MT to Pa and back or bust Anyone have pointers?

[MTownsend]

Well I'm tring to work the bugs out of my truck and trailer, on the 21st I head out. I'm kinda scared, I have not put many miles on the truck since I through it together, and I have ever owned or driven a diesel prior to this. asfar as putting any more dollars in the truck, I'm done, Tapped out till next year, so it's gotta work!



I hooked up to my 38' flat bed the other day and pulled it about 25 miles empty, I couldn't beleave how much better the truck pulls with the cummins over that old 360. I pulled a slite grade @65 mph for 2 miles with 10# boost and 1150 deg on the pyro. I down shifted near the top to see if the temp went down and it did.



So who wants to give me some pointers on how to drive, get the best milage, ect LOL

 

[DValentine]

I run Power Service in the fuel... . for pump lube mostly. Might just be snake oil or a placebo for my mind... .

As other have said, light touch on throttle = better milage



Good luck



Dave

 

[TKingsbury]

Keep your boost as low as possible for the speed you want to go. Even if you are running low rpm in a high gear, you may be dumping in fuel because the afc will be pushed down due to being in the boost too much. This will also give you higher egts as well. Find a nice speed where the boost and egts are low, and the engine feels like it is working effortlessly. Just kinda feel it out.

Travis. .

 

[JSienkowski]

AVOID CHICAGO!!! YOU'LL GO BROKE IN TOLLS!!!



Good Luck and have a safe trip, might also want to do an on line search and find truck stops along your route of travel, stop every couple of hours and stretch, if you find yourself getting tired STOP. I drive to Wisconsin from Connecticut once or twice a year and find that a stop every two hours is about right, if there is someone with you, swap drivers when you stop, if you have AAA make sure you have AAA plus, if you don't have it, may want to look into it, keep your TDR Companion handy in case you have issues. When you heading back?? I'm heading for Wi on the 28th.

 

[MTownsend]

Thanks for all the replies, keep them comming

We plan on heading back around the 27th. I'll have about 8000 pounds on the trailer comming home, so it will probably be a slow ride back

 

[MXTMOPR]

Tunes

If you don't already have one beg, borrow or buy a satellite radio. I run Sirius all the time, they have the Weather Channel, Traffic Reports and of course commercial free music with no sensoring by the FCC. I have not listened to old fashioned radio since I installed the satellite system and I do not miss it one bit.

 

[JLEONARD]

Don't worry... the Cummins will NOT let you down.

Do you plan on having the "TDR travel companion" guide with you?

The answer should be "YES, absolutely".

 

[MTownsend]

Don't worry... the Cummins will NOT let you down.

Do you plan on having the "TDR travel companion" guide with you?

The answer should be "YES, absolutely".

Absolutly :-laf

I'm glad It's a Crew cab with my ever growing list of things to take with us, the truck will have a load with out the trailer :--)



Now I Gotta go find a few fire extingishers (I needed a couple last time I pulled that trailer with a gasoline powered truck) The last trip wasnt a real good one

 

[Ggg]

Are you taking 90 or 94? If you are going through Chicago do it around 7:00 earlier in the AM or later in the PM is even better. Toll booth construction on the entire IL tollway system so rush hour traffic gets real bad at the toll booths cuz they only have minimal # of lanes open. IIRC regular cash price for a car toll is $1. 80. There was a real big I-90 repaving project in eastern S. D. last August when I went to Flat Head Lake, MT. About 30miles of single lane and no passing.

An alternative would be at Rockford, IL take I-39 south about 1/2 hour to I-88 east. It is longer but less traffic. Stay away fron the Dan Ryan Expy. it is really FUBAR with construction. Feel free to call if you have any problems or need anything. I just looked I don't know why I am not listed in the 06 companion, I will send you a PM.

For the best fuel mileage I drive by my pyro gage, keep it below 600 degrees, both on acceleration and steady speed. It is tough to do but it works for me in both my Ford and Dodge. One note on the 600deg. When I am in the mountains you must go above the 600 deg. otherwise you loose too much road speed and can become a road hazard.

 

[MTownsend]

It looks like I'll be running 94, and yes I want to bypass chicago, I made the mistake of going through there 5 years ago! Then I'll end up on 80, I'm just not sure if I want to stay on 80 trough pa or not, I want to avoid hills as much as posible especailly comming back with all that weight.



Here are some pictures I tryed to put on here from my last trip pulling my trailer

 

[JApol]

Good luck on the trip, I just got back from a 3,000 mile trip from MD-TX-SD-MD. The roads from the 90/94 merger to Notre Dame are fairly decent. I hit the hiways from there so I don't know about the rest of the road

 

[MTownsend]

Well Here goes nothing, Be on the lookout for my crew cab because here I come ready or not!

 

[MTownsend]

MT, I'm only a mile off Interstate 80 at mile marker 53, give a hoot when you're in the area if you want to stop and kill a little time. Barnwell is a great converted "Old Barn" restaurant with plenty of parking lot if interested. PM me for my phone #'s. Al

I'll have to look to see where I'm going. If I'm going to be in the area, I'd love to bs with ya.



I arived out here in cecil county maaryland on sunday, It took about 48 hours. The cummins ran strong pulling the empty trailer and got anywhere from 12 mpg in the hills of montana and north dakota, to 16 mpg on flat ground.



I have the trailer about loaded with all my garbage, I still have to load my old 1948 john deere mc and will be allot of fun since Someone seems to have been fooling with it and somehow got water in the engine and since seized it up. :-{} Ya know that cummins may be strong but it don't drag that track loader to well. It sure is going to suck trying to figure out how the heck to put that little sucker on the trailer.

 

[JSienkowski]

48 Deere MC, that's a piece of equipment!!! Ho Boy dat's gonna be fun to load in the trailer, are the tracks locked??

 

[jcarey]

MT, sounds like you're in the process of moving to Montana. That so?



We live in Maryland currently, but are planning a move to Montana in the next 5 years or so.

 

[Mopar_Tim]

if you need a some help shoot me a pm and i could maybe come give a hand

 

[MTownsend]

Well It's been a while!

Well I't been a while, Sorry I haven't posted in so long, It took me some time to calm down from my trip. The Truck did great, pulling the 38' trailer. Empty I got a best of 16mpg, loaded with a combined weight of 19,000# 12mpg The only problem was I had to leave my old john deere behind. I got her loaded on the trailer and headed strait for the scales at the Perryville truck stop. By the time I got there my rear axle and trailer tires were smoking hot. I had a combined weight of 25,900# So I spent the next several hours trying to give the old john deere away to someone who would want an old tractor, everyone looked at me like I was nuts. I ended up taking it to banks auto recyclers in conowingo, and headed home ****** off at the world. 3 days later the Cummins crew cab got me home with all my junk except for the old john deere. Ironicly I built the truck to pull it home.



To date I have put roughly 6,000 miles on the truck and get a best of 21 mpg empty, and I'm very happy with my first cummins.



Thank you to all the tdr members who helped me with this project