Right now I run a small fleet (4 trucks) and I am thinking of selling off trucks to upgrade to better trucks because I only get 4.5-5.4 mpg throughout fleet. My question is what would be best truck/setup to buy for MPG? We haul flats and majority of our loads are 75k-80k gross so dont need gutless truck. I want to spend max of $45k but want more like $35k so new trucks are not an option. I am not partial to any brands or anything. Is 7mpg achievable for year round average, with good driver of course? Just weighing options before I sell some/all trucks now to upgrade.

Thanks in advance!
Tyler - B&B Recycling LLC-Kansas

P.S. I just tried editing title, I know knowledge has "e" on end but won't let me fix lol.

 

$35,000-$45,000 isn't much of an upgrade in my opinion. I personally would look at other issues along with fuel milage especially buying a used truck. With a used truck you never know what your going to get. You might get a gem and you might get a lemon it's a crap shoot. What are your maintenance costs with the trucks you have? It might be worth looking into new trucks if they are higher. If they aren't high I'd save up money to buy a new one. A new truck payment should cost you around $12,000-$15,000 down and around $2,200 a month payment depending on apr and length of loan on a $150,000 truck. If you maintenance costs are lower than that start putting the difference back. So you can have a bigger down payment and smaller monthly payments. You will also have part of your down payment with your used trucks. I don't know what kind of trucks you have and how they are set up but you can probably tweak them to get better mpg. I always have a test truck if I have an idea of saving mpg. If it is tire size, governed speed or whatever I try it out on one truck. If it works I switch all trucks if not I just undo that one and chalk it off to knowledge. I personally keep our old trucks if they are turning a profit and add on new trucks. We started with one truck and after April 1st we will be at eleven trucks. We have anywhere from 2005-2014 trucks. There is a specific budget set forth for buying new trucks and it is strictly abided by. I took reciept of a new truck two weeks ago and the next new one is already on the lot with the papers signed but the budget strictly states not to take possession till April 1st. We could afford to take it now but the down payment from the last one will not be replenished till then and a minimum balance has to be achieved before this takes place.

I don't know your business and all the perameters of it I'm just speaking from the way my company does it and what works for me on deciding to buy a truck and business plan.

 

it all depends. you on flat ground? off road? what kind of trailers? what are you running now? your milage is super low now, i run 80k across pa 65-70 (naturally slower up hills) and i'm getting 5-5.5 with my 435 cat, 10 speed 3.73 rear and lp 22.5's. on flat ground i know i can get in the 6's. (thats running 70). my suggestion (and i know i'll be disagreed with), find a columbia with 3.73's 515 detroit 10 speed and cut it back to 65mph. i bet 6.5-7mpg. yes you'll have to deal with the egr's but it SHOULD get you to where you need to be.

 

I would go with something in the range of 450 hp with 354 rears. That is what I run on one truck and I have consistently gotten over 6 mpg. Another that I own has higher gearing and gets right at 7 mpg. I would go with 10 or 13 speed transmissions. I have always preferred CAT, but Cummins engines seem to do a good job when it comes to mph. And don't forget the drivers. They are your most critical factor in determining mpg.

Buying trucks can be different people. Everyone has their justification for upgrading. I agree about keeping what you have until it begins costing more to maintain than it would with a newer truck would cost. I recall a conversation with an owner who had about 16 trucks. He had been accustomed to buying used. But, the time came where the maintenance was just too high. He decided to buy new trucks and phase out his older trucks. He was planning on buying Freightliner trucks.

 

We haul skateboards with most miles from North Dakota to Dallas so decently flat terrain. I know driver is big thing, heavy foot driver will be worse thing possible. We haul crushed cars down to Texas and a lot of time we get low profile new steel coming back. Right now I don't know if I'll replace all trucks but I do know there is one thats going gone bc its 4.5 mpg truck. We have done everything with that truck to get mileage up and don't work. It is '98 Volvo with 525 hp/1800 lbs N14 Cummins with 18 speed. At 70 mph its 1450ish rpm. That truck makes me wanna pull my hair out. Deal is I have the cash to buy the $ range truck I was talking about in full without any payments afterwards. My main thing is I don't want to sell one truck and spend money on another to get same MPG as before. The Volvo is good truck otherwise. IDK, just at witts end.

I guess a new truck would be definetly ok if my trucks would make me good money but they just are not. I just want to be well ahead before I go in hole that deep ya know. I had one driver costing me lots though that I let go bc of stupid DOT writeups. Best MPG truck I have was making me the least amount. Now I have better driver I am hoping that changes.

 

I would say one problem is the hauling crushed cars on a flatbed. You are heavy and absolutely no aerodynamics what so ever. How much does you mpg change from hauling crushed cars and low profile steel? What are your trucks set at as far as speed? What rears are in the truck? Because at 1450 rpms at 70 the truck should get better fuel mileage than that. The truck I am replacing in April has about the same setup and it gets around 6mpg no matter if it goes out west or up through va. It is an international and has an autoshift transmission. So sounds to me your issue is a combo of drivers and aero.

 

Crushed cars is 20% of load maximum. Bad thing doesn't alter much with loads. Ive gotten in truck because I thought was driver was problem but not. The low profile i-beam steel I haul I figuredwould be much better but not. I'm doing some trial and error with driver this upcoming week to see if can get better. I told him to drop to 64-65 mph. RPM is 50 rpm more with crushed cars.

 

I take it these trucks are high miles have you looked into your injectors. Celect injectors in a cummins are finicky. I replaced the injectors in the two cummins we run and it increased efficiency. There are plenty of things it could be but before you take it to the graveyard I would get cummins to check it out. It could be a multitude of things like boost leak, could be sucking too much air or not enough, could be damaged turbos, hoses, cylinders and a multitude of other things. An inexpensive test can show any of these issues exist. You can fix all of these issues for way less than buying another truck that you don't know what issues you will have.

 

you might be spinning the motor to low? try 65 and in 9th low (17th) ?

 

I actually told driver last night to try dropping to 65 and playing with gear. That truck has about 610k miles. I am going to try speed variances first then might swap injectors. Cummins has hooked up computer and checked all they could within last 30 days also, nothing found wrong.