I'm not a truck driver but I work on diesels all day long. I work for a repair company and we repair and maintain diesel generators/engines. We generally dont go beyond 150 miles from home. Some of our guys dont even do that. I never go thru scales we just roll right past and dont think twice about it. Legaly I think we are supposed to. Your right once a dot number goes on the door its a whole different world. As for safety I would say 500 lbs over is NOT a major safety problem but if your 500 over and then try to add 2000 lbs of oil in drums and haul a 5000 lb trailer too you certainly could say its a safety problem. If I kill someonein an accident in a truck I know is grossly overweight whos to blame?

Again my main reason to ask what kind of fuel milage I will get is to see if the company is even in the ball park with their ideas. I personally dont think so. Are they wrong? well that remains to be seen and I hope they did their homework. The guy specing the trucks couldnt tell me what engine they got, had to look at the quote to see. He even had a hard time remembering what body company they used. I look into that as well they seem to be reasonable with that. I'm not gonna get everything I want there either but its a reputable company with quality product. I honestly never thought I would get all I want. when he couldnt tell me what engine it lead me to believe he was guessing based on price not what we actually need.

I think the best thing they could have done was buy 1 truck and test it for a few months. If it works then buy the rest. Its a gamble buying 19 trucks sight unseen that may or may not work and a salesman telling you "sure it will be fine!" My thought process is thats is always better to have too much than not enough.

 

Salesmen never lie. Most truthful bunch of guys I've ever met.

 

Sorry that I'm 2 days late on the invite but thanks for the offer anyway.

As for real world numbers on v10 fuel economy that I'm getting from my customers that I see the "10 mpg" is not seen by many, more often its 5-7 mpg with a some touching 8 mpg.

Now first things first these numbers are mostly done with mental math done under stress and on the go so I wouldn't rely on these numbers too closely.
Also the vast majority of the drivers don't drive pickups or any type of truck at all so they tend to be heavy footed from the get go because they drive by "feel" and keep pushing the gas until the truck is accelerating at least to them like their car.

I also agree with excellaF350 when he says it would be a better to test one for a few months then go full bore and pray for the best.

One another point that is just my opinion if you are looking to split hairs on maintenance costs then a F-series I would think would be the better choice because of accessibility of the engine and maybe the total time it takes to do a repair.
On a E-series on the front half at least you pop the hood and all you see is a tangle of plastic air ducting and all your fluids shoved where ever they can fit.
And yes you can remove the doghouse in the cab and get great access to the top of the tranny and rear half of the block, but even then its tight quarters in the cab unless you take out the seats and even then there's not a whole lot at that part of the engine that need accessing too.

Sorry had to get that last part off my chest. I miss working on the old 00-03 IIRC V10 F350's and older 97 460 V8 F350's that we used to use where everything could be seen from the front without digging hardly at all.

 

In regards to the ease of work on an E-Series;

I have to agree. Granted our are diesels, but it's terrible. Generally if one goes down the mechanics get authorization to do a lot more than what was the cause of the problem.

For example this one ambulance went in for an undiagnosed electrical short. At first it was 'try to fix the short.' Well they couldn't find it (I wouldn't know where to start there is SO much wiring on these ambulances) so management told the mechanic to replace the entire electrical harness. The mechanic was just about to put it back together and the supervisor came back out and said "Just replace everything while its open."

The engine got a new HPOP, fuel pump(s?), and 8 injectors, simply because it was open. Most of our units have 200,000-250,000 miles and its more expensive to take the unit out of service again so they just did it all at once.

 

you must be in sales

thanks for the input... I expect the v8 will do about the same mpg even though 2 less cylinders to burn fuel. The guys driving them will be on the floor board till at speed, then they wont care about rpms and mpg as long as they got the speed they need. result will be less mpg. (im probably one of those guys too)

the plan here is that the gasser will not be broke down so often hence saving them money... I would rather have F series, but they bought E. I get what I get, at least its new, so I am not going to complain too much on that one But I agree with you anyway!


I wish my place would take that approach. They look at it from the $$ side I look at it from the down time side. What I am in a spare truck they still expect the same work even though I have no tools, and no parts, no computer ect... Last year my 6.0 went in for a miss got 3 injectors. 4 months later went back in for 1 more. 2 months ago it went in and had 2 more. It would have been easier to just do em all the first time. I was out of the truck 3 times for the same problem. I would rather have only been without it once. But I dont pay for them the company does so I live by their rules. The funny thing is that we have a management company also. They use ARI but they always just seem to hold up the rapairs by a few days trying to figure out what to do. 80% of the time they end up approving what I wanted in the first place, just 3 days later.

 

Management was so serious about getting and KEEPING our fleet in tip top shape that they just set up a mechanic work shop at our secondary station. Previously all units had to go to the main station for service, now they can be serviced at any station. I have even heard dispatchers tell crews to park a unit near the mechanic areas because its time for PM (preventative maintenance).

This new mechanic area is complete with 2 4-point vehicle lifts capable of lifting out largest of units, which is a little scary to see an 18,000lb ambulance above your head.

It is also company policy to do a complete rig check out at the start of shift. We check all exterior, and interior lights, all mechanical functions such as A/C, defrost, etc and are also required to check oil, trans fluid, coolant, and brake fluid prior to going into service. All of the fluids are readily available for top offs.

In the event something needs more than a fluid top off, such as we are driving around and a CEL comes on, we notify dispatch and take ourselves out of service immediately. No messing around here.
It's not fool proof. Units still break down, but they are making an effort and that counts for something

 

It will be interesting to see how your new trucks will perform.

 

here is the funny thing... My place is also a full service truck shop but they wont let them work on our own trucks. Not even simple maintanace like oil changes and brakes. They says its a liability thing but I think its just an excuse. In reality they bill me out at $155 an hr and they want me on the road as much as possible. They also dont want to tie up a truck shop mechanic on our own fleet when he could be making $120 an hr working on a customer pay truck. I see the philosiphy behind it but it doesnt work and never will. But its nice down time siffing in the fird dealership for 3 hrs while they change my oil I get to catch up on paperwork and safety training and stuff. They finally realized its easier to let me just go and wait for the truck on pm's. it ties up 2 guys for 4 hrs to pick up and drop off but 1 guy for 3 hrs to sit and wait for it. I'd rather do it myself.

we are supposed to see them in March... I will report back once I have moved in and have a month or 2 using it. I suspect mpg will be under 10 and when I tell them I cant legaly pull one of our trailers they will freak out.

 

be careful with telling them that. GCWR is a manufacturer's recommendation, not law. GVWR is law and cannot be exceeded, but that will only be affected by the tongue weight of the trailer. other than that, it is strictly GVWR, axle weight, tire size and bridge formula. you may still be legal, even though you are beyond GCWR.

all of that being said .... "should" becomes "shall" in a court case. and they may have to defend themselves as to why they exceeded the Mfg's suggested GCWR should an incident occur.

 

never thought of it like that... I have access to scales at some of my customers I'll drop in and have it weighed let them chose what they want to do.

 

We had a shop meeting today, they try ot have one every quarter with all the techs to discuss the buisness and our needs. I did express my concerns about the GCWR of the trucks with the 5.4 All I got was "we'll look into it". I also got confirmation they ordered 10 of the E450s and the rest are only E350's... not sure if the body is the same for the E350's. They basicly said they are downsizing trucks to save money they dont want us carrying the world in them anymore.

 

Well its sounds like the job will just take longer to do if you cant carry the world with you and that means more time and more money being spent.

 

funny cause the next slide in the presentation stated one goal for 2013 was to reduce the variance on jobs by 25%.... hard to do when you have to make more trips with less stuff

 

updat for anyone who is intrested. The truck was supposed to be delivered by May but it didnt show up untill October... I got it been driving it for about a week putting just over 1000 miles on it. Its a 2013 E450, 5.4L with 5speed tqshift auto and 4.56 rear. oh only the optional 40 gal fuel tank. Body is a 13 foot enclosed roof, roll up rear door and a 1600 lb liftgate. a lot more room that my old truck body which means it will eventually collect more stuff.

I have moved about 1/2 of my stuff into it. I will wait to weight it till all my stuff is in. So far I have to say its not as bad as I was expecting but its definatley under powered. I am getting 6.5 to 7.5 mpg doing the math. Its a tank a day if I make a trip over say 70 miles one way which I do alot. with the 40 gal tank I can get about 260 miles before its flashing lights and warning me I am about to run out of fuel. Basically I have to fill it up every 200 mile or so to be safe.

It lives in the 3000 to 4500 rpm range. even part throttle out of a light or something its winding out to 4500 rpm on a regular basis at 50% throttle. I find my self constantly pushing harder on the peddal to keep up with traffic and downshifting all the time. It does get there though. On the expressway its lack of power is noticable. OD is great as long as its flat and level. at 75 mph she runs about 2800/2900 rpm. if it hits even a slight hill going right to 4th gear and 4200 rpm to get back up to speed. Yesterday I went 60 miles on the expressway it dropped out of OD a total of 22 times with the cruise control set to 73ish. It will drop 3 mph off of setpoint before it drops gear but its gets back up to speed eventually. I dont see this truck lasting 200k miles. My 04 died first week of september. over the summer the 6.0L broke a fan belt and overheated, she started using coolant that following week. I drove it for 3 months like that and it finally blew a head gasket in September. They told me not to blow it up but they didnt have another truck to give me so I just keept putting coolant in it and leaving the cap off. The 5.4 should be less problematic and cheaper from a maintenance stand point over the 6.0 psd in a fleet vehicle. But I still dont see it lasting as long, time will tell.

The trucks are stripped they didnt put any option in them anywhere. only 2 were cruise control and the built in electric brake controller... funny they bought that cause all the trailer we pull have surge brakes lol.

The GVW is 14,050 and combined (gcvw) is rated at 14,050. Its not rated to tow anything if they got the v10 the combined would have been 22,000 lbs. I guess I'm not going to tow anything for the next few years. There is already contraversy over wether or not they can or can tow a 5000 lb trailer. In the end I will ask for it in writing if they say do it. My guess is they will just skip over me cause I am just a cry baby.

 

Don't be shy about letting the 5.4L wind up. You won't hurt the engine.

If I had that rig I would probably activate Tow/Haul mode and leave it on.