I have heard that driving for short trips are bad for these trucks. My commute is about a mile and a half every day. Can anyone shed some light on the types of problems short trips will cause?

 

Ive heard this also, dont know the problems that it causes. I have a short trip as well. So my 5 or so minute drive usually ends up to about 20 or 25, just driving around before work so it wont be as short of a trip.

 

I've been driving short trips(5 minutes to work ) about 6 years now without any problems.

 

The problem is for all [ gas & diesel ] eng. , the eng. builds up condensation that takes some time to burn off [ eng. needs to get warmed up & then drive for long enough to evaporate the moisture ].
Then if it does not , the moisture can mix with gases ect. and the push the PH in the crankcase towards the acid end , and thats not good .

 

one way for me is about 3 miles and Ive never had any problems. About every couple weeks I take it on the highway and run it at 70 mph for about 25 miles.

 

Most engine wear occurs on a cold engine. It won't be as noticable on a slow revving engine such as the Cummins, but running it at full temp is best.

 

As stated most engine wear occurs on a cold startup you guys only driving a couple of miles to work the engine oil never even gets warm (feel the oil filter) so you should be changing oil more often due to moisture/acid buildup. I never rev or load an engine untill the oil has warmed a little and is flowing freely i also do not turn it off for a short stop either . For a little faster warmup plug it in and leave it plugged after startup for a few moments this is a large engine with a lot of mass to heat up in our current frigid conditions. The B series cummins was designed to be run under a steady load (electical power generation) not stop and go and will live a very long life under those conditions!! I would rather buy a used truck from a guy with higher miles on it that towed than one of you guys that goes a coulpe miles to work. My 99 has 217 on it now and uses no oil between changes and the oil does not turn black after being changed for at least the first 1k miles.
I plan to get at least 500k out of this engine without any internal repair.
Keep them warm and loaded and you will be shocked at how far they will go!

 

The B series was actually created by a venture between Case IH ,and Cummins , for use in agricultural and heavy equipment. Since then it has found it's way into almost anything you can imagine.