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XPO | New Freightliners, what happened to the power?

Conway Lifer

Conway Lifer

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Anyone else enjoying the new Freightliners? Nice truck, but where’s the pulling power on hills? I’m not talking about the speed, I know, we max at 64mph, fine! But why does the engine just give up the minute it even senses any incline? The higher the hill, it just goes slower and slower, till your just kreeping. Don’t know if these new trucks have a break in period or this is the way it will be. Miss the power in the older trucks.
 
You are on the clock don't you know? Pull that hill at 15 mph like we used to do with the old 280's 40 years ago. You are not in any rush are you?

It will only burn 30 gallons a hour. And then soot up everything until it cannot breathe anymore and finally torches that POS Tractor.

What a waste. And at 5.50 a gallon for fuel today going on 10.00 a gallon... might be cheaper just to have the old rusted out junkyard 280's back on that mountain with you in it.
 
I know our shop was making changes to the new ones as they went into service. I don’t know if all shops were doing the same.
 
Conway Lifer said:
Anyone else enjoying the new Freightliners? Nice truck, but where’s the pulling power on hills? I’m not talking about the speed, I know, we max at 64mph, fine! But why does the engine just give up the minute it even senses any incline? The higher the hill, it just goes slower and slower, till your just kreeping. Don’t know if these new trucks have a break in period or this is the way it will be. Miss the power in the older trucks.
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Try re-gen??? Mines fine.
Conway Lifer said:
Anyone else enjoying the new Freightliners? Nice truck, but where’s the pulling power on hills? I’m not talking about the speed, I know, we max at 64mph, fine! But why does the engine just give up the minute it even senses any incline? The higher the hill, it just goes slower and slower, till your just kreeping. Don’t know if these new trucks have a break in period or this is the way it will be. Miss the power in the older trucks.
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My 2021 Cascadia is the best I’ve ever driven. And I pull a lot of weight.
 
I drive a new Freightliner at the big E and it is just as you describe. Cummins X-15 efficiency series and it has no power, a set of empties pulls like 40,000 lbs. It’s got a hair over 25k miles on it now and it’s not as bad as it was new but it’s still pretty weak.
 
Conway Lifer said:
Anyone else enjoying the new Freightliners? Nice truck, but where’s the pulling power on hills? I’m not talking about the speed, I know, we max at 64mph, fine! But why does the engine just give up the minute it even senses any incline? The higher the hill, it just goes slower and slower, till your just kreeping. Don’t know if these new trucks have a break in period or this is the way it will be. Miss the power in the older trucks.
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They have GPS enabled cruise, meaning the truck knows what hill is next, that is why they downshift just before pulling the hill, because 12th is overdrive, and downshifting to 11th gives it more power. They pull just about the same as the Detroits, it just seems slower because the rpms are lower. I always run with the cruise when possible.
 
The truck does not know a ******* thing on the hill.

TOO FANCY. Thats what Professional drivers are for.

I had a incident in Stephens City TN one night after a storm. I hit that hill which is about 3 miles straight up and that poor tractor fell down on it's hands and knees in 1st gear to grind straight up at walking pace.

Deep Fog all the way up. I was tapping the right steer on the groove by that white line. I made it up there. Reciever was up there on top with the gas station to pull in.

GPS would have fell off that mountain.
 
1984Sideways said:
The truck does not know a ******* thing on the hill.

TOO FANCY. Thats what Professional drivers are for.

I had a incident in Stephens City TN one night after a storm. I hit that hill which is about 3 miles straight up and that poor tractor fell down on it's hands and knees in 1st gear to grind straight up at walking pace.

Deep Fog all the way up. I was tapping the right steer on the groove by that white line. I made it up there. Reciever was up there on top with the gas station to pull in.

GPS would have fell off that mountain.
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Yes it does ,it knows it just pulled a hill and is too pooped for the next one
 
HAHAHA... Then the computer needs to be programmed... like HAL9000.

Sorry Trucking Supervisor Human, I am too :shit:ting to do your assigned job adequately as programmed. Please remove onboard emissions and computers for optimum performance.
 
Micah77 said:
They have GPS enabled cruise, meaning the truck knows what hill is next, that is why they downshift just before pulling the hill, because 12th is overdrive, and downshifting to 11th gives it more power. They pull just about the same as the Detroits, it just seems slower because the rpms are lower. I always run with the cruise when possible.
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The 2.61 (I believe that is what the build sheet in my assignment read) gear in the rear is why the rpm's are down. That is the big problem with lack of power pulling a hill. Lost of mechanical advantage. Be nice if we had a gear ratio of 3.42 and above. These autos were spec'ed by a bunch of pencil pushing bean counters.
 
Frootloop said:
I drive a new Freightliner at the big E and it is just as you describe. Cummins X-15 efficiency series and it has no power, a set of empties pulls like 40,000 lbs. It’s got a hair over 25k miles on it now and it’s not as bad as it was new but it’s still pretty weak.
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Those Cummins X-15 efficiency motors are a crime in progress. I'm thinking Cats choice of pulling out of the truck engine market was a smart choice. Rapidly changing federal regulations are hard to stay on top of, and remain profitable. I don't doubt we will running four bangers, supernaturally aspirated to the max in the near future
 
eBiTDa said:
The 2.61 (I believe that is what the build sheet in my assignment read) gear in the rear is why the rpm's are down. That is the big problem with lack of power pulling a hill. Lost of mechanical advantage. Be nice if we had a gear ratio of 3.42 and above. These autos were spec'ed by a bunch of pencil pushing bean counters.
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Actually that existed long before computer trucks.

Kicking a old Cummins 300 with a tall company roadranger 10 speed that falls down on RPMs with every little hill in Pennsylvania was aggravating. You usually did not get to speed limit until you hit a interstate flat enough long enough to do so.

RPMs came up to maybe 1600, hung there trying for 1900 to shift on a 2100 redline and you hit a hill, you fall down two gears and over then rebuild the rpms back to where you were a mile back.

Saw it back and forth and back and forth all the way across the state. Its better just to hit say Milesburg hill where you can just leave it in 4th gear for 10 miles to get a break.

There were tractors with smaller companies with really nice transmissions and larger than 3 ratios back there. You could do things with them in a timely manner. In addition to not noticing any kind of hill big enough to be a problem in PA, as well as running Milesburg at the speed limit upgrade loaded.
 
Conway Lifer said:
Anyone else enjoying the new Freightliners? Nice truck, but where’s the pulling power on hills? I’m not talking about the speed, I know, we max at 64mph, fine! But why does the engine just give up the minute it even senses any incline? The higher the hill, it just goes slower and slower, till your just kreeping. Don’t know if these new trucks have a break in period or this is the way it will be. Miss the power in the older trucks.
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they pull 100% better in cruise control,stupid ,but that's how they're set up
 
1984Sideways said:
Actually that existed long before computer trucks.

Kicking a old Cummins 300 with a tall company roadranger 10 speed that falls down on RPMs with every little hill in Pennsylvania was aggravating. You usually did not get to speed limit until you hit a interstate flat enough long enough to do so.

RPMs came up to maybe 1600, hung there trying for 1900 to shift on a 2100 redline and you hit a hill, you fall down two gears and over then rebuild the rpms back to where you were a mile back.

Saw it back and forth and back and forth all the way across the state. Its better just to hit say Milesburg hill where you can just leave it in 4th gear for 10 miles to get a break.

There were tractors with smaller companies with really nice transmissions and larger than 3 ratios back there. You could do things with them in a timely manner. In addition to not noticing any kind of hill big enough to be a problem in PA, as well as running Milesburg at the speed limit upgrade loaded.
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Shoo ,some lease tractors redline at 1600
 
The good older tractors redlined at 2300. One was a two stroke detriot and we got 3000 out of it. Now why it did not explode at 3000 I dont know. But there were 6 of us Macks at 95 mph on the DC beltway racing for the pentagon silos together at that speed. So all of us had our engines turned over at the bottom of our tachs in top gear.

Company raised holy hell. Fire and brimstone. They told me that they will automatically fire me the next time they saw the truck break 65 on the old circular trip cards that went inside the clocks on the dash board back in the day. (Recorders)

The speed limit of 65 cost me about a load a day. At about 60 dollars a load times four loads daily instead of five I was losing about 300 plus dollars a week over what I made. Minus speeding tickets.

I know damn well some people not alive back then will jump on here and furiously call BS on my 3000 RPM claims and stories. But they can stuff it too. =) Been there done that.

If that was not bad enough, we had a couple of big block gasoline v8's a few times. They shifted at about 5500 RPM. Why they did not explode I dont know. Kicking like a old 460 to 5500 is really something. Scary. I was deathly afraid of some minor gasoline leak in the engine area somewhere and get cremated.
 
Conway Lifer said:
Anyone else enjoying the new Freightliners? Nice truck, but where’s the pulling power on hills? I’m not talking about the speed, I know, we max at 64mph, fine! But why does the engine just give up the minute it even senses any incline? The higher the hill, it just goes slower and slower, till your just kreeping. Don’t know if these new trucks have a break in period or this is the way it will be. Miss the power in the older trucks.
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What power? from what old trucks?
Right now I drive a 2017 freightliner. I have driven the 2019 international and our new 2021 frightliner. I can say that both the 2019 and the 2021 pull hills better then the 2017 freightliner. The trick I found when I drove the 2019 international for a year was to down shift it before the computer does when pulling hills. Around 1150 to 1200rpms.
There a hill on US 15 out of XMI were the 2019 and 2021 will pull the hill at 40mph with 40k in the boxes were the 2017 freightliner would do 30-35mph.
You must remember you are working for a corp if you want HP and pulling power I hate to say it but go buy your own truck.
 
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