there is that nobody wants to change the damper on the front of their crankshaft. They need to be changed every 500,000 miles. The silicone inside of them gets hard and they do not work when that happens. Want to keep your crankshaft from breaking, especially on Caterpillars, change the damper. At about $490 it’s a lot less expensive than having your engine pulled from the chassis and having a new crank put in. Changing your damper could save you $24,500 in parts and labor and two weeks of down time. If you don’t believe me, go ahead and continue to PROCRASTINATE, but don’t get mad at me if I end up being right.

When I can help you make your truck run up to your expectations, then I consider my job completed. And I will say that those of you who never give up and keep trying to improve your ride are a pleasure to work with, and those of you who PROCRASTINATE, you wear me out! We are a performance diesel shop, and performance makes longevity and fuel mileage. But you have to be willing to spend money to have performance and fuel mileage, which in turn will save you money! PROCRASTINATE and you lose. It’s just like the old racing saying goes, “Snooze You Loose.” For more information about power and performance, visit www.dieselinjection.net today or call (724) 274-4080.