It's a Team's Life

List of fuel mileage tips

By Linda Caffee
Posted Nov 20th 2013 9:06PM

First is Driver Behavior:

Check fuel mileage with odometer EVERY time you fill up and understand any change in usage. This also challenges us to do better. Use a truck friendly GPS to assist in finding addresses Use PrePass and tolling pass to avoid stopping at toll booths and many scales. Find the sweet spot of your truck; ours is 58 MPH to obtain the best fuel mileage. Use the accelerator and brake pedal as though you have an raw egg between their feet and the throttle. Easy acceleration and planned braking are fuel saving practices. Do not race to traffic light; it takes fuel to get a stopped truck rolling once again. Plan ahead for your fuel or rest stops. When we are stopped at the top of a hill or grade, it will take less fuel to get going after fueling or rest break. Take cruise control off when in rolling hills - let the truck drift up to the speed limit when going down the hill and then use that momentum to get back up the next hill

Truck Modifications:

We drive an aerodynamic truck, Freightliner Cascadia with an aerodynamic sleeper, with many fuel saving features.

We have removed our hood mirrors to reduce wind resistance. We have belly boxes and skirts to keep wind out from under truck. We use a Trailer Tail that creates a vortex that reduces drag. We use Wheel covers to reduce drag. We use Michelin Wide Base Single low rolling resistant tires. XDA energy 445 50 R 22.5. We use Michelin low rolling steer tires XDA Energy 275 80 R 22.5 We have aerodynamic flow through mud flaps or you can trim mud flaps to measure same width as tires to reduce drag. We use a Tire Pressure Monitoring System to ensure consistent pressure. This saves fuel and tire wear. Synthetic Oil with an oil bypass filter for minimizing friction and the oil bypass filter extends oil drain intervals. Use of Synthetic lubes in all the gearboxes for minimizing friction and to extend these drain intervals. Chose a lower horsepower and torque engine for better fuel economy. We chose an automated manual transmission to improve fuel economy. The license plate was moved out of the airflow The antennas were moved off of the side of cab and mirrors and put them behind the cab. Have removable HAZMAT placards to keep the side of box smooth Always shut off the truck when stopped and use an energy conserving generator/APU instead of idling. Do not use bug deflectors and recommend, if possible, that sun visors be removed. Our sun visor cannot be removed as it hides the seam of where the sleeper was married up to the day cab.

When we promote fuel savings, we use the following table to demonstrate the considerable savings by conserving fuel; notice how improving MPG from 7 to 8 will save over $10,000 per year:

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