[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Wolferz

Any deviation would have a dispatcher pinging you to ask why you're not where you should be.

A particular pain in the Ass when parked overlong(20 minutes tops-truckers get priority!) just outside Fallon Nevada 'chaining up' for the big drop down the mountain?...AT THE MUSTANG RANCH!

Originally Posted by swamprat69er

Peak torque should be around 1,200-1,500 rpm. Depending on the engine. Idle speed should be around 700 rpm.

The fuel squeezer 290 Cummins with exhaust turbo(1/3 of the power) went from 500 to 2200 but pulling long passes uphill was a reverse thinking process: you brought the RPM down to 1300 RPM so it sounded like you were 'lugging' for maximum efficiency as opposed to as standard two stroke Detroit-Allison where you ran full RPM just to get up the mountain. I did 'put it to it' one time though at Knolls Utah on I-80 with nothing but the Bonneville Salt Flats all around me (a 1000 sq miles of salt flats and nothing to hit!) for an escape ramp and new tires and rear ends in the tractor's axels. I was keeping up with a much faster Carolina Western west bound against the prevailing westerly wind-always a factor in fuel consumption- and at the top of the grade maxed out on my speedometer at 90 mph down hill...before putting it into neutral! I passed that Cat-equipped CW, now motivated by gravity and freight with no engine to slow me,(Mexican Overdrive) and later at the rest stop in Elko Nevada, He claimed his speedo went to 110 (his speed at the time) and he had never been passed(est. 115+) by a Midwestern before "was I running empty or burning jet fuel?" I coasted in neutral for some distance before slowing down enough to regain the top gear on the tach...no Utah Patrol in sight till Wendover! We got 4 miles to the gallon in them-thar days. Fuel that year went from .25-to $1.00+ a gallon and getting into a truckstop meant going through some nasty picket-protest lines at the pumps all that summer..