idling my truck?

[artie]

I saw a fellow blow a motor on a gas bus as he idled it all night and did not check his temp gauge. The motor overheated for what ever reason and cooked the motor. So if you do this check your temp gauge often and if you just have an idiot light then put in a proper temp gauge so you can keep an eye on what is happening. Also might help to take the truck for a short drive once in awhile. Also there were a couple of hunters killed a few years back when they got stuck in a mud hole and blocked their exhaust and let the truck idle. When I was a young one there were some kids killed when they backed their car into a snow bank and without knowing it as it idled the blocked exhaust got into the car and that was all she wrote. So all I am saying is be careful and get out of the truck once in awhile leaving a window open so you do not lock yourself out. With these new vehicles it is easy to get locked out of your truck. Always keep thinking about what could happen.

[jstubbs]

Originally Posted by elkdump

I have a 2000 Vortec gas V8, GMC 4x4 1500 with 550,000 klm on the odometer, it also has about 11,000 hours of idle time

Still gets around 21 mpg average , don't burn any oil between oil changes,

It always has oil and filter every 90 days, and runs a 205 thermostat

21 mpg in a Vortec? Please tell me your ways... I couldn't get 21 mpg in my old '05 Sierra Vortec if the engine was shut off rolling down hill...

[Tactical Lever]

Originally Posted by neilsledder

One a side note put your park brake on and shift into neutral instead of park! That way your tranny oil is circulating and lubes all the stuff up good!

Lots of dodge diesels burnt there transmissions out by letting the idle in park to long!


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That's common to the Dodge trucks. You have to check your fluid in neutral. I never let my truck idle in park, but then I switched to a Dodge. I don't think it makes much difference, if any with the other manufacturers.

Originally Posted by jstubbs

21 mpg in a Vortec? Please tell me your ways... I couldn't get 21 mpg in my old '05 Sierra Vortec if the engine was shut off rolling down hill...

I don't doubt that. I measured an early Vortec 2500 with the 5 on the floor, and it got pretty decent mileage. Highway, lease road and little idling.

[Tactical Lever]

It wouldn't bother me to let the truck idle all day, just as long as that's not all it does. A good drive on the highway twice a day would work. Engine wear is extremely low when idling. Motor stress goes up as a square of the rpm.

For an engine that is never shut off, the bearings wear more than the rest of the engine, but that takes a lot of hours.

I remember reading old IH literature and they equated 1 hour to 35 miles; but I don't believe that was differentiating between driving and idling. I would suspect that the 22 km quoted earlier is a lot closer. If that.

Good synthetic oil (conventional oil works too, but synthetic is just better, especially for the cold start in the morning), like Castrol or Pennzoil, Fram Gold filter and oil changes slightly more often should suffice.

[elkdump]

Originally Posted by jstubbs

21 mpg in a Vortec? Please tell me your ways... I couldn't get 21 mpg in my old '05 Sierra Vortec if the engine was shut off rolling down hill...

The motor has never had any repairs other than tune ups, and water pump, the 4L60 auto trans is original, the front and rear diffs are original( bearings included) the gear ratio is 3;73 , the TCase has been rebuilt ,

21mpg is about average combined, on a long steady drive it will get 23 - 24 depending on what brand of gas I put in the rank,

The truck is loaded with between 800 and a 1000 pounds of tools and equipment all the time ,

[2011laramie]

I said it in another thread. Our field trucks up here at work have 19xxx hours on them and only 100000km. Idle all winter and hot summer days. Gm 6.0 ls engines.

[neilsledder]

Originally Posted by Tactical Lever

That's common to the Dodge trucks. You have to check your fluid in neutral. I never let my truck idle in park, but then I switched to a Dodge. I don't think it makes much difference, if any with the other manufacturers.







I don't doubt that. I measured an early Vortec 2500 with the 5 on the floor, and it got pretty decent mileage. Highway, lease road and little idling.

I think the newer ones with the 6.7 in them don't matter as much. But the older ones do with the 5.9. I took my truck in and got the tranny shop to make it flow in park.


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[4thredneck]

I really want to know what would make a gas engine wear faster at 800 rpm than at 1500-6000 rpm?

[coreymcniven]

That puts a lot of hours on ur engine wick is hard on it. It's not just miles that effect ur engine but hours also

[knacker]

Back when I was still in the field and winter being the busiest time in the patch, idling our company trucks (all gm 2500 hd's gas and diesel) for 12 hour shifts + shift change + the drive to and from the well site was necessary. Our trucks were our offices and well site supers didn't generally have extra shacks delivered for us tool specialists.

No problems for the gas jobbers, but the diesels constantly ran into issues. Mostly having to drive back to the hotel in limp mode. Which sucks when your an hour and a half from the hotel after a night shift.

In the warmer months there was no reason to constantly run your truck, so we didn't.

[58thecat]

You don't need to idle or warm up more than 5 minutes.

[Don_Parsons]

I never had any issues idling my truck over the years farming or snowmobiling in BC.

A lot less of this since I did the 1000 Watt generator that keeps the cab toasty warm as it powers up the in cab electric heater.

Been living across the America's since 1994 or was that 1996 when I moved into my cabin on wheels, Ha.

Lots of storys about this on my blog "Lost in the West on another forum.

Been living 1/2 my life living in the cab of a truck traveling the America's, what a awesome way too see the world.

No trailer to pull as the cabin on wheels is easy to get around.

Truck, quad or bike in the box, tools, supplies, stove and cooler. Lots of water.

This all came true for me after hearing the story about the guy that travelled all of Australia after the war in a truck,,, tarp over the box to sleep and live our of, barrels of gas and water, and finding food too eat along the way.

My retirement years will be living this way since travel is my passion.

The blog talks about less is more and the on going ideas of change that is a constant program.

The living cabin on wheels is very doable as its worked well for me over many years.

Colorado is the capital of folks living on the road, not homeless as long as we have our wheels.

Pal Don whom is a good friend of Homeless Dan some where in America.

It is us that choose too live life full one day at a time.

Glad to share in ideas for those that enjoy living in different ways.

[KinAlberta]

I've never regularly idled any of my vehicles. I try to run synthetics in the winter and never have a plug in handy and so start it cold then go easy for a few minutes and shiver until the heat starts to blow. If you grew up in Alberta, odds are you've learned to just wear warm clothes in the winter and not waste anything.

I di just see idling as wasting good money and I prefer to be pretty conservative with what I make. It's rather shocking to think that employees would casually waste their company's money for a warm ass.

Maybe it depends on the maker though. My Saabs got 300,000+ km on engines and turbos only needing maybe one replacement clutch each - and I thrashed these cars. Never burned any oil. Often started them at -30 or colder.

[Bitumen Bullet]

Originally Posted by 4thredneck

I really want to know what would make a gas engine wear faster at 800 rpm than at 1500-6000 rpm?

When it comes to car engines one answer would be older designs. Back in the day it was impossible to get a perfect fuel mixture so idle circuits usually ran rich. Add to that a big block of iron shedding heat faster than the engine was generating it and you had it running rich and cold.

So cold that the rings wouldn't seal so have the combustion gases and particles ending up in the crankcase, and then the oil. The oil, never great to begin with, gets dirty and thinned out.

So thinned out that in one case we could smell gasoline just checking the oil. Not that we needed to check the oil as he heard it scream before seizing with a loud knock. The neighbors saw the blue smoke but it was an old truck so didn't think much about it.

Today's cars can have near perfect fuel mix under all conditions, including idling and adjust idle depending on engine temp. Seems to me a bigger risk today is filling the exhaust with water.

But the idle hurts engine idea sticks around, just as the idea that you shouldn't put your battery on concrete. A great idea when cases were made of glass but not so much these days.

[petew]

I like the idea of a gen set in the box and running an elect heater in the cab as well as being able to keep the block heater plugged in. A season of fuel savings would probably pay for the gen set .

[Dean2]

Originally Posted by petew

I like the idea of a gen set in the box and running an elect heater in the cab as well as being able to keep the block heater plugged in. A season of fuel savings would probably pay for the gen set .

Plumb the gen set into the gas tank and you never have to fill it. Plug in block heater and electric car warmer. The gas, oil changes and engine wear you save will pay for the gen set in the first month. Second choice is to install a gas fired heater and add a convection heater rad in the cab.

If you insist on idling; install winter front, idle in neutral, and install hand throttle so you can get engine speed up to 1000 rpm on gas jobs (keeps your engine oil pressure up and circulates your coolant better). Helps with the new DPF diesels too as they don't load up as bad but those need to run at 1200 rpm.