Well. That depends on the terrain. Here in Ca we are either going up hill or down hill, there's not much flat stuff on the west coast.

I used to run from Victorville Ca, to vegas everyday. I had to go up a 16 mile long hill thats a 6% grade. I pulled 80K everytime (I was pulling pneumatics).

My truck was a 470hp 12.7 Detroit that was turned down to a 430. I could pull this hill in 8th gear @ 33 mph. Truck had 4.10 gears. Truck got 5.4 mpg.

I conned the boss into turning it up to the 470. My milage went up to 6.29 and I was pulling the hill in 9th gear @ 44 mph. I could now pull the small hills w/o downshifting.

Later I got a brand new truck with a 500 Detroit. Same axles and 10 speed trans. I could pull the hill @ 50 mph in 9th and was getting 6.1 mpg. Remember that a big diesel wont get it's best mpg untill it has around 80,000 miles.

Since it was only a 2 axle tractor I made short work of the drive tires! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] Like within 50,000 miles!

Boss turned it down to a 430 and it was getting 5.6 mpg now.

Our competetor was running M-11 Cummins engines @330 and was only getting 4.5-4.9 mpg. This was because they were downshifting on every hill and could only average about 17 mph on the big hill. In 5th gear.

When I had the truck turned up and I saw I was gonna pass one of our competitors on the hill I'd play the "Jaws" theme song on the CB just to annoy them LOL.

Plus going down a 6% hill with big hp makes it alot nicer. The jakes will work much better. Many times I saw our competitors trucks with the brakes smoking or in the litter box that is on big hills just to catch run away trucks.

I could go down a 6% hill using only the Jakes. Much safer than burning up the brakes because you only got 330 hp to hold you back.

The Cat 3406 is a good engine. We had some C-12's that were junk. Every one had coolant in the oil b4 50K. None of these engines made it to 200K w/o a rebuild. The boss got so fed up with them that he traded all 20 of the C-12 equiped trucks in early.

 

Chris: My father used to have a 94 Freightliner I think it was an FLD112 with a 350 CAT. I went with him cross country one time and when we got around the Hoover Dam area and then on into CA the 350 certainly DIDN'T have enough power many hills where taken @ 20 mph however we averaged 9.8 or so MPG which was very nice. However it is true I kind of jumped the gun, it depends a lot on the terrain you are driving to determine your engine size. I guess what I meant was just don't pick the biggest engine you can find when buying a truck.

 

If you want a new truck for OTR, get a Frieghtliner Coronado-A mix of "Classic" truck with the new styling. Super nice interiors, plenty of room and storage space in the bunk, and the new airbag front susp. makes it feel like a SUV. I run a 600 Cat w/ a 18 speed and 3.55s in my 03, which is perfect for hauling paper rolls across PA. And makes the "Grapevine" on southern Cali atreat when empty!! My gross weight is usually around 78,000, and there has been a few times I had to run half tanks of fuel to stay legal. I got mine for $97,000, but it was selling for $103,000 with the options.

For local, get a 379 Pete with extended hood and deck it out. I may sell my truck and buy my Uncles log truck and just start hauling fuel tankers around Maine. But with the log truck its double framed and has heavier axles, so weight may be a prob.

In may I hafta go to court and might lose my license for a month, and one of my bud's is gonna run my truck for me, so that'll give me some time to think about local work.


I gotta couple pics in my profile of a nice Pete and a blurry Coronado, so check em out!!

 

KW or a pete, no comparison to anything else!! We have a KW though.

 

Dang! What did you do blow some scales @ 100 mph?

 

The real big sleepers are custom made by a company called "Double Eagle". Prolly other company's that do it too.


big sleepers

 

That makes sense. 350 hp would prolly be fine if you only run east of the rockies or in Kansas, texas etc.

Last year I fell in love with a 96' fld120. It had a 470 dd-S60, super 10, A 70 inch flattop sleeper and wheel to wheel farings. Had 445 K on it and the guy was only askin 16K for it!

But no $$$ here [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img] It sat on the lot for almost a year, I had to drive by it 2 times a day and it's now been sold.

 

No, I actually got 3 tickets in one day!! 1 in CT, then made it to DE and got one, then found another one in MD!! So the state of Maine doesn't like that. I might get lucky and just have to take a drivers safety cours.

When I turned 23 I started driving for Swift (See What I F$#@ Up Today!!) and they started me out in a FLD 120. I hate the looks of those things. After about 7 months the turbo finally crapped the bed on the way to So Cal so I stopped at the main terminal in Phoenix. The truck had almost 500K on it so they retired it and gave me a 02 Columbia with 1300 miles!! Sweet!! I immediately fell in love with it, and when I finally got sick of going 60 and started driving for a company up here I was thinking about buying one. Then the new Coronado's come out and I waited and waited and finally got my hands on one. The cab is the exact same as on the Columbia-just the hood is differemt. If you go to txtruck.com and check out the new trucks, they have some interior shots of the Coronado. Hella sweet!! That's where I got my pic from. I like the looks of KW's, but the one's I looked at at the local dealership were priced at $110,000. and they wouldn't budge. I didn't have enough of a down payment for one of them, either.

Anyway, a 425 with a 13 speed would be plenty for almost any state, unless you cross the Rockies alot or haul turnpike doubles often. I don't do either but the truck came w/ the 600 and I like being able to split reverse w/ the 18 speed (can't on a 13), but I usuallyonly split the top 4 forward gears.

 

I just remembered this site for the big custom sleepers. I keep telling myself to dream on!!

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thanks for the site