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Items that could improve Fuel Mileage

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Packy

Seasoned Expediter
Does any one have any experiecnce with the following two items to help on fuel mileage. When they are installed on trucks, do they help improve fuel mileage. Are they worth the inverstment?

1. Turbo 3000 D Fuel Saver: It's installed as in in line fuel filter.

2. Air tabs that are installed on the end of box trucks and roof top of straight trucks. See www. airtab.com for more information.
 
Jack_Berry

Jack_Berry

Moderator Emeritus
ovm, team caffee and terryandrene have experience with the air tabs and say they work. there are past threads. using search you should find them.
search for "airtabs on a van?" terry has a report there. if you search for "air tabs" in posts there are quite a few. now i can't get this to come up properly. try searching on author terryandrenee

team caffee had a vada on the truck then took it off to run a comparison of mileage. don't think they have reported it yet. maybe i missed it.
 
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Turtle

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
Airtabs works, and pay for themselves in a matter of weeks.
 
greg334

greg334

Veteran Expediter
The 3000 is a worthless.

It is better to spend the $300 on an overhead for your engine before spending it on something like this. I didn't spend that amount but it was a price of a good meal.

I borrowed a very good fuel consumption system that tracks everything on the truck and that equipment showed my mileage dropped enough that I would see a loss big loss with it on. The install of everything was checked by the people I borrowed the system from and they did further testing on a dyno to determine the specific fuel consumption on a test engine, it failed to improve anything. Right now it is sitting in the scrap metal pile next to my lathe.
 
paid vacationer

paid vacationer

Seasoned Expediter
I bought a 3000 for half that price( $150) Looked at the install kit it came with and knew without even trying that something was not right. Didn't buy this at a flea market, it came from turbo 3000 itself. Wrong size fittings. So, one time I was in Bloomington/Normal, IL with some time to kill. Took the 3000 over to the AUTHORIZED turbo 3000 dealer (Peterbilt dealer) They unhooked a few things to get started, then stopped and told me, " uh we cant install this, the fittings ain't right"... to which i responded, uh.. no sh**, I told you before you started but u said no prob. Long story short.. i too have one just sitting around. Called 3000 corporate many times, best they could do was to tell me if i got to buffalo to stop by and they would take care of it. This is what i call " the run around " I have not 1 positive thing to say about the product or the company. Lousy customer service, questionable product. Live and learn I suppose.
 
Doggie Daddy

Doggie Daddy

Veteran Expediter
In the latest issue of Expedite Now,Phil (AKA, A team )has listed several ways to save fuel,and they all make sense except one.
I wanna know how on a run from NYC to Chicago you can save fuel by going through Iowa? DD.
 
TeamCaffee

TeamCaffee

Administrator
Staff member
Owner/Operator
We do have both the Turbo D Vada and the Air Tabs and we are happy with both products. We have had the AirTabs over two years and when we buy our next truck this will be one of the first items added. We have now had the Turbo D Vada 8 months and had it off the truck for two months to test if it helped us or not. We did not get the 10% increase in our fuel mileage but did not expect that due to everything else we have done to our truck. We though did see an increase and Bob feels as if the truck runs smoother with the Turbo D Vada on then when we had it off. So for us both products are worth the money.
Another item we are very happy with is the OPS1 and the money we have saved by not having our oil changed all of the time.
 
OntarioVanMan

OntarioVanMan

Retired Expediter
Owner/Operator
TeamCaffee said:
We do have both the Turbo D Vada and the Air Tabs and we are happy with both products. We have had the AirTabs over two years and when we buy our next truck this will be one of the first items added. We have now had the Turbo D Vada 8 months and had it off the truck for two months to test if it helped us or not. We did not get the 10% increase in our fuel mileage but did not expect that due to everything else we have done to our truck. We though did see an increase and Bob feels as if the truck runs smoother with the Turbo D Vada on then when we had it off. So for us both products are worth the money.
Another item we are very happy with is the OPS1 and the money we have saved by not having our oil changed all of the time.
Click to expand...

How are your SS tires working out? Any issues, problems, good feedback?

Iowa is one of the flattest states and the wind is usually out of the west so you'd have a good tailwind. Only thing I can think of to support Phils thinking.
 
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Moot

Moot

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
OntarioVanMan said:
Iowa is one of the flattest states and the wind is usually out of the west so you'd have a good tailwind. Only thing I can think of to support Phils thinking.
Click to expand...

Contrary to popular belief Iowa isn't all that flat! Running I-35 south from the Minnesota line to Des Moines is relatively flat. From just south of Des Moines to the Missouri line is hilly.

I-80 west from Des Moines to the Nebraska line is very hilly. I- 80 east from Iowa City to Walcott has some hills.

As to Phil's thinking; it must be my GPS is down, no internet service, no cell phone service, computers crashed and the map blew out the window reaction drill.

Hey, did I ever mention the time me and my good friend Jack practiced this very same scenario? We built a huge fire out of blown steer tires. When the fire was like really super hot, ya know, we like threw our cell phones, computers, Garmins, maps and underwear into the fire. Like before long everything was like the consistency of toast. Then it just turned to ash and solidified puddles of like technology or something. Except for the maps. Maps are so analog that they burned and disappeared.

So after we burned our good stuff we became clueless neophytes. A neophyte is like someone who is just starting out. Like clueless, ya know. Did I mention we became clueless? Like a newbie to expediting or life or something.

There was this hunk of a super single tire that didn't burn. So to carry our clueless reaction drill to the X (that's like to the extreme dude) we beat each other about the heads with this large section of rubber. To this very day I still blame Jack, God bless his soul, for my mental condition. Jack was a little over-enthusiastic with the tire scrap.

Anyway, after becoming good and clueless we tried to find some place. But we couldn't! We burned all of our really good stuff and even the not so good stuff like the maps. Finding some place was impossible. Luckily (ooh bad word, form of the word luck) some Mormons in a Marmon saw the smoke from our fire. They led us to Salt Lake City and I-80 where we were able to catch the prevailing westerlies all the way to Chicago.

Hey did I ever mention the time Jack and I practiced the blown steer tire reaction drill?
 
OntarioVanMan

OntarioVanMan

Retired Expediter
Owner/Operator
Ok Moot point taken eastern Iowa isn't as hilly as the west side...but none of the hills are that extreme and you shouldn't have to gear down on any of them...And it's true about a tail wind....My MPG's are up when coming back from Rapid City to Albert Lea when coming back into service...
 
nightcreacher

nightcreacher

Veteran Expediter
Contrary to belief,there was a test done on all the so called items to save you fuel mileage.from everything like the Tornado to the Turbo 3000 d.In this test not one item saved any fuel or even did anything that was advertised,wish i could bring up the link,but I forget where I saw it.What was funny,the Tornado actually lost horsepower and fuel economy.I talked to the air tab guy this week,I can see how they may work on a straight truck,but not sure on a tractor trailer,unless the trailer had them too,but what he said about moving the air around the dead spot in front of the trailer made sence.Ive listened to guys claim those high dollar wheel balancers save fuel too,didnt on my truck,in fact,as far as tire balance,my truck rode just as good useing the powder called Equal,and that was far less than the 180 bucks I paid for the balancers that I bought.
 
TeamCaffee

TeamCaffee

Administrator
Staff member
Owner/Operator
OVM we are very pleased with the SS tires. They seem to be wearing like iron which is one of the reasons it took awhile to see a fuel savings with running them. We are still pleased with the ride with the tires, the traction with the tires (except in mud), and also the fuel savings we are seeing. They will be on our next truck. We also heard on the radio the other day that starting July first the SS will be legal in all of Canada carrying the same weight as duals.
 
OntarioVanMan

OntarioVanMan

Retired Expediter
Owner/Operator
Steve if you go to the airtab web page it shows that the tabs go on both tractor and trailer to produce a constant flow...they have wind tunnel test results there...
 
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