Results of new glider on the road
 

Well, I have just shy of 6000 miles on the new 2013 Columbia glider I bought. Fuel mileage average to date.... 7.52 mpg, pump to pump actual calculation. And definately not on light loads all the time. One last friday was close to a gross load of lead, with a large portion of the run on two lanes, up and down hills all the way. That one came in at 6.7 mpg. Todays fueling came in at 8.81 mpg on 630 miles. That was lighter and primarily Iowa, Illinois, Indiana 4 lanes. And that pre-egr Detroit with a bully dog ported/coated manifold and Borg Warner non waste gate turbo can really pull a hill. It is so nice to not have a valve trying to make my engine eat its own waste, a urine tank I have to fill that squirts in the exhaust, and a blast furnace under the truck to burn my stacks brown.

And for $40,000 less than a comparable spec'd new truck! No sales tax, no FET, no emissions junk. What a country!

Is there a thread on this that I missed?

And I'm sure you don't want to run California anyways, so all is good!

That would be true. When it comes to trucking for me, the unofficial western edge of the United States is I-25 since '99. Everything west of that is fine to visit, but have no need to take my truck further.

I didn't recall, if you said anything about financing on that glider? Was it difficult to get? How was the rate, compare to a new truck?

The guy who works with me has 2 Pete gliders, he told me there was NO financing available, as gliders are sold as parts, at least with Paccar they are.

The 2 Pete gliders required a hefty deposit with the order placement, these trucks had reman trans and rears already installed though

i spoke to freightliner in kalamazoo a few months ago. you can get financing for them just though some companies.


i really wish i knew if ny state would let me get one..

Yeah, i've heard about that, just wandering if it's still true....

Ok... you bring up two interesting issues based on nothing. I can't say anything about what Paccar and Pete are doing, I can only speak to Freightliner and my glider here.

1) Yes, there is financing available. I had a laundry list of options in that regard including my local Credit Union that wanted in on it. I went with GE Capitol and got a rate of 7.75%. Not terrible, not great, but not bad, and I didn't have to show any financials, tax returns, or other stuff. I was approved within 24 hrs.

2) True, a glider is basically a parts order, but depending on dealer doing it, you do not have to bust the piggy bank for a deposit. I only had to put 5% of the total completed cost down for deposit on my order. And the dealer put in the order before he actually had my money. I ended up putting almost 25% toward the purchase so I financed 75%, but I only needed 5% deposit to order it up.

The key to all this is who you are dealing with in getting a glider. Some dealers hardly do them or don't even want to, so they put on all kinds of stipulations and are not very helpful. Some dealers, a rather large chunk of what they do revolves around gliders. In those situation, it is no different than ordering a new production truck and is relatively painless.

How fast do you run to get those mpg's? Thx

Im guessing he was above 65... we run hard and fast and still hang at 7mpg with our glider. still rolling in and out of CA every week no problem. lots of misconceptions on gliders here!! I also got GE financing with the same 5% down. got a 300k warranty and all.

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those are armor plated heavy hummers..

I know a few people that have gliders. There is a company in crossville tn called fitzgeraldgliderkits that has a lot of them. The mainly carry coronados. Coronados are good trucks we have one thats fixing to crack a million miles and still going strong. It gets decent fuel milage and rides good too. All of them that they own and the one we have run teams. The contractors I know have them get their financing the same place we do and that's Wells Fargo. We are all getting 5.5% which is a great rate right now.

On the reliability out of the 20 trucks I know of that these people have only one of them has had an issue with the truck. It hasn't been major issues but smaller things like gaskets.

I run between 62 and 65 most of the time. Occasionally I will press it on up to 70-75. Not sure what the truck will do maxed out. Most I ever had the truck up to was 85. The only governor is the rpm limit on the engine and that is at 2100 rpm. With the 18 speed double over tied to 2.64 rears, the top end is well into triple digit territory.

What gear are you running in at 62? I think I would be disappointed with 7.5 at 62, are you lugging that Detroit?. spoke with a driver this weekend that his truck Detroit/10/3.46 and he was governed to 62 and also was getting 7.5 at best most time he was 6.5. come to find out in top gear at 62 he was like 1250 rpm, he was lugging all the rolling hills. you got to have that thing in the 1400 range for mileage. Its not only about rpm, but boost and egt. higher rpm with less boost means less egt will always get better mpg!!. I say this all the time run that series 60 hard and it will get better mileage.

i was always told the same thing. i know the last detroit i had was in a single axle day cab. 14L 515hp. didnt pull much weight granted. BUT when i first got her she was limited at 74. all day long no matter waht she'd get 7-7.5mpg. turned it down to 64-ish the milage did not change at all. granted the EGR motor is a total diffrent beast then the pre egr i was always told detroits liked a bit more rpm's.

however, in the real world of driving.. i'd be very happy with 7.5mpg. he also said that he runs 62-65 sometimes 70. thats real driving. then again i'm estatic when i get 6.5 out of my cat..

At 62 in 16th I am at 1400. At 1500, I am running 66 in 16th. That is primarily the range I run with this. I wouldn't grab the next gear till I hit above 70. EGT's stay in the 600-700F range on normal running. Rarely get above 800F even on hard pulls. They have never touched 900F even when I got down to 1250 on a lug down. In this cold stuff, my mpg's have dropped a little. High 6's pulling heavy. When warm weather gets back, then should get those high 7's to low 8's I got late last summer. I run quite a few hilly, two lanes that most folks do not. They have some interesting grades with 20-25 mph corners at the bottom. I have gotten an itch a few times and ran in the 70-75 mph range. Took a little hit on mpg, but still got high 6's. Fun thing is when someone tries to play "speed up" games with you when you go to pass. One guy tried it one day, till we got above 75 and then I shifted into 17th. He gave it up at that point. Unlike the driver you spoke with, this truck has never been in the top gear since the day I bought it.

I thought that only happened to me, an east coast thing.......

Well id say your driving perfect...I forgot that we also drop at least a 1/2 mpg in winter. Also winter freight in general is less pay and more weight, alot more 45k loads. so we drop into mid to even low 6's still running as fast as legal. One thing I also forgot was we Ditched that HUGE muffler with a ton of bends and elbows in favor of a pair of these. [ATTACH=CONFIG]1196[/ATTACH]
This DID NOT effect warranty and in fact the sales man at Fitzgerald actually recommended pulling that huge muffler to gain mpg, the Jake is alot louder but it was worth at least a .5 mpg all day. plus saved at least 50 to 100 pounds!

also Ive just hit almost 90k miles on mine and I think at kept gaining a little mpg till 60 or 70k miles, Its true these diesels up to 100k miles to Break in. so you should REALLY some mpg gain this summer... I think you could hit low 8's!!

Winter blend fuel, higher air density, longer time to get to operating temperature...just a few that come in mind.

I got the truck last August and had already hit low 8's early on. Until cold weather set in and the winter fuel stuff, I was consistently in the high 7 / low 8 average territory. And that was with less than 50,000 miles on the engine. When it warms up again, then should be able to hit 8 consistently. I never had the muffler under the body with side stacks. My stacks with mufflers run up the back of the sleeper. I took off the OEM mufflers before the truck went to work and replaced them with Walker Megaflows. Just me, but I HATE side stacks.

100% agree!!

I really wish they had a Coronado in stock with the rear stacks, they dont carry those. We could have ordered our glider that way but was like a 12 week lead time. I have only seen maybe 3 Coronado with the rear stacks, but loved it. I also think there is a slight MPG gain from rear.....less aerodynamic drag. Those side stacks have got to be grabbing wind. Hopefully our next one we can order and wait.

Understand the lead time. I wasn't about to take a truck "off the shelf". I custom ordered mine from Freightliner made the way I wanted it, no fleet spec's in this truck. Custom signature interior, more gauges than the space shuttle (well not quite), every cabinet available with woodgrain trimmed doors (including wrap around sleeper airline cabinets), built in fridge, built in Webasto, installed in the battery box weatherproof inverter/charger, full lockers on both drive axles, 18 speed with 2.64 rears, hooked behind a Detroit S60 12.7 500 hp with ported/coated exhaust manifold, non waste gate turbo with a blanket, on and on. I started the order in February, the truck finally got a build in late July, and I took delivery the second week of August. I have been so fed up over the years with what OEM's and dealers seem to think I want or need in a truck, I finally went the order route. Even had the entire underside custom painted to look better than basic black and to increase the corrosion resistance. That was only a $285 cost from the factory.

with those diff ratios and the speed u get ,it couldnt of been fully loaded since you got it either

Have you ever posted any pics of your new truck? I've been looking and can't find any, but it sounds very interesting, especially the interior.

Not sure of your comment. Please elaborate. I know that it is fully loaded. Not sure of your definition.

Sorry, have to do this in multiple posts. Only will let me attach 5 pictures per post.

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now thats a damn good looking columbia! just something about a columbia with dual exhaust..

Thank you. Yeah, it just cried out for dual exhaust.

Very nice looking truck, I really like the dash and the rest of the interior. Do you mind if I ask why you went with mid roof sleeper instead of a high-rise?

I have no need for a condo. Always has seemed like a waste to me. I am not Shaq, so I have no need for the extra roof space. I have so many cabinets (one of which is a full hanging clothes closet), cargo side boxes, and under bunk cargo space, I am not even using half of what I have available. I know the possible response to that, "then why did you get so much storage space?" Anyone who has been at this game for any length of time knows that you can NEVER have too much storage space. Better to have too much than not enough. So, what benefit would having a ceiling I cannot touch do? It is easier to heat or cool a midroof than a condo. And, when the time comes to sell the truck, I have a wider base of possible buyers. It is difficult to sometimes get a condo under a grain chute. Since I primarily live and operate in the midwest, lots of farmers that would buy a midroof and overlook a condo. I guess, unless it is a team operation, my question would be.. "why would anyone buy a condo?"

well I would probably buy a midroof too, to pull a stepdeck, but I always thought if I went OTR pulling a van that I would buy a condo just to make the truck more comfortable for me, never thought about heating and cooling though.

Damn that is a nice looking truck. That blue and red go together well.

Thanks. When I put the order in, I didn't think about painting the frame. I had 30 days to modify the order. I called dealer back and asked about doing the undercarriage. I had the body done in Dupont Viper Blue Pearl Elite, so figured that Dupont Viper Red would be a good choice. Learned also that by requesting another paint, that the corrosion resistance on the underside would go up by 80%. Seems that the basic black is just applied by whomever makes the components. If you request a different color, then the factory has to seal, prime, and paint the underside before the body is put on. Not bad, good looking, better corrosion resistance, and all for $285 extra on the order. No matter the color, I would recommend anyone ordering a truck ask for a different paint on the underside. Cheap protection.

Just wish the truck still looked that pretty now. Salt and crud in the winter can really take away from the looks. Oh well, summer will come again!

my biggest gripe with the dual exhaust is that with my tri-pac i do not have the room to put a load bar holder.

i still got a few years to order another truck myself. most likely a glider. i really really like the midroof (if i went with another fl). i actually think the midroof has more storage then a condo. but, for me running a team is not 100% out. curious though, whats the weight of that truck? IF i ever did a midroof i'm wondering if it'll be the same as a condo but with 150 tanks.

Weight is roughly 18K with full fuel tanks. Can't remember exact weight. I know I can load 48K in a van trailer before worrying about being over. This one has 100 gal tanks. Had 150's on my last truck and found I really didn't need them. 100's have worked fine for what I do.

i cant load more then 45600. but i got 125's (fuel) and a cat.

Can anyone change the pics where I can see them? I am on a mac laptop and the pics will not show up for me. Been following this for a while, so it would be nice to see the truck! Thanks!

Not your Mac that is the problem, I posted those pics with my Mac laptop. Somehow, they are not showing up on the thread now. Just tried to get them to show for me also. They are standard JPG files, so the platform you are using has nothing to do with it.