been on holiday for 2 weeks to find my 5 month old scania 400 with the super new high pressure engine has had the kick down and hill mode disengaged to improve fuel economy!!! so watch out if your behind me on any slight incline or roundabout! why bother with an auto box when it needs driving in manual■■?
Don’t forget then - if you pull out and try to kick down lol - what a waste of money - they should have got a manual
what mpg are you getting and what are they hoping to achieve ?
seems to me that by dropping it down manually you will waste fuel rather than save it especially on a 400 - if it was a 560 or bigger i could understand it as the engine would have the torque and power but a 400 ?
cheers
Steve
gm:
seems to me that by dropping it down manually you will waste fuel rather than save it especially on a 400 - if it was a 560 or bigger i could understand it as the engine would have the torque and power but a 400 ?
cheers
Steve
I agree, all you are going to do is use revs which go through the torque band and out the other side just wasting fuel, unless you are pulling a very lightweight load all the time this was a pointless exercise by someone who just doesn’t know how trucks work. 
truckermarcus:
been on holiday for 2 weeks to find my 5 month old scania 400 with the super new high pressure engine has had the kick down and hill mode disengaged to improve fuel economy!!! so watch out if your behind me on any slight incline or roundabout! why bother with an auto box when it needs driving in manual■■?
Just a thought but wont that also disable or reduce engine braking for descending gradients ? Thats got to be some sort of construction & use offense. :!
Best way to save fuel is to stay away from auto!!! I never use it in my old Actros cuz i like to tell the truck when to change gear not vice versa. We have just had our DCPC (2nd part: S.A.F.E.D) and we had to do 2 trips over an identical route with mixed roads. 1st time in auto and 2nd time in manual (early version of Opticruise, stubby stick in normal place), better mention this was in a 230 Scania rigid fitted with fuel meter and records gear changes,time taken etc etc with 5 tonne of ballast in the back.
1st run Results were; 41mins, 99 gear changes, 11.2mpg
2nd run results were; 42mins, 69 gear changes, 12.8mpg
Instructer also told us to leave the retarder on all the time as it ‘works out the fuel needed comparitive to engine/road speed and feeds it just enough’ 
If i’d have had a 3rd run i might have saved a bit more cuz i wouldn’t have bothered with so many down changes when approaching roundabouts or red lights…just hung back n maybe come down 1 pr 2 cogs if the situation allowed me to continue or just wait till she started labouring n buried the clutch if faced with a total stop!!! Could say a bit more but dont wanna sound like an anorak 
i leave mine in auto until i have a series of hills then i switch to semi and let the engine do the work -
cheers
Steve
Easy to save fuel, especially in the hillier parts of the country, teach bosses to buy trucks with an engine instead of a hairdryer motor under the grill. Weve been struggling to get 7mpg in R420 autos, firm over the hill has 580`s and gets over 8.5 using the same roads.
its a transporter thats 22 ton empty! used to get 8 and quarter with my 56 plate manual, struggle to get 7 with this bag o ■■■■■ no matter how u drive it. complete waste of time this auto mallarky.
Quite interested to read this post.
We have a new fleet of Scania R440 Toplines with the full auto gearbox and our useless transport managers decided to disconnect the hillstart the kickdown and also limit them to 52mph in order to save fuel.
This as many of you will of course know has in fact saved nothing as the vehicle can hardly hold 12th gear on the flat when loaded.
Yet when the company was highlighted in one of the truck mags it was said how wonderfull the mpg figures were for these trucks and was the reason that a large order was made, also it was stated that the drivers were more than happy with the latest additions which could not be further from the truth.
Would like to hear others perspective on this issue.
Mike.
tuktukmike:
Quite interested to read this post.We have a new fleet of Scania R440 Toplines with the full auto gearbox and our useless transport managers decided to disconnect the hillstart the kickdown and also limit them to 52mph in order to save fuel.
This as many of you will of course know has in fact saved nothing as the vehicle can hardly hold 12th gear on the flat when loaded.
Yet when the company was highlighted in one of the truck mags it was said how wonderfull the mpg figures were for these trucks and was the reason that a large order was made, also it was stated that the drivers were more than happy with the latest additions which could not be further from the truth.Would like to hear others perspective on this issue.
Mike.
Our company have also started to do this on a lot of our rigids in the belief that it saves fuel…wrong!! Driver training saves fuel. We had a rental R420 in the other wk and it was obviously geared to do 60 mph as it wouldn’t select 12th when in auto and when we knocked it over manually,it was 100rpm below the green band and wanted to change down all the poxy time!! Read my earlier post about fuel economy,gotta admit that when we were told years ago that this new ‘semi’ box would help the company save oodles of fuel and it would make our lives as drivers easier,we were impressed…wot a total croc!! Dunno wot the new ‘2 pedal system’ is like but i’ve never seen a Scania in auto stay in the green!! Heard a rumour that 1 of our depots is gonna trial a full fleet of auto Dafs 
Actrosman:
Best way to save fuel is to stay away from auto!!!Instructer also told us to leave the retarder on all the time as it ‘works out the fuel needed comparitive to engine/road speed and feeds it just enough’
A good driver can beat an auto, but in a fleet operation autoshifters will be better on fuel, not every driver is a good driver, that’s why the fleets buy them
I’m flabbergasted (1st time I’ve ever used that word 
) by the instructor’s comments on the retarder, any time an engine brake is activated fuel supply is cut off, with a retarder it’s different, the last Scania I had with a retarder would accelerate with the retarder activated, so not only are you overcoming the laws of physics to get moving (rolling resistance/wind resisatnce/gravity etc) you’re also trying to turn a gearbox output shaft that is being braked by the retarder, not exactly going to save fuel doing that
tuktukmike:
Quite interested to read this post.We have a new fleet of Scania R440 Toplines with the full auto gearbox and our useless transport managers decided to disconnect the hillstart the kickdown and also limit them to 52mph in order to save fuel.
This as many of you will of course know has in fact saved nothing as the vehicle can hardly hold 12th gear on the flat when loaded.
Yet when the company was highlighted in one of the truck mags it was said how wonderfull the mpg figures were for these trucks and was the reason that a large order was made, also it was stated that the drivers were more than happy with the latest additions which could not be further from the truth.
Would like to hear others perspective on this issue.
Mike.
from reading your post, you work for a large container company with white/blue trucks
truckermarcus:
been on holiday for 2 weeks to find my 5 month old scania 400 with the super new high pressure engine has had the kick down and hill mode disengaged to improve fuel economy!!! so watch out if your behind me on any slight incline or roundabout! why bother with an auto box when it needs driving in manual■■?
should get a DAF mate, they dont need no ‘hill mode’ to get 'em over a speed bump
managed to return a dizzy 7.4 this week! not a jot of difference! all it does is make you keep your eyes off the road cos your forever watching the revs and what gear your in if in manual. you cant feel or hear whats happening like you do with a manual!
truckermarcus:
managed to return a dizzy 7.4 this week! not a jot of difference! all it does is make you keep your eyes off the road cos your forever watching the revs and what gear your in if in manual. you cant feel or hear whats happening like you do with a manual!
I got 8.2 and thats running 27 ton of paper almost every day - Heysham to tilbury
most of the way in semi 12th with the occasional manual shift to 11 for the really steep hills
cheers
Steve 
and she’s still tight at 30,000 on the clock
Actrosman:
Our company have also started to do this on a lot of our rigids in the belief that it saves fuel…wrong!! Driver training saves fuel.
The problem as companies see it, is driver training cost money and involves taking drivers off their work for the day.
Also Driver training only works if the drivers are willing to listen and learn, to many think they know it all already.
Sadly we live in a society that is being shaped round the lowest common denominator. Which is why trucks are limited and we are faced with reams of health and safety legislation. All to accomodate those who find it difficult to work things out for themselves.
Of course there are some conspiracy thoriest that beleive that is what those who run the World want. Give the masses just enough education to make them productive, not so much that they question who they are producing it for.
I used to get 8.5 running with 39 tonnes of paper reels (60 tonnes all up) one way with a brand new FH13 480. Manual - mostly - on the uphill sections, keeping 12th as long as possible up hill, and eco-rolling as much as possible (eg using my own personal patent way that I discovered to start eco-roll before the crest of a hill).
Now with an equally new FH13 460 I’m struggling to get 7.2 under the same circumstances, ie five axles, same route, 60t all up, running back empty. I had started to think I was starting to loose my edge (old age etc! ) but then a fortnight or so ago I did some moonlighting for the old firm and was instantly back up to my old figures. Somehow this wagon just doesn’t roll as well as the old (old new!) one. OK, I am having to make a few more shifts down to 11th with the 460 but it is literally only a few.
Height overall and number of axles are the same, length of new motor is only about 23m as opposed to 25m for the old one. Both trailers have four axles with twin wheels on each axle.
I’ve discussed this with my two colleagues on this motor (both also ex-colleagues from my old firm) and they have both noticed the same thing. One suggestion was the fact that this new new motor is speed limited to 83, as opposed to about 90-ish for the old new one. That may be the case, but I have been trying to stick to about 81-82 ish in any case.
Go figure!
Z
PS. I should add that these figures are after personal, professional one to one advanced training that we all got at the old firm, the results were fairly noticeable for all of us 
let’s just say I think the boss thought it was a good investment
Wow, I feel great now.
Averaged just a tad over 10mpg in a 56 plate manual ERF the last 2 weeks on boxes. A lot of 20’ heavy boxes too, great aerodynamics there.
I’ll be honest though, 50-52mph is my norm for motorways and I try to keep it in the green and use retarder rather than foot brake - just touching the foot brake to turn lights on if slowing down.
But, I use to drive a 53 ERF for a well known box firm and got in trouble for averaging 6ish to the gallon, all a- road work, under 15miles round trip, going out with empty, coming back on 42-44t limit, lots of traffic lights etc 
nice trip into lincolnshire followed by an aberystwth with land rovers on saw it knocked down a tad earlier in the week 6.3! running paper on the motorway aint like town and country driving!
Cruise Control:
truckermarcus:
been on holiday for 2 weeks to find my 5 month old scania 400 with the super new high pressure engine has had the kick down and hill mode disengaged to improve fuel economy!!! so watch out if your behind me on any slight incline or roundabout! why bother with an auto box when it needs driving in manual■■?should get a DAF mate, they dont need no ‘hill mode’ to get 'em over a speed bump
i thought it was just a small stone