Having recently been made aware of the fuel bonus I’m now lookin at ways to get the most out of me truck.
Now to be honest I haven’t been on a course for this so generally use forward planning to keep her goin at traffic lights etc as to avoid the added fuel usage when breaking the vehicle inertia from a standing start.
Doesn’t always work but I’m trying my best.
Anyway as the proud attendant of a Merc Actros I have noticed I can set the eco-roll to 15kmph when not in cruise and flick her into neutral on downhill bits (when its safe to do so of course) to acheive speeds of 60mph on downhill M/way sections. Much to the annoyance of said elephant racers.
Obviously i don’t do this when elephant racing (I do) but I was wondering if anyone else has any tips on good economical driving.
I have been tempted to drop the trailer and bugger off for a bit solo to get my numbers up but this may be frowned upon.
Make sure the PPC is enabled on your new Actros. That’s if your boss has specced it though. It works by using GPS to know when it can use the EcoRoll to get over the top of a hill without using much fuel.
We have been told to use cc as much as possible. Wich on the mp4 merc.Can be used at 9.6mph.Using the cc with the exhaust break.And of course as you say forward planning. Should help you. Oh and cutting engine idle to a minimum to.
Not sure if it is or not but there has been moments when i have manually dropped a cog at exactly the same time as the CC causing 2 drops and making a real mess of things.
I’m still figuring it out but theres defo been times when i have needed to drop a gear early in anticipation of the incline so as to avoid a lower gear than needed.
somewhere in the dash display will be a turbo boost gauge. Keep this below halfway if you can by lifting your foot off the throttle when accelerating. You won’t get up to speed as quickly, but you’ll save fuel. it’s important to keep rolling too, as pulling away from a standing start uses the most fuel. Read the road and try to time your arrival at lights as they change to green.
damoq:
Make sure the PPC is enabled on your new Actros. That’s if your boss has specced it though. It works by using GPS to know when it can use the EcoRoll to get over the top of a hill without using much fuel.
We have it and though it’s clever I’m not a big fan as I feel it cuts out a little too early when near the peak of a hill and then everyone is backing up wondering what the hell I’m up to.