Scania R470 Fuel Consumption

Can anyone body on here give me an idea what fuel consumption i can expect to get from a 2006 4 x 2 Scania R470…mostly motorway and dual carriage way work pulling a fridge trailer…im thinking of trading in my thirsty V8 580 for one :frowning:

i run a scania r470 and before that i ran 2 other 470’s and i regularly get 10mpg round trip, at the moment i’m running mostly around 6 ton and am getting over 11mpg.
if your heavy out and empty back you should get 10 if you have your truck set up right.
i have a low height fifth wheel which keeps my trailer height down a few inches, i regularly check the tyre pressures and run at 110psi on the drive axle and 127psi on the steering axle, i also have the crossfire system fitted to my drive axle which makes keeping my eye on the tyre pressures easy and putting air in even easier, i also carry an airline which i can use from the air tank supply under the grill as most of the air lines in the uk only seem to go to 80 psi.

Blissy

We run a V8 480 and reckon to get 9.5; but that’s on containers, so no consistent weights.

As a matter of interest, and assuming you don’t mind me asking; what mpg are you getting at 580 horses?

7-9 mpg depending on what your pulling and at what weight

My old boss at Stowmarket runs a few 6x2s on tilt work from Felixstowe, and hes not getting lower than 8.8 on a bad day. I once drove one for a few days while my 144 530 was in for mot, and it was a fantastic truck, 42 tons from Deeside to Felixstowe without changing down for hills.

Unbelievable mpg figuires,i know of one n.irish company which had 1854 mercs and never pulled more than 6 tonne.6.5 mpg was the norm,and it wasnt the mercs cos now they have changed to R480 toplines same work same drivers and weights.the figuire now is 7 but they reckon its cos the scanias are opticruise.

Talking to a few operators that have run both 420 and 470 12litre engines they find the 470s a lot heavier on fuel,in fact folklore has it that a chipped 420 is the way to go.

Snow Associates:
Blissy

We run a V8 480 and reckon to get 9.5; but that’s on containers, so no consistent weights.

As a matter of interest, and assuming you don’t mind me asking; what mpg are you getting at 580 horses?

around 8 to 8.5 tops and the work i do is not heavy only about 15 ton loads…the truck has opticruise as well so i thought it should be doing better but i cant crack over 8.5

ellies dad:
Unbelievable mpg figuires,i know of one n.irish company which had 1854 mercs and never pulled more than 6 tonne.6.5 mpg was the norm,and it wasnt the mercs cos now they have changed to R480 toplines same work same drivers and weights.the figuire now is 7 but they reckon its cos the scanias are opticruise.

the figure are correct ive driven one everday for the last 3 years from new
andyou are reffering to the 480 ive heard the same about 2 irish operators that the 480’s are bad on fuel

Blissy:
Can anyone body on here give me an idea what fuel consumption i can expect to get from a 2006 4 x 2 Scania R470…mostly motorway and dual carriage way work pulling a fridge trailer…im thinking of trading in my thirsty V8 580 for one :frowning:

y not change brand and look at Volvo or Daf ? Do you need 580 ? Do you need 480 ? If you think back to the days of 32 tonnes max , hauliers were running F88/F89 or Scania 140/141, HP WAS no where near 400, the max weight for a 4x2 has only gone up 8 to tonnes alright, so y dya need such a big motor ?

The Marketing of certain manufacturers has really worked on some… dont be sucked in.

try one on demo? surely …try before u buy and dont committ!!! u dont have to buy new do you to get one on demo, test it and then source a decent second hand one!

Oh how heavy is ya fridge? could make a difference…

My brother is running a 430 SSC Daf , at 38 tonnes, getting around 9/10 mpg

Gluck to ya now

ellies dad:
Unbelievable mpg figuires,i know of one n.irish company which had 1854 mercs and never pulled more than 6 tonne.6.5 mpg was the norm,and it wasnt the mercs cos now they have changed to R480 toplines same work same drivers and weights.the figuire now is 7 but they reckon its cos the scanias are opticruise.

I don’t know about Mercs, but as R470 and it’s updated version R480 are turbocompound engines they are less economical at low weights than conventional turbocharged engines. Reason behind this is that the second turbocharger (aka turbocompound) adds engine internal resistance even when it’s not contributing any output power and at low weights, like with those 6 tonne loads, you barely ever need all your horses which makes turbocompound only to “idle” most of the time. That idling of course ain’t free and engine have to work little harder to outcome resistance of idling turbocompound which equals to increased fuel consumption.

On the other hand, whenever you really utilize turbocompound, engine does have noticeably better efficiency at that moment than conventional engine giving same output power. This is reason why turbocompound engine gives better fuel figures when running heavy most of the time as engine is at it’s most efficient zone most of the time. This, of course, applies only as long as driver is sane enough to not use that extra power at wrong way which most likely ends to increased fuel consumption. This is possible and likely even with these automated gear boxes.

I agree with Kyrbo but still run 470 turbocompound - theyre so much nicer to drive and really lug at 1000 rpm. Doesnt matter how light you are when you have a long steep pull infront of you - youre still gonna be wishing you had more hp

Stay away from the R480 (euro 4 - EGR) very bad news whatever gearbox it has.

something good:
Stay away from the R480 (euro 5) very bad news whatever gearbox it has.

aren´t those being delivered next year the earliest?

a friend of mine has had his R480 euro 4 for about 70 tkms now, with a lifetime average consumption of 30.2, running heavy on nonexistent eastern-european roads

Thanks Mil. . I meant euro 4 - post edited.

average consumption of 30.2, running heavy on nonexistent eastern-european roads

Thats about 9.3 in old money - sounds too good to be true to me.

The 2 I had would have returned about 7.5 mpg (37.29)

:sunglasses:

something good:
Thats about 9.3 in old money - sounds too good to be true to me.

The 2 I had would have returned about 7.5 mpg (37.29)

its an opticruise and by heavy I mean up to 40 tons, not 44. it´s his own too, so that should also account for something. And I have never heard from anybody, that the 420 would be more economical, than the 480.

pursy:
Talking to a few operators that have run both 420 and 470 12litre engines they find the 470s a lot heavier on fuel,in fact folklore has it that a chipped 420 is the way to go.

couldnt agree more… i drive a 420 chipped to 500 and it pulls like a train and returns very good mpg… on a hill it leaves R480’s for dust…every week its over 9mpg … 9 ton to felix from midlands and 25 ton reefer back to midlands … 9.88mpg… at most she only ever goes down half a gear… walkermovements.co.uk/spec_s … nitID=4737 … seems like a good truck… have it mapped u got ur power ur after plus great economy :sunglasses: :smiley:

that 420 at walkers has massive km,s on it, west pennine have 55 plate ex birds r470,s with 550 t0 600 kms at £22k, ive had r580,s and run fh13s and 12s and a 430 daf, none can touch my R470 on fuel, we have had 4 of them and never a bit of trouble, best scanias we have ever had…

Lrm

LRM:
that 420 at walkers has massive km,s on it, west pennine have 55 plate ex birds r470,s with 550 t0 600 kms at £22k, ive had r580,s and run fh13s and 12s and a 430 daf, none can touch my R470 on fuel, we have had 4 of them and never a bit of trouble, best scanias we have ever had…

Lrm

the one on that link has 591k bud… seems well spec too leather coffee maker microwave alloys all factory spots etc
they have another with 900k for 18750…

it’s just an example…

Just been reminded of this thread - and I’ve learnt a few things since I looked at it last.

There are so many variables regarding mpg so its difficult to say what your truck is actually doing.

The most important thing I learnt was the mpg readout on my 06 plate R470 was over-reading by almost 20% :blush:

So if I thought I was getting 10mpg I was actually closer to 8mpg - I now check what the dashboard meter says and compare it with how much fuel I put in the tank.

I also use the speed my sat nav says I’m doing and compare it with the speed set on the cruise control. This was 5% out on my R470

I now run R620’s (with the overdrive gear) and consistently return better mpg than the R470 (calibration error accounted for)

I’m also pretty sure Shell diesel returns better mpg than any other fuel. - A regular run I have (340miles medium weight up, heavy back) usually comes out at 8.3-8.5mpg - when I use Shell I get 9.3-9.5 mpg

Another regular run 330 miles (very light) I can get 12 mpg - but with Shell I actually achieved 14.7 mpg! I was so amazed I had to call my mate over to verify what was displayed.(I’m pretty sure I had a tailwind)

Another reagular run 340 miles (light) returns a consistent 11.3mpg - I had the truck in for MOT one day and had to do this run with a basic spec Scania 380 and got 10.8 mpg :grimacing:

All runs in 6x2 620 Topline & mainly motorway

I’d still shy away from the R480 - but I think the new 13 litre 440 might be the way to go. .