Subsim Truckers

[Wolferz]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

I'm not saying anything against that I just found it odd that in the country in which most private people drive an automatic car stick shift trucks are still going strong while here in Europe where most private people have stick shifts we have mostly trucks with automatic gearboxes (at least of the 50 something trucks the company I used to work for had about 45 were automatic and the rest some rather old trucks with more than a million km on the odometer).

It's a torque thang. Only pussies drive an automatic transmission in a big rig.
As for that third pedal, it's only used when you stop and start. Other than that, you can float 'em with the tachometer and like Swampy says, never do it going up a hill. Once you've lost your peak torque at 7,000 RPMs, you'll have to stop and start over. I only did that once and it was enough to learn me. With a button shift on a super ten, you might occasionally need to give the clutch a little tap to ease the shift into the next gear. Other than that, you just need to prep your shift by applying pressure to the stick, back off the hammer slightly and jam 'er quickly into the next gear. You only need to insure that the shift is made with the tach reading 7k RPM.
I used to have drag races from light to light against portable parking lots.

Going down a steep grade is another reason I liked the Super Ten transmission. You could drop a gear very easily without worrying about engine over speed and loss of any possibility of making a downshift to slow it down. I swear by the Jake Brake too. Dropping off the mountain into Sacramento California was always a pain in the butt because they had signs prohibiting the use of your engine retarder, due to Billy Bob truckers running straight stacks with no mufflers and flipping on their Jakes in the middle of the night and waking up those sensitive golden state government types.
I still used mine because it had good mufflers and you could barely hear it.

[swamprat69er]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

Good stuff, thanks.

How do I make my own coffee in the truck? I looked up 12v coffee makers but they don't sound like they work very well.

As fas a bathrooms go, I have a bladder the size of a football, I can go all day if needed

NOT for long.

Originally Posted by Wolferz

I swear by the Jake Brake too.
I still used mine because it had good mufflers and you could barely hear it.

I always use my Jake, unless the road is slippery or wet. IF the sign posted just outside of town says "NO Jake Brakes", I use it through town.....Why would I be so obstinate you ask? 'Jake Brake' is a registered trade mark of the Jacobs Engine Brake Company and if there is no little 'R' in a circle after the JB it is copyright infringement and that makes the sign illegal there fore the law illegal. Besides, my exhaust is pretty quiet.

[Wolferz]

Originally Posted by swamprat69er

NOT for long.


I always use my Jake, unless the road is slippery or wet. IF the sign posted just outside of town says "NO Jake Brakes", I use it through town.....Why would I be so obstinate you ask? 'Jake Brake' is a registered trade mark of the Jacobs Engine Brake Company and if there is no little 'R' in a circle after the JB it is copyright infringement and that makes the sign illegal there fore the law illegal. Besides, my exhaust is pretty quiet.

The signs coming down the mountain into Sacramento read; "NO ENGINE RETARDER USE" Then there was the other arse hattery of them having a scale installed half way down on one side and half way up on the other.
Only in the communist state of Californication. Plus, the inspection station on the Cali/ New Mexico state line where you were stopped and asked what was in your trailer. Kind of like taking a load across the Canadian border.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by swamprat69er

NOT for long.

Precisely! The plumbing goes first from a' rockin' all day in the front office!

Originally Posted by Wolferz

"NO ENGINE RETARDER USE"

"I'm so sorry officer...I AM the engine Retard...er!" All this sage advice sounds pretty 'jake' to me! ONKEL take note: Swamprat, Wolfertz, Quatro and I are still with it; nearly a century of combined head-on-a swivel-mind-yer-six 'combat driving'. Welcome to the true conning tower of the open road; no one gets born with a shifter in hand, so ask away! Perhaps this thread should go sticky. I still wake up at night thinking I'm in the sleeper and the truck is moving! A little theme tune BBY

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

Do you want to tell me that of all countries you guys in the country of "What is the third pedal for? I only know how to use two!" still run manualy shifted trucks?

The US would be a much better place if everybody drove stick shift.

Originally Posted by swamprat69er

I have driven a few automatics and I am here to tell you, I DO NOT LIKE THEM! I wont drive an automatic if I have any say in the matter, especially hauling liquid loads.

I have no experience driving big trucks....but I know already just from my time in the Ford Focus, friend's Jeep and another friend's Mustang that stick shift is very much superior to automatic.

I HATE driving autos.

Paddle shifters...or slapstick as some people call it....is just as bad.

[les green01]

wtg Neal on the cdl in truck driving school they had us double clutching within a week shifting like a pro and you found out you can rest your foot on the clutch,several times I be driving with the girlfriend in a 4wheeler see the sign chicken coup was open and go in with the car she be like honey what are you doing

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Wolferz

Once you've lost your peak torque at 7,000 RPMs, you'll have to stop and start over. I only did that once and it was enough to learn me.

Wait a second 7k rpm? Are those petrol engines (rhetorical question I know it's Diesels but the rpm blows me away)? Our trucks would usually operate below 2.000 rpm.
What's the gas mileage on a 40t US truck? Ours got about 3,3km/l (~7,8 mpg).

[Wolferz]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

Wait a second 7k rpm? Are those petrol engines (rhetorical question I know it's Diesels but the rpm blows me away)? Our trucks would usually operate below 2.000 rpm.
What's the gas mileage on a 40t US truck? Ours got about 3,3km/l (~7,8 mpg).

Yup, that's peak torque at 7,000 Rip'ems. I never bothered to check fuel economy when packing twin 100 gallon saddle tanks. Just stopped and filled them when the gauge said you're near "E" All I know is we went a long way between fill ups.

Our trucks are so unique that they turn German tourists into Japanese shutterbugs.

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Wolferz

Yup, that's peak torque at 7,000 Rip'ems. I never bothered to check fuel economy when packing twin 100 gallon saddle tanks. Just stopped and filled them when the gauge said you're near "E" All I know is we went a long way between fill ups.

Our trucks are so unique that they turn German tourists into Japanese shutterbugs.

I was responsible for the fuel economy of our trucks and had to talk to drivers who were using too much fuel for their trips that's why I know the mpg of our Volvo and MAN trucks. I'm amazed that a US driver can be completely oblivious to the fuel economy of his truck and that obviously no one checks on that.
Over here Diesel costs made about 25% of all costs the company had so we had to be careful and try to refuel in countries where Diesel was cheaper than in Germany and avoid to refuel in those where it's more expensive. Our drivers always had to ask where they could refuel and the dispatcher would tell them were to go and how much to refuel. No way they could just fill up without permission. (That might sound stupid for you but the driver usually just knows the next one or two trips he's supposed to do and the next one could bring him to a country with cheaper fuel so he should only fill up enough to get into that country and top of there again. The difference in fuel costs are sometimes pretty big from country to country).


Most 40 ton trucks in Europe look like this (this one isn't of the company I worked for):


That's so because they mustn't be longer than 18,75m (roughly 20 yards) so most will have a flat nose to make the tractor as short as possible and the trailer as long as possible. US trucks look often times quiet differently and are therefore "exotic" photo motives to Europeans.

[Wolferz]

@ Schroeder,
My tractor was equipped with a Qualcom satellite system that monitored everything. All the information regarding fuel economy, mileage, average speed etc, etc could be looked at instantly by the driver and the dispatcher. The dispatcher contacted the driver through this system too to assign loads or send messages regarding needed maintenance scheduling and any other info deemed necessary to get the load from A to B in a timely manner. It even enumerated the route to take. Any deviation would have a dispatcher pinging you to ask why you're not where you should be.
That's why I never paid it much attention because I didn't need to track it. My job was to motivate it only.

[Schroeder]

Our system was a bit more primitive (well, it is 16 or 17 years old by now so it's definitely not state of the art anymore). We could track our trucks but we had to actively request their position and would only get their current location and no automatic update on that. We also used the system to transmit the tour data to the trucks and communicate with the drivers (like texting on cell phones....and just about as distracting while driving I guess).
However the system was not rooted directly into the trucks telemetric systems so the driver had to transmit fuel data every week manually and I would collect and analyse that data and make reports for the dispatchers about how good or bad their drivers were. I also had to talk to those that had a too low gas mileage (with varying success...).

[swamprat69er]

This beauty got 4 mpgallon (Imperial), 400 Cummins 13 spd direct and 3:80 rears. Grossing 138,000 lbs Empty it weighed in at 53,570 lbs with me in the seat.
It had 2 159.9 US Gallon fuel tanks. In this picture it is 75'5&13/64 " long right on the Ontario maximum length for 1998.


This is what I have now (a little dirty). You would be too after 20 miles of fresh gravel freshly wetted down. It gets 6 miles to the Imperial gallon or 7.2 miles to the US gallon pulling 138,000lbs 2001 Freightliner FLD 120SBD C15 CAT 18 spd OD on 3:80 rears.

[Schroeder]

Here in Germany the maximum legal weight is 40 metric tons (~88.000lbs). In Belgium it's 45t and in the Netherlands 50t IIRC.

May I ask how old that truck is? It looks like it could be from the 80ies (and I don't mean that insulting actually it looks pretty cool to me).