July 2010 - Performance Zone
CHANGE CAN BE GOOD
By Performance Specialist Bruce C. Mallinson
One of the golden rules of business (and life) is that you must remain flexible and willing to make changes when necessary. During my travels to and from truck shows, I often stop and eat at Cracker Barrel Restaurants. Those of you who have eaten there know that these restaurants decorate their walls with signs of old businesses. As I wait for my food, I often wonder about what happened to all those companies and why they went out of business. Could it be that as the times changed, they did not change with them?
We recently asked the Peterbilt Corporation to please release the new 386 Peterbilt to us in a glider kit. Their first answer was, “No, we are selling every one we can build.” Peterbilt did not want to make this change. They were not listening to their customer. However, I can be quite persistent. Once I finally got to the right people in the Peterbilt organization, they agreed to build 386 Peterbilts. So, now we can build you an Aerodynamic 386 Peterbilt with the 2002 or older engine of you choice. After all, you are the man (or woman) that is going to pay for the truck and spend most of your life in it – shouldn’t it be built to your specifications? We think so.
Kenworth Corporation – what are you thinking? The glider kit business is bigger than it has ever been in the history of trucking in North America and you still refuse to build glider kits. Many owner operators would love to have a new KW with a 2002 or older engine, but you won’t build them. Business is business (I know you don’t count a glider kit as a completed truck leaving your assembly line), but there is still plenty of profit in building and selling a glider kit. Look what Peterbilt did – they raised the price $8,000 on a glider kit as of January 2010 and we still continue to build them. Kenworth CEO’s, please remove your blinders, think about your customers and listen to them. Reconsider the glider kit business. We don’t want you to become another sign on the Cracker Barrel walls because you were not willing to make a necessary change.
Now that summer is here and the heat and humidity is high, coolant temperatures will run higher than during the cooler months. We don’t need to check the weather report to know this. The phone calls have already started rolling in about heat-related problems. Keep in mind that an engine multiplies the temperature by three, so a 40 degree change in the outside temperature is a 120 degree change inside your engine. Humidity displaces oxygen and hot air contains less oxygen by volume, so when the humidity and heat are high, you will definitely lose some power.
Listen to your truck. Your truck will talk to you. Your gauges don’t lie. Salesmen will tell you to lug your engine to obtain fuel mileage, but these salesmen are wrong. Bring up the RPM, back your foot out of the throttle, and allow the engine to run free. You may need to run one gear lower in the hot months than you would in the winter. Drop a gear and raise the RPM and allow the engine to breathe. When it’s hot it gets harder for you to work outside. Your body has to work hard to keep cool and your energy is drained by the heat. In this case, your engine is no different.
We often get phone calls from owner operators who say they have a friend with the same kind of truck, with the same specifications, the same equipment, and run the same type of loads, but for some reason the friend gets 1.5 mpg more than he does. Why the difference in fuel mileage? In some cases, it could be that one of the trucks has a problem, but in most cases, the difference is probably the driver. A fact about fuel mileage in the trucking industry, which isn’t often discussed, is the number one variable regarding what fuel mileage you will get – YOU! How you drive your truck matters.
In 1965, when my father was teaching me to drive, he insisted that I hold the throttle steady and pre-accelerate for the hills. How about you? Do you hold the throttle steady? If I ride with you in your truck, I will always have one eye on your turbo boost gauge, and that will tell me how good you are with the throttle. Don’t think that just because you have been driving a truck for 35 years that you’re good with the throttle – some people just don’t have it. Take your truck off cruise control and look at your turbo boost gauge and/or manifold pressure gauge and, when going up a long grade or hill, try to keep the boost steady at 25 psi and see how good you are.
If you want to drive a truck, than be a truck driver and NOT a steering wheel holder. Leave that cruise control off unless you are on very level terrain. Caterpillar even says that on rolling hills leave the Jake Brake off and allow the weight of the truck going downhill to gain speed in order to cruise up the next hill with less throttle. Then, back out of the throttle just before you crest the hill. Now when I say back out of the throttle, I don’t mean take your foot off of the throttle. Reduce your turbo boost required to pull the hill by 50% and allow the truck’s momentum to pull itself over the hill. If your friend with an identical truck still gets better fuel mileage, then you might want to ride with him for one trip and watch his boost gauge and pyrometer and compare his driving technique with yours. You are never too old to learn something new – just don’t be stubborn!
Think about this: when you’re cruising at 65 mph, it takes about 100 hp to buck a 15 mph head wind. Why not slow down to 60 mph when the wind is blowing? What do you think happens when a 30 mph wind is hitting you and your trailer at a 45 degree angle and trying to push you sideways? Your truck and trailer are acting just like a sail, blowing you backwards and in the wrong direction. Drop a gear (or half a gear), back out of the throttle, and slow down when it’s windy. Save your fuel. The load will still get delivered.
Remember, change may be tough to do at first, but in the end, you’ll be glad you did it. This philosophy and attitude applies to both your personal and professional life. So, just do it! If you have any performance-related questions, I can be reached at Pittsburgh Power Inc. in Saxonburg, PA at (724) 360-4080.