Then why even mess with a diesel in the first place? Towing in general means truck deterioration. Not everyone can leave work on a January night and have the temps be in the 50's. The last thing I want to do is jump in my truck and take off without letting it run for a while when it's -20*. I understand excessive idling isn't good, neither is constantly stopping/starting the engine. It's a catch 22.

Why can't a person drive on a Sunday or make full lock turns?

 

The point he is trying to make is that the little things add up to big costs over time. When I high idle my truck for 10 min before I leave for work (5 days a week) it drops my fuel economy by 100 miles per tank. That's a huge cost over time!

Full lock turns... Try to push a vehicle with the tires turned let alone a 7k lbs truck. It increases tire wear and take more fuel to make the turn due to increased resistance.

Any time a tire is not going dead straight it is fighting itself. Even more so with dauls.

 

I set my speed limiter to 70mph with the SMARTY.
Only idle the truck until the grid heaters stop cycling (been in the teens and low 20's here)

 

Wow and gee whiz. I figured since the OP put this in the Higher Performance section they were interested in modifications that could improve mileage, all else constant.

Still, some great advice in here, but I suppose the best option hasn't been listed.

Just leave the beast in the drive and walk.

 

Why can't a person drive on a Sunday or make full lock turns?

Didn't say either. Slow down or re-read. If I can predict where you will be, and when, with better than 90% accuracy (as a recent Homeland Security contractor report showed; for all Americans), then think how effective you can be in cutting fuel use by better vehicle utilization, since, like most of us, you/we tend to go to the same places at the same times/days. Constantly. Over years. Change jobs, change marriages, change houses, it still works.

An analysis of how I use my truck will show me where to cut the fat. Combine trips. Set up online banking over the drive-thru. Eat lunch at home before I run errands. Etc. These things are expensive to buy and operate. FE is just one gauge of how well I am doing. It's flat-assd dumb for me to idle when I could have done things differently . . cause from now on, the rest of Time, I won't have to.

And, just to mess with myself, I cut automatic access to the any time and any day attitude: no driving on Sunday (purely as an example) because, [A] I want to enjoy my family and home more; plus [B] I want to cut down on my overall transportation expense; and that means I have to do a better job after work (or whenever) about running errands, etc. Eliminating several cold starts and a number of short trips means better mpg and longer service. It's a quality-of-life issue, not just a few bucks.

As to full-lock turns, yes, it burns more fuel and is dang hard on tires, PLUS it is very hard on the power steering pump as pressures spike sky high at full lock. It's also hard on every single bushing, tie rod, you-name-it in the suspension.

The point of this is that I no longer "punish" the truck for my screwups in routing or just not paying attention. I find a place to make a gentle (or series) of turns to get back on track. (Plus, U-turns in something this size is real chancy . . dangerous if I'm hit. Literally so. It was a firing offense for more than one firm I worked for).

The overall gist is that I'm responsible. Responsive-to. Every bad use of fuel, from hereon, I pay, not the truck.


why even mess with a diesel in the first place? Towing in general means truck deterioration.

I chose to use the truck for certain reasons. And some wear will be harder than others, granted. I spec'd both truck and trailer for longest life and lowest operating cost. 16 mpg sounds nice, but when you realize it's in pulling a 34' travel trailer that ought to get your attention. How much "deterioration" is happening with those kind of mpg?

No unnecessary fuel burn (it's an attitude that leads to new ways of seeing).

How cold it is there, or how hot here, are irrelevant. If there's a better way then I should investigate and experiment long term to find out. I'd already have both an exhaust brake and Webasto heater on mine if I lived way north. The FE and "comfort" would make that a no-brainer.

So let's turn it around some: were I dumb enough to have bought a 4WD for which I have no use, and too lazy to shift gears (hellza, I've had a CDL for more than a dozen years), I, too, like the President of Smarty reported would have shown the average of 15-mpg in a poll they conducted . . . means I would be pretty useless because I know better (and I'm older than the average around here).

Some math: At 15 mpg with $3.50/diesel my annual cost at my present 15k annual average would be:

1,000 gallons at $3,500. Per year

My present 22.5 mpg average is:

666-gallons at $2,330. Per year savings of $1,170.

Now, as I have a 2WD I have no anticipated ball joint or steering gear except perhaps once in 350k. I estimate, tax & labor on that at another $2,000 over the 4WD. At that same point I will only be on the third set of tires for another savings of $2k. As I have no lift ($1k), no tuners ($600), no fancy stereo ($600) and other stuff you can see where I am going.

At 350k miles or 15-years I expect to reach in another 7-8 years -- including fuel and other non-necessary expenses -- my "savings" could be above $20,000 for the same truck doing the same work over the same time and conditions.

This is a measure of performance.

You can see that I can add dang near any toy or set thereof to this truck and still be ahead of the rest on a cents-per-mile basis. Or sock it away. Or pay for my next travel trailer, in full. And years of camping out.

And it don't have a thing to do with annual income or the rest. That's another irrelevancy.

I anticipated when I bought this that fuel could go to $5.50/gal. And be hard to find on top of that. Now, could I "afford" to continue to use this truck? Or would I be better off with something else?

The short answer is that living on the Texas Gulf Coast, my home, hellza, my whole city, could be gone in a killer hurricane. And that a travel trailer gets us over the hump. Today a job and a house. Tomorrow, no house and job disappeared as well.

What truck and what travel trailer -- for which I would pay cash -- will fit the bill? Well, I found them. Already knew where to start, and had some luck. I have had no payments, no finance charges.

And I didn't average 21 mpg in town the first year, I averaged 18. On the highway I was running 66-68 mph solo and only seeing 22-23. So I slowed down to 58. The difference in time on a 300-mile trip is barely even a half hour compared to 70. I experimented with different power settings (speed versus rpm), read extensively online for others experience and got to my present numbers.

Most costs about transportation are fixed: purchase price, finance charges, depreciation, taxes, insurance, etc. But fuel is not. Nor is vehicle life. Get the most out of those (they are the same thing, overall) and the costs I can control pay me cash money.

$20k after taxes is like $26k before taxes. You can nitpick these numbers if you want, I don't much care. I could come back and make them look better, too.

Look at this problem-solving any way you want: Can I really afford it? What are my actual expenses? Where can I cut expenses so it doesn't hurt? Etc. It's no different than cutting tenths in the quarter-mile, in it's own way.

Economy is skill acquisition, and it starts with accurate records to gauge performance.

Since this is in the performance section, there are other threads more specific to driving for economy which is the second part of the equation. First one must decide to do it, and then go that way.

.

 

well said rednax. you nailed it.

everyone has there own purpose. if i had lots of money i would have all the goodies. but for now its getting my horses to the mountain..and its doing its job swell.