Re: O.T. - Truck question ( a bit long )

Posted by sixtyninegmc on August 17, 2011 at 12:06:48 from (216.67.28.57):

In Reply to: O.T. - Truck question ( a bit long ) posted by willie in mn on August 17, 2011 at 05:48:20:

willie in mn said: (quoted from post at 05:48:20 08/17/11) Jakes don't make much noise. Running without mufflers does. It is simply that we have a bunch of idiots out there. It's the "look at me, I gots me a big truck", last of the "American Cowboy" attitude. Nothing wrong with having some "pride in your ride", but the excess chrome, chicken lights, etc are big wastes of money. Keeping all that chrome looking presentable takes time that could be used earning income. Shiny air cleaners on the outside look pretty to some, but they add wind resistance. If no room under the hood, tuck them behind the cab out of the wind stream. Shiny exhaust stacks are the same. They cost money to install, don't add to income, & you don't see the shinyness from the driver's seat. Engineers spend a lot of time & money doing wind tunnel tests to cut wind resistance, thus cutting fuel costs. Then owners do whatever they can to mess up the streamlining. If you get a chance, look closely at the stickers on the edge of a door. Manufacturers for the last 20 or so years have to place a sticker that the vehicle meets EPA noise limits when built. Also there is a fine of up to $10,000 for modifying any noise limiting equipment. I always wonder how these drivers pass their annual federal inspection without mufflers. Spent my working life on the road. Last boss speced out super duty mufflers. I very rarely turned off the Jake, only in slippery conditions, & then while looking for a place to park. Normally kept on stage 3. With good mufflers can't hear it, even with windows open. Boss regularly took tractors away at around 400,000 miles, take a new one, give the older units to rookies. Original brake shoes at turn in time inspection about 50%. Had a wheel seal go out on one, replace brakes on that axle, only brake repairs in well over 1, maybe 2 million miles. While on a rant-chicken lights. They look nice from a distance, you don't see them from the driver's seat, & don't add to income. A study about 12-15 years ago showed that each additional, not required, light costs $500 over the life of the rig. Starting at installation- modified wire harnes & shop time, whether ordered new at the factory or owner installed. At inspection time, every light, required or accessory, has to be working. Have 1 or 2 burned out, scale ahead open, time lost waiting for your turn at shop, shop costs, delayed delivery, etc all add up. As to using the Jake to slow the gears for shifting, a false idea. Learn to use the clutch brake the way it was designed. Make use of the clutch brake. Makes shifting quicker, quieter, & eliminates shock loads on drive line. Won't cause wear on clutch. Pushing clutch pedal about 1/4 inch or flexing your big toe on throttle cuts out the Jake. In over 40 years had only 1 clutch failure- rear oil seal on engine failed, soaked up the disk. End of rant, time to do something else. Willie, diesel pilot-retired

I agree on some of your points, certainly not on others. I don`t have much use for chicken lights, though up here they do have one use, and that is identifying who`s truck you are looking at. There are still few enough drivers up here that having a unique light setup lets people know right off whos who. As for external air cleaners, having them out from under the hood makes maintanence easier, allows larger elements, and dual cleaners gives you that much more element. I don`t like trucks without mufflers, but I like them as part of the stack. The great big new mufflers under the cab/sleeper make servicing the truck a pain, get beat to death by rocks, and put twice as much flex pipe (common failure point) in the system. Same objection to having the stacks out behind the sleeper. And setup that way, a truck can be nice and quiet, the W900 KW I used to drive, the turbo spooled up on a hill was louder than the jakes going down the other side.... And using the jake to slow gears doesn`t work well, it is the engine you are slowing down when you jake-shift. Getting into the gear is still going to shock load the driveline when you let the clutch out if the engine is a couple hundred RPM above the input shaft.

Saying that shifting with the clutch is easier on the truck holds true when dealing with fleet trucks and rookies, but if you know your truck it can be shifted very smooth without the clutch, and if you spend much time in a Westen Star ( my current, and preferred, make) you will not be using the clutch if you can help it because of the way the linkage is mounted between the cab and frame, torque twist makes them a handfull.

Edit to say: Many of my reasons listed only apply to off road, or gravel and dirt road situations, so may not be nearly so valid for a truck that spends its life on asphalt. In Alaska, even our asphalt is rough and dirty, and in the winter so much sand is spread on the roads that it will sandblast the undersides of a truck.

This post was edited by sixtyninegmc at 12:10:25 08/17/11.

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