idle stick?

ftp000

Expert Expediter
In several past posts I've read concerning idling sprinters people said they got an "idle stick" at the J rather than pay for the high idle upgrade. What is this idle stick really? no one at the 2 J's I've checked has any clue so I'm guessing its a product meant to do something else but being used to increase idle. please tell me what you mean, I gotta pick up something.
 

Moot

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
An idle stick is a metal rod with 2 adjustable sliding clips. The rod fits between the bottom of tha dash and the foot feed. It puts pressure on the pedal increasing engine speed.
A wooden dowel cut to the right length and notched on one end works just as well. Or a broken ice scrapper/brush.
 

ftp000

Expert Expediter
ok, now I'll respond to me (I may be Schizophrenic, but we'll always have myself) After the last few days I've learned that the new Sprinter's egr valve while improved , is still not good for extended idling, after overnight idling and then driving away the white smoke gets bad, then in our case there was a loss of power that required us to pull over and shut the van off , wait, then restart. These problems seem to be fixed by increasing the idle, the dealer told me when I bought it that they didn't think it was necassary to add the high idle feature as the problem was fixed, so I kept my 800 bucks only to go into a panic when the van would only go 65 after idling overnight. EO has saved the day as always, it took some research but I found a past post that said to cut a dowl rod to exactly 9 1/2 inches, notch one end to fit over the lip of the lower dash above the gas pedal, then use the other end to hold the pedal down, this put my idle at a little over 1000 rpm and seems to have fixed the whole issue. Cost, not a thing actually, I found a piece of dowel at home and made this idle stick in 10 minutes, saving 800 bucks. After I said in a past post that we were getting the new sprinter with the sleeper (Caldwell Dodge, Mike Walker has been great)several people wrote me asking me to update them after we got the van, I can honestly say that its awsome (now) and I highly recommend the sprinter w/sleeper as far as comfort and ease of use, as for the mechanical side its too soon to tell, we know these are German built and not really made for extended idling as I'm told they don't do that in Germany, the idle stick has been alleged by many to have fixed the problem, only time will tell. I'll say this, we've (my wife and I) been running team in straight trucks for a couple of years, the whole time wanting to try the cargo van deal but afraid to because of the naysayers who keep saying there are no miles in it. We were averaging about 3000 miles a week in a straight truck with panther, getting 8 mpg. In our first 5 days in a van we've ran 2600 miles at 22 mpg and we're pretty sure we'll get another load before the full 7 day week is over, our payments are lower and the fuel overhead is lower, we're some happy expeditors so far, I know things can and will change from time to time, but this feels right.
 

Moot

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
ftp000,

Do you know what your Sprinter weighs after the conversion and full of fuel and personal gear? I couldn't get an answer from
Caldwell. Just curious as to what one weighs and how much that leaves for freight.
 

Draco

Expert Expediter
>ftp000,
>
>Do you know what your Sprinter weighs after the conversion
>and full of fuel and personal gear? I couldn't get an
>answer from
>Caldwell. Just curious as to what one weighs and how much
>that leaves for freight.

Not sure on the weight but I know my max hauling weight is 2600lbs.


Side note on idle stick: when using it did your Sprinter burn up alot more fuel? Or does it still stay pretty low?
 

ftp000

Expert Expediter
its too soon for me to tell the effect on fuel the stick has. I've read in other places that its hardly noticable, we'll see
 

Draco

Expert Expediter
>Draco, how can you know what you can haul without knowing
>the empty weight?

Well I have it in the truck and right now I'm not in the truck. I didn't want to take a guess at it don't want to give someone false information.
 

highway star

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
O.K. I took it as you did'nt know empty weight at all. Your payload sounds more realistic than I've heard from some others.
 

geo

Veteran Expediter
Charter Member
Retired Expediter
US Navy
i would go with a genset that is better option than idling here in va you may not idle more than 10 mins and can be find 20,000 to owner and to the driver and owner of land you are on

walmart nation wide does not permit idling on there parking lots
as they were fine in new york and new england states were able to get out of it by putting gensets on there trucks
 

greg334

Veteran Expediter
Well I am glad I have a GM product, high idle is selectable I have three settings) not the 2000 RPM like the Sprinter. I am wondering if there is a way to lower the idle speed to 1250 or even 1500 RPM.
 

Draco

Expert Expediter
>i would go with a genset that is better option than idling
>here in va you may not idle more than 10 mins and can be
>find 20,000 to owner and to the driver and owner of land you
>are on
>
>walmart nation wide does not permit idling on there parking
>lots
>as they were fine in new york and new england states were
>able to get out of it by putting gensets on there trucks


That's weird I've idled at WalMart tons of times and have never had any problems.

One benefit I have on idling is the fact that in the states that don't allow it I can. I did some checking and since I have a boxer that rides w/ me I can idle my Sprinter with no problems. Strange that pets have more rights then people in that retrospect.
 

Moot

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
Is that after the sleeper installation? My Chey weighed in at about 5600# fresh out of the box.
 

OntarioVanMan

Retired Expediter
Owner/Operator
>Well I am glad I have a GM product, high idle is selectable
>I have three settings) not the 2000 RPM like the Sprinter. I
>am wondering if there is a way to lower the idle speed to
>1250 or even 1500 RPM.

Ask the dealer tech if its a computer program and have him reprogram it. I did that on my auto door lock function.
 

ftp000

Expert Expediter
>Well I am glad I have a GM product, high idle is selectable
>I have three settings) not the 2000 RPM like the Sprinter. I
>am wondering if there is a way to lower the idle speed to
>1250 or even 1500 RPM.


It always happens, you start a thread with a legitimate question about a specific vehicle, it even has "SPRINTER" right in the title!
but mr. chevy guy needs to tell us all how much smarter he is than the poor high idle-less Sprinter owners. He has nothing to add to the conversation, no answer to the actual question, he just needs to tell everybody how much better his is than yours. Well good luck to ya there bud, I hope you're happy wherever you're driving now, cause if you ever leave them you'll most likely be playing with your 3 way idle switch in your driveway, cause nobody's hiring regular cargo vans. Trust me I checked before buying. A stick I found in my garage turned my idle up, I could make 2 more at different lengths and be just like you. And I had my pick of who to drive for, almost every company I called said they'd take a sprinter.
 

dhalltoyo

Veteran Expediter
Of course they want you to have the availibilty of extra capacity. This is a logistical benefit to dispatchers. In fact, they would like everyone to have a D unit. Every carrier I have ever contacted suggested that I have a D unit.

The reality is that most loads are either 2 skids or less or more than three skids. More than three puts the load on a straight truck. I seldom haul more than 1000lbs and quite often I can carry the load on my front passenger seat (data tapes, bank documents, etc.)

My only concern with the Sprinter is its lack of pulling power. An inline 5 cyl is not a torque producing configuration. I have witnessed many Sprinters falling back on steep grades.

I am glad to hear that you are satisfied with yours. I hope you get a lot runs and make a bunch of money.
 

klippencott

Expert Expediter
I have looked in several truck stops and have not found an idle stick. I think I'm going to engineer one for my Sprinter. It would seem to me that I could take one of the 2 foot adjustable wood clamps and modify it to use as an idle stick. It has a screw-down clamp that I can use for fine tuning the idle speed. Does anyone think it will work?

Kathy
 
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