Megaspacedout1:
Anyone got any tips on how to get the best from one?I normally run a Scania R420 on ferry trailers but due to the need to take it off the road to get a few bits done I’ve short term hired one of these.
First week completed and I honestly hate it, not at all looking forward to the next few Weeks with it!
I find it terrible to drive fully freighted and rubbish on fuel. It’s noisy, the engine seems tight and almost restricted. At 44 tonne it seems a real effort to get rolling. My 420 with knocking on a million km would out pull it all day long.
What should I expect mpg? And what is the best way to get the most mpg from it?
Plus, can you turn the automatic exhaust brake off - truck senses it is going down hill, engine goes to idle thus saving fuel but just as it settles bloody exhaust brake cuts in which engages the engine and extremely high revs thus not achieving the benefit of any such momentum and uses fuel. With the lack of momentum at the bottom of a dip whereas you could have coasted up the other side, the engine has to work twice as hard to climb back up - I just don’t get it!
I have been running to Glasgow/ Edinburgh this last week and dragging heavy loads has been hard work and a real effort with this truck to say the least.
Any help?
My experience of Mercs is they do seem more gutless than some other makes, but your one does sound really bad.
I often drive a 480, but although it can feel a bit gutless I quite like it now, which is not something I’d ever thought I’d say about a Merc. 
On long descents I hold it back around the 90km/h by using the retarder, it has a voith retarder not sure what the standard system is like and when I get near enough the bottom of hill I let it go so I have the momentum to start climbing the next hill.
My understanding of these truck and fuel injected car engines is they don’t use fuel on the overrun, so high revs while engine braking won’t be using extra fuel.