June 2010 - Performance Zone
BACK TO SCHOOL!
By Performance Specialist Bruce C. Mallinson
Bring your overalls and your work boots and prepare to get dirty. The next CMC seminar, to be held in Kansas City, is happening on July 12th through the 15th. The CMC (which stands for Certified Master Contractor) is a four-day seminar hosted by Kevin Rutherford and it is all about trucks and how to make money with them. Kevin and I will share information with you that will help maximize the profit you make from owning your truck. It’s going to be your turn to learn how to work on your truck, and I am the instructor.
At the upcoming seminar, I will be talking about high performance diesel engines and glider kits, then it’s off to the parking lot for those of you who bring your truck and want to learn how to install such items as a boost gauge, EGT (exhaust gas temperature) gauge, a ported and jet hot coated exhaust manifold, turbocharger, crankshaft damper, mercury-filled engine balancers and performance mufflers. This will be my fourth CMC and I must say, I have learned so much from Kevin that I feel I should buy a truck and join you out on the highways. At the time of this writing, we have 130 owner operators signed up, and over 70 of them are bringing their rigs. So bring your tools and work clothes if you want to learn how to wrench on your ride. Also, you should call our shop in advance and advise us as to what items you want us to bring for you to install on your truck.
Recently, there has been some confusion regarding my advice running 2:64 rear gears. Many of you still don’t know why a 2:64 rear gear (and running the transmission in direct gear) will save you at least half a mpg. It’s all about the horsepower and how much it takes to turn the rear tires. Running the transmission in direct is the most efficient gear. Losses of up to 30% or more are very realistic when driving in double overdrive. All of the transmissions today – the 10, 13 and 18 speeds – are double overdrive. You need to drop down two gears with the 13 and 18 speeds and one gear with the 10 speed to be in direct. Once you do that, you will notice that your truck pulls the hills easier and your water and EGT temperatures run cooler. Now, if you were already in the direct gear, the same thing would happen even though you are turning 2:64 or 2:69 rear gears.
Another question that is asked quite often is how will the truck, with 2:64 rear gears, climb a hill from a stop? Many fleets run the 2:64 gears and their trucks have less power than most owner operator’s trucks and they have no problem starting out on the hills. So, all you have to do is drop down one more gear. If it is an extreme situation, you may have to use first gear. Your ability to cruise efficiently will be enhanced and your truck will run easier across the highway with less turbo boost – and this means you will burn less fuel.
Now, let’s pick on California a bit. It is amazing to me that other states want to adopt California’s way of doing things. California is bankrupt, but they want to make the rules for the rest of the country. If your neighbor had a truck, and was going bankrupt, and wanted to teach you how to make money with a truck, would you listen? Of course you wouldn’t! So why do other states in the U.S. want to adopt the policies of California? What a pain in the neck this state has been to us that love our older trucks. Look at the problems this state has created with the new trucks since 2003 – and especially since 2008. These “clean” engines are causing nightmares in our industry. If you don’t believe that statement, then why did Caterpillar quit making truck engines for the United States?
For those of you who love your older trucks and don’t want to get rid of them for problem-laden new trucks, we have some good news. We at Pittsburgh Power will be working with a manufacturer of Diesel Particulate Filters and Urea Injection Systems and our engineers will be building a system that is both automatic and computer-controlled by you, the owner-operator, to make the DPF and Urea Injection system work. The first meeting between our companies will take place this summer, and by 2013 we will have the systems ready for you to install on your truck to make them compliant for California.
Please give yourself credit for what you have done in the past. When you talk to me on the phone, please inform me if you were raised on a farm, a ranch, or in a trucking family, or if you have built and/or raced anything with an engine – the depth of our conversation will be slightly different. If you’re the type of person I have just mentioned, you do not break parts, so don’t worry about the torque rating of your transmission – you will never break your transmission, regardless of what your mechanic says about added torque. Sharp owner operators never mash their throttle in the low side of the transmission, so they never use all of the torque that even a stock engine develops. When you are moving along in the high side of the transmission and then roll the pedal to the floor, there is no shock load being applied to the transmission. Furthermore, if you use higher RPM’s because of the added power, the transmission isn’t working as hard.
Pittsburgh Power now has a power computer for the 2008 and newer Caterpillar engines, and yes, we do change the timing. We also have 389 Peterbilt, Freightliner Coronado and Western Star glider kits available. If you can dream it, we can build it. Soon, we will even be building a Kenworth glider kit. Kenworth glider kits are currently not available, but one of our customers is ordering a new 2011 Kenworth, which we will be removing and replacing the engine and transmission. The ISX-EGR-DPF engine we are removing will be available for sale. This will be a very special heavy-haul truck with three drive axles and a KTTA V-12 engine with 2,300 cubic-inches of power.
If you’re a heavy-hauler and don’t want to use a pusher truck to pull and push 400,000 or more pounds, we can build you a truck with 1,200 or more usable constant horsepower and up to 4,000 pounds feet of torque. This is serious power for serious work. Dreams are what make America great – not government regulations. I have a fabricator that wants to build an articulated truck, so if you need a rig that will turn on a dime and give you 9 cents change, give us a call at Pittsburgh Power in Saxonburg, PA at (724) 360-4080.