Fuel for Thought

Happy November

Monthly chores. Today is a day for my monthly chores. Maintenance report goes to carrier. I file receipts and paperwork in their monthly files. If I have time I run an analysis of the month. This month I’ve clocked just over 6500 miles on the van. Fuel economy for the last 20,000 miles is just over 21 mpg.

Sandy. I think dispatch was working around hurricane Sandy. Whatever it was, it worked out well for me. When Sandy was working her way up the east coast, north central Ohio was messy with wind and rain—nothing torrential, but it was messy. I moved to Toledo over the weekend to get better sun through the clouds for my electrical power. The weather followed me. I got a load to central Indiana. I could see the full moon through the clouds in Kokomo when I arrived, but the clouds, wind and drizzle picked up by the time I woke. Next load went to northern Florida. Woo-hoo. I’ll take Florida over Sandy, and I didn’t have to go that far into the freight black hole called Florida. At this point I’m doing a slow troll north. I won’t go farther north than lower South Carolina.

Fuel additive experiment. I stopped using fuel additives for all of October. Since early on I have used fuel additives, because even under warranty, the van had sensor and egr problems. Fuel additives seemed to keep the check engine light at bay. The last five years I’ve settled on regularly using Power Service and Howe’s Meaner Power Cleaner. The last couple years I’ve still had an ellusive check engine light. Last year I started trying to only buy fuel from major name fuel sources, like Shell, Exxon/Mobile and BP. It seems I have fewer check engine lights. I stopped using fuel additives for October to see if fuel quality has more to do with the check engine light than the fuel additives. No check engine lights for October. I usually would see a check engine light before now. The experiment continues. I’m also wondering if winter mix for diesel will have an effect going forward.

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