I'm about to take the leap...
 

Pretty sure I'm be picking up my brand spankin' new to me 2003 FL Comumbia today. 490,xxx on the clock with a DD470, 13sp, and 2.93's should be ablt to pull some decent MPG's. Gonna be hauling Intermodal and 50% of it is empty. Still get full FSC on empty becaue of the way Intermodal is billed. I could make more on paper somewhere else, but when you factor in the excellent mileage I'll be averaging, I think it out weighs a few cents here and there. Plus I'll be home close to every night, so idle time shouldn't be a real issue.

Good luck. Are you sure the rears are not 393's instead of 293?

2.93 is WAY too high for 13 speed, even with CAT, with DD, you will be practically out of 13th, all the time.... :roll:

Yeah they are 2.93's. Supposedly 13th is .86, but I thing the ECM says it's .73 like most others. 75 mph is just shy of 1550 RPM's. So in most states 12th may be in order to keep from lugging.

That can't be that much different than guys running 3.36's with 13's and 18's would it?

Well, may be it is .86 :roll: Cause with 3.55 and 1550 I'm doing around 73mph 24.5LP.

Either way, I should be able to pull some good MPG's. I believe this truck has 295/75R22.5's on the drives. :roll:

i would take one of BIGDIESEL's lines and say something bad about intermodal.....but..................

ill just tell ya good look....you get on with 1 of the very few good intermodal companies there are then u may be ok but there are so many bad ones...........

Well I've been a company driver there for nearly five years now so I know what I'm getting myself into. It's not bad once you learn how it all works.

BTW, brought the truck home tonight and it cruised at 1300 RPM's at 65mph. It actually has 295-80/22.5's on it. ECM says top gear is .74 It was an RTLOC-16909 converted to RTLO-16913A.

That truck with 2.93 rears is probably a previous Swift truck. They spec'd a bunch of them with 9 speed convertables and 2.93 rears. They just put in the 13 speed conversion kit and put them on the market.

I have heard a lot of drivers having a hard time running this setup and get good mpg figures. As was stated, 2.93's are way too high for a 13 speed. Even if you do get a tolerable mpg out of the setup, you will be constantly shifting as it will bog down pretty quick.

I would take a look around and check out some other truck setups. I would hate to see you start up with a truck you may find will be a problem. You have time and there is a LOT of trucks out there. If you are sold on a 13 speed, I would recommend 3.55, 3.58, or 3.42 rears. You could deviate slightly from this depending on the weights you are pulling and the terrain. But these ratios are probably the best for all around purposes.

Who knows... maybe it will be the right thing for you and what I said will mean nothing. Just trust your instincts.

Yeah, it's an old Swift truck. It's one of the blue ones though, so it's spec'd better than the plain jane white ones. I was able to look at the lifetime mileage when we adjusted the road speed and took off the idle shutdown and it said somewhere in the neighborhood of 6.8 lifetime. When I first drove the truck it would only do 65, and I'm guessing it had never been over that before.

I hope for my sake it works out :D If it doesn't, maybe I'll have to look into re-gearing it to 3.55 or so. So I hope you're wrong, but I appreciate the information.

220.... 221... What ever it takes.... :lol: :lol: :lol:

Damn right!

I'm assuming the 6.8 mpg was with the 9spd? Who are you signing on with Afton Trucking, Red Bird, Comtrak, or Triple Crown? I know there are more intermodal companies based out of St. Louis but they have escaped my mind.

I'm prettty sure it was with the 9 speed. 9th and 13th will have the same ratio, so the only difference will be being able to split the high range gears to keep the RPM's in a more suitable range while pulling a load.

And I'm leasing it on to Morgan Southern. They're based out of Atlanta.

You will be fine with that setup.I have the same thing only mine is a ex-swift Classic Xl.
Your tranny is not a OD though it is a straight 13spd.You can not run a OD with the 2.93 rears.Nor do I find myself shifting all the time.That is a BIG misconception by people.
And it will pull just fine,I have had mine for almost 5yrs now and the only thing I have had to do was a inframe at 732,000 miles only because I lost the bull gear on the front of the engine(wiped out the bottom end).When they got the engine opened up they said it was in very good shape and well taken care of.
I pulled refer's with this setup running 78-80,000 all over the place east to west and @ 75mph (when fuel was cheaper)stayed @ 5.9-6.2mpg.
And I had no probs pulling hills.
Know that I pull a step deck and slowed down to running 60mph i have been avg. 7.3mpg(with this setup in a NON-aero truck).
People do not understand that depending on what your final rear end ratio depends on what ratio steps are in the tranny.
I have no prob at all keeping up with my friend with his 500 dd with 3:55 gears and a 13 OD on the hills running mine at 430/470 Or another friend that had a 14L DD with the same size tires(295/75-22.5's)with 3:58's and a 13 OD we could run side by side all the way up the mountins.

Not a bad setup Kelgar and 7.3 mpg with a Classic XL with a Detroit doesn't surprise. I've heard of some Classic XL's getting 8-8.5 mpg. :shock:

Im happy with it,hell makes me wish I slowed down along time ago.
Some of my friends keep telling me I need to update and buy a new truck.
I laugh at them and ask why...it is paid for only has 250,000 on the inframe and I get killer mpg's.Meanwhile they are doing good to get 5.5-6mpg's with the new epa engines.

Hey DoubleL got your pm but I can't send one back.I do not have aleast 50 post yet.
But we are on the same page.
I feel that a classic style or square truck does not have a big disadvantage until you hit the aero threshold(sp?).which they say is 55mph.till then aero has really no factor on the mpg.

Yeah why get rid of something that is paid for and just had a new inframe that doesn't make sense to me. I say keep running it until the wheels fall off or the epa mandates that owner operators upgrade to 08 and newer trucks.

Thats what im thinking.Hell 2 more years and the step will paid off also unless I decide to pay it off early.
And scince the trucks paid off and I can't write it off anymore it is time to start doing som custom work to it now.(paint,int....etc...).haha

Thanks for the reassurance. Do you know what the steps are in this tranny? Eatons site only lists the RTLO16913A, so would this be a RTO16913A?

Sorry it has been awhile scince I seen the info on the gear cluster ratio's.
I have even been thinking about going to 2.74 rears when I redo my rearends t try and get a little more mpg out of this thing.
I know that the highest rears I can get are 2.64's but I think that would be to tall.That is what the Maverick trucks run but with straight 10spds.So the gear cluster's are dif.

Hey Bigmon,
If you find this I cant send pm's yet so I will try to contact you this way.
No probs with tight turns im 260" wb and have no issues at all with the classic not to mention im right at 70' long with a 48'x102" spread axle stepdeck.I can get around just fine.

I think I found it on their site with some digging. I believe it's called a RTLC-16613B and the ratio's are as follows:

L 14.71
1 10.20
2 7.34
3 5.26
4 3.78
5L 2.70
5H 2.28
6L 1.94
6H 1.64
7L 1.39
7H 1.18
8L 1.00
8H .85

Put a 10 speed direct in there, and drive slow. Fuel mileage to the max!

I think that would cost a little more than I'd end up saving over the life of the truck. :wink:

What movie was that from? I got it right here and can't think of it...

Mr. Mom

Dean Wormer said it in Animal House.